Capricorn Chapter

CAPRICORN CHAPTER
Established 24 May, 2008

Capricorn Chapter MGCC country members living in the Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Biloela and Moura districts can now enjoy more social activities with the Capricorn Chapter being officially recognised following the meeting in Rockhampton.

Founding members from these existing Chapters joined club President David Miles and Assistant Treasurer Kevin Ponting in Rockhampton for the occasion. Gurney Clamp was appointed Co-ordinator of the club's newest regional Chapter, joining Wide Bay and Darling Downs. After holding that position for 10 years, he resigned at the end of 2018 and the role has been taken over by Gary Kunst.

Jim Armstrong is the Coordinator of the Capricorn Chapter.

His contact details are :
Phone: 0417 544 222
Email: james.armstrong4@bigpond.com

Please find attached the Capricorn Chapter’s proposed calendar for 2023. Click here

Check out the report on the All-Chapter Queensland Meeting held by the Capricorn Chapter here.

Click here for our Facebook page.

MGCC of QLD., Inc. Capricorn Chapter.

Run Report Sunday, 28 May 2023

Classics by the Coast.

By Jim Armstrong,

Photos by Phil Henry, Jo Emmert.

Each consecutive year, The All-Classic Motoring Club hold an event called “Classics by the Coast” at Bells Park, Emu Park. This event attracts car enthusiast from all around the state with cars of American, British, European, Asian and Australian origins put on display. This year, we the Capricorn Chapter of the MG Car Club of Qld, were again invited and presented 20 vehicles for display. The proceeds of this show are distributed to various charities around the district.

Our day started when the Rockhampton members gathered at the Carpark of the PCYC on Emu Park Road while the Yeppoon group gathered at the Capricorn Tavern in Taranganba Yeppoon.

The plan was to proceed to where Taranganba road meet the Emu Park Road so that we could form up and arrive at the Bell Park entrance to ensure that we were all parked together as a group, however Rae (MGBGT) and Jack (Bentley) missed the turn to Tanby and continued straight on to Emu Park.

That aside, so far so good but then news rang through that Gordon Kelsey’s E-type Jaguar suffered a brake system lock up at the last set of lights leaving Rockhampton. Our hearts go out to Gordon who has painstakingly restored his car for the past two years to an absolutely brilliant standard and had the brakes overhauled by a local brake specialist only to have this happen on his maiden voyage. None the less, it puts Gordon in contention for our yearly award of the Broken MG Trophy. The Rocky crew saw him safely off the road so that he could return home and then continued to Emu Park.

Once formed up at Tanby Road junction, we travelled to Emu Park where Jack and Rae joined us once more.

We were then directed into our parking area and settled in for the day. Once again, the ladies had baked all sorts of delicious sweets with of course Henryka’s scrumptious Rocky Road.

By now Gordon had re-joined us for the day even if it was only to argue that Gary Kunst’s MGB having a temporary loss of clutch put Gary further into the contention for the Broken MG Trophy. Good on you Gordon.

The rest of the day was quite uneventful with the exception of the presentation to Rae Cowie of our recently acquired Defibrillator and comprehensive first response kit to Rae by myself and the run committee members. Thank you, Rae, for taking on the responsibility of First Aid Officer. All our chapter members really appreciate your commitment.

At the end of the show, The All-Classic Motoring Club were drawing out several prizes and our Phil Henry was the winner of toolbox which contained several useful tools and a voucher to spend at the “Piney”, the local pub at Emu Park which he and I dispensed of on our way home.

Now you wouldn’t think anything else could go wrong for the day but our ol’ mate Gurney tried to sneak off early (a habit he learned from his mining days) but the car he was driving (Trevor Andersen’s MGTF) had a flat battery. Eventually, Jo who always carries a jumper pack, got Gurney going to a lot of cheers from our group and crowd surrounding him by this time. I wonder who should get the point for the Broken Mg, Gurney or Trevor who was also displaying his Daimler SP 250 elsewhere.

Soon it was sad to see the grounds, that was earlier filled with all these glorious, shiny classics, emptying. Another most enjoyable day by the members of the Capricorn Chapter. Next run is to Cania Gorge in June.

Those in attendance were:

Jo Emmert-MGB

Clare Lynam-MGA

Paul Lynam-MGTC

Brian and Glenis Russell-MGB

Gary Whight and Doris Lisle-Triumph 2500TC

John Sheppard and Henryka Mitchell- JaguarMK11

Bruce Dickson-Triumph TR4

Clem and Jean Hill- Mazda MX5

Neville Funch-MGB

Bruce Acheon- MGB (first day out for this car)

Phil Henry-MGTF (late)

Gurney Clamp – (MGTF early)

Gary Kunst- Series 3 Land Rover

Paul Davey-MGB

Paul Davey’s son- MGB

Rae Cowie-MGBGT

Jack Cowie- Bentley

Richard Hughes-Triumph TR8

Lloyd Armstrong – MGBGTV8

Jim Armstrong- MGA

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MGCC of QLD., Inc. Capricorn Chapter.

Run Report; Saturday, 20 May, 2023 - Byfield Eco Tour

Photos by Phil henry and Clare Lynam

Despite having three consecutive weekends of MGs a full contingent of 30 people and around 18 cars ventured up to Byfield for lunch and a visit to Byfield’s Tea Tree Farm and Waterpark Creek Eco Tour.

The day started out when Jo mustered the Rocky group at the Government Building Car park on the outskirts of Rocky and travelled down to meet up with the Yeppoon Group who were gathering at the Woodbury Rural Fire Brigade’s car park on Byfield road.

It being a pleasant day, the group mingled and enjoyed the sunshine while Jo and Katie got the first leg of Gloria’s poker run under way. Then off to Byfield for a delicious lunch at the Byfield store which is quite well known around the Capricorn Coast for its ability to serve groups such as ours particularly on weekends.

While we were waiting for our fare to be served, Jo and Katie completed the Gloria’s poker run which was won by Gary and Robbie Galloway with three of a kind. The lucky Rusty door prizes were won by Phil and yours truly.

We then had a little show and tell as after last week’s successful fund-raising day and several Friday night dinner raffles, we had raised enough money to purchase our Defibrillator and a very comprehensive St Johns first aid kit. These items arrived during the week so our chapter is now well equipped should a life-threatening situation arise. At the risk of repeating myself let’s hope we never have to use them. Training will be held in the near future.

Lunch over, we headed off towards the Waterpark Creek Tea Tree farm some two or three kilometres back towards Yeppoon. Two or three kilometres. Hardly think you could get lost in that distance, do you? Somehow Gary Whight, Richard Hughes and Phil White did. After a few phone calls, they arrived to the applause of everybody else present which by now had boarded the tour bus/truck.

Now because the Farm tour and Eco tour can each only accommodate 15 persons, the group was divided at this point and were swapped over at afternoon smoko. The farm tour was quite informative and was guided by Elody our French born hostess who explained the working of the farm. For instance, did you know that tea trees (a species of Melaleuca) are harvested when appox. 1mtr tall but do not require replanting and depending on rainfall are ready to harvest again 10 to 11mths later.

This cycle repeats many times over and over. Elody then explained back at the homestead how the distillery is used to extract the tea tree oil as we know it. Of course, there was a small shop stall where we could purchase some of their products including the tea tree mulch, excellent for the garden and endorsed by Gary Whight.

Meantime Jordan hosted the other half of the tour on the boat ride down the Waterpark creek through the rainforest. The reflections of the overhanging trees on the water reminded a few of us of the pristine Arthur River on the Nth Western side of Tasmania.

Apparently due to tannins and the cold temperature there are very few fish and Jordan states that in his 15years of doing tours, he has never spotted a crocodile upstream from the weir. This little creek supplies the Capricorn Coast strip with most of their drinking water. It surprisingly deep and is fed by rainfall and through underground water from lakes near Five Rocks. Rainfall is quite high in this area and the locals measure yearly falls in meters rather than millimetres. Keeping in the Eco theme, the 15-seat punt is powered by batteries rather than conventional internal combustion engines.

After both groups had experienced the Eco tour and the farm tour it was time to say thank you to our hosts and head for home in the now diminishing daylight.

Those in attendance were:

Jo and Katie Emmert, MGB

Martin and Narelle Adamson, MGB

Gary and Robbie Galloway, MGB

Gary Kunst, MGB

Paul Davey, MGB

Brian and Glenis Russell, MGB

Phil White, MGB

Phil Henry, MGTF

Paul and Clare Lynam, MGA

Lyle and Pat Fielding Audi TTi

Ewan and Meredith Sutherland, BMW Z3

Richard Hughes, Jaguar XJ12

John and Gail Newton, Jaguar E-type

Gary Whight and Doris Lisle, Triumph 2500 TC

Rick and Michelle, Taylor Chev Corvette

Bob and Wendy Schoevaart, Ford Mustang

Gordon Kelsey, Subaru Outback

Myself, MGA

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MGCC of QLD., Inc. Capricorn Chapter.

Run Report Saturday 13 May,2023.

“Afternoon on the Farm” Fund raiser.

By Jim Armstrong.

Photos by Phil Henry.

Well, looking at the weather today, the day after, I think the first person we should thank is Livio Regano for organising such glorious weather for our fund-raising function. It was a glorious Central Queensland autumn day.

Seriously though, many thanks go out to Rae and Jack Cowie for hosting us on their absolutely picturesque orchard where we held our get together to raise money for our chapter Defibrillator and first aid kit. Forty-three generous members attended our bar-b-que and silent auction.

It all started around 11:30am when people started to arrive. By noon most people were there and were warmly welcomed by Jack and Rae and myself. It was explained that Jack would take the participants for a walk around some of his orchard while Jo, Rae and I prepared to cook the bar-b-que.

Jo being the excellent chef that she is, soon had the onions, sausages and steaks sizzling, sending out an aroma that bought Jack’s walking tour to an end. Before long everybody present was tucking into their lunch. Rae then bought out the desserts that quite a lot of ladies had bought with them. What an assortment. Ladies you really done yourselves proud.

When everybody was happy fed, the silent auction commenced narrated by none other than our own Jo and what professional job she did. I hear that the TV show, ”Antiques Road Show” is seeking her for a presenters job audition.

With over 60 items to bid on the auction quite some time, however everybody was enjoying themselves and Jo was wrangling the last cent out of them particularly on the items that had no silent bids. In the end only two items were not sold. Our Major raffle for the day, a vintage style metal esky complete with Two bottles of Wine, Glasses and a six pack of beer was very well supported by everybody was won by Trevor.

Auction and raffle over, the sun now getting low in the sky, people started to pack up to go home but I am sure that everybody had an enjoyable day. The chapter achieved its target and now has enough money to purchase the Defibrillator and the First Aid kit for our runs, both long and short. Along with our committee, special thanks go out to Katie and Sandra who worked tirelessly organising ticket sales and collecting cash on the day.

But really, I think that the members of the Capricorn Chapter of the MGCCQ of Qld. Inc., should take a bow and congratulate themselves on the generous way in which they got behind this most worthwhile project. Many donated cash as well as supported the various raffles that were held during the course of this fund raiser.

Several business houses also extended their generosity towards us including, “The Alley” in James Street, Yeppoon, “Food for Thought Cafe” James Street Yeppoon and “Megway Electrical Contractors”.

Please support these businesses whenever you can.

In closing, I wish to state that now we have (or soon will have) the defibrillator and the first aid kit, I sincerely hope that we never have to use it but as the saying goes better safe than sorry.

Regards to all and thank you once again Jim.

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