JAGUAR DRIVERS' CLUB HUNTER REGION Inc.

Box 492, Australia Post Wallsend NSW 2287

 

The JDCHR itself is a vibrant community of Jaguar and Daimler enthusiasts across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, and the Central Coast of NSW

The original conception of the formation of a Club exclusively for Jaguar and Daimler owners could well be laid at the feet of Kevin Buckley.

His original idea realised fruition after a couple of advertisements in the Newcastle Morning Herald asking for those interested in forming a club to contact him.

Response was such that an informal get-together was organised and those seeking further information were invited to attend the premises of UK Autos at Broadmeadow on 1st June 1983. From this gathering, a committee was selected, and dates for further meetings were arranged. The initial membership was 21.

The founding Committee were:

President:            Kevin Buckley

Vice President:   Tony Herald

Hon. Secretary:   Des Ellis

Hon. Treasurer:  Gary Freeman

Club Captain:     Ron O’Hearn

Committee:         Don Campbell

                           Harry Rees

 

It was decided that until the Club was functioning in a smooth manner, the committee would meet every two weeks. A suitable Constitution was drawn up, and a letter was sent to Jaguar Coventry with this document, together with the Club's aims, asking permission to use the name Jaguar in the title of our Club. This permission was duly received.

On the sporting front:

Max Paterson was an enthusiastic member of the JDCHR, being heavily involved with the club in all his years of membership, and it was a sad day when Max died in June 2013.

Max was a keen Concours participant, both showing his Jaguar and judging for the JDCHR and JDCA.

1955 NSW & HVSCC Hill Climb Championships, held at King Edward Park, Newcastle, was one of Max’s first shakedown trials to get to know the XK140, which is still owned and cared for by the family today.

Max took first in the Closed Car Class and broke the class record - the first of many.

In 1956, Max entered the South Pacific Racing Championships held at Gnoo Blas, and impressed with his performances in both Event 2 and winning the final Event 5. He set the lap record for the

event, against some formidable opposition.

Every month, there was an event at Tomago and Ringwood, which also saw our JDCHR member Norm Crowfoot compete in his D Type replica.

Norm also competed at Mt Druitt, Bathurst, King Edward Park and Gnoo Blas with Max.

The JDCHR has a special affinity with Gnoo Blas in Orange because of Max Paterson and Norm Crowfoots sporting deeds, which is why we have attended the reunion events each February for many years.

The 2006 National Rally was held by the JDCHR at Foreshore Park in Newcastle.

Ian Hissey, Max Paterson and Don Anderson at the 2006 Jaguar National Rally Sporting Event won the Perpetual National Sporting Trophy.

Socially:

The 25th May 2013, was the 30th Anniversary Dinner with guest speakers Ron Gaudion telling Le Mans Jaguar and Ecurie Ecosse team tales with JDCHR Club history from Tony Herald.

2023 was the 40th Anniversary Dinner, the guest speaker was Club No1 Badge holder Tony Herald, and it was celebrated during the evening on a Newcastle Harbour cruise after a club display day on the Foreshore Park. The HUB magazine, which is published in-house 11 times a year, records club history, events, and member stories.

The JDCHR has a sound financial base, catering to 176 members with an ever-growing membership base.

Activities:

Monthly meetings (held at Wallsend Diggers Club).

Regular Saturday breakfast runs and mid-week morning tea/lunch drives are conducted around Newcastle, the Hunter Valley as well as the north and central coast.

Longer weekend trips and participation in regional motoring events in Moree, Mudgee and Gnoo Blas at Orange have seen the club receive many treasured awards for both members and the club.

The JDCHR has also participated in National Rallies held at many points around Australia.

Each Year, there are awards presented to outstanding members within the club, covering both male and female participants, for club champion of the year as well as clubwoman and clubman of the year.

Why This Matters

The JDCHR is not just about cars—it’s about community, legacy, and storytelling.

Senior members and younger members embody the spirit of the club: celebrating Jaguars through rallies, social gatherings, and shared passion.

For enthusiasts from the SS Jaguar to the latest electric Jaguar I-Pace, including Daimler vehicles, it preserves the artistry and craftsmanship of Jaguars while honouring the people who drive them.

 

For more information, our club website is at www.jaguarhunter.org.au

 

Barry Melville

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CMC Delegate for JDCHR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lithgow Vintage Motor Club Inc.

A brief look back at our club shows that a small group of local old car enthusiasts got together in February 1983 and decided to form a club. The word was spread around town and in March of that year, 25 folk held the inaugural meeting and named the club “Lithgow Vintage Motor Club”, we chose the name “Running Board Rag” for our newsletter.

By the end of 1983, membership had grown to 38, and the club had received RTA approval and was operating on the “Club Plate” conditional registration scheme. The club became an Incorporated Association in November 1986.

In the early days, members’ vehicles were mainly of the pre-World War 2 era; however, over the past years and via the various past iterations of the now Transport for New South Wales club approval policies, our club registrar currently has 118 cars and 15 motorcycles of various ages up to the 30-year-old limit registered on the Historic Vehicle Scheme.

Even though the club has approval to register vehicles on the Classic Vehicle Scheme, we currently don’t have any vehicles on this scheme at present, but there are a couple of modified vehicles currently being built.

Over the years, our club has established a very social atmosphere and along with the enthusiasm for heritage motoring it has seen membership grow to 120 members enjoying the monthly meetings, midweek lunch runs, weekend outings, long tours and participation in events organised by other clubs.

Membership of our club is available to motoring enthusiasts residing or having connections in the Lithgow district, whether young or elderly, you don’t have to own a heritage vehicle to be a member.

 

Rodney Rossi

LVMC Public Officer, Vehicle Registrar (responsible person).

Australian Historic Motor Club- Blue Mountains

The club was formed in about 1977 by Ross McRae, Eric North, Alan Fidler and a Mr Sutherland. At the time the people mentioned were members of the Australian Historic Motor Club in Sydney and found attending meetings in Sydney to be difficult. They therefore asked and received permission to create a Branch in the Blue Mountains and at that point the Australian Historic Motor Club - Blue Mountains Branch was born.

The history of the AHMC Sydney was created from 3 men whose names are John Johnston, John Curtain and Bruce Cooper. Together, they formed the 30-40 Car Club, with the meetings being held at the Australian Hotel in 1967.

Not long after the membership of their club started to grow and with much more modern cars, it was felt there was a need to change the name of club from the 30-40 Club to AHMC to more reflect the vehicles involved. These organizations were created by these men to gather together like-minded car lovers for social outings. The Car Club registration at the time was a nice benefit of membership but not the reason why these people came together.

The AHMC-BM is set up to bring together people who have an interest in road-going vehicles more than 25 years old

- To promote the restoration and preservation of such vehicles

- To foster friendship and co-operation by meeting together and participating in organised events

- To promote interest in and use of vehicles which come within the interest of the Club

- To assist members, where possible by their use of the Club library

For more information, our club website is at – ahmc-bm.org.au

Ronald Dixon

 

Cadillac LaSalle Club of Australia

Ken Moss is the most important figure in founding the Cadillac LaSalle Club of Australia in 1970. In 1965 Ken took his family and his 1912 Cadillac on an epic from Sydney to the USA and drove from California to Detroit. Another important person was the president of the US Cadillac LaSalle club – Norm Uhlir of Detroit - who urged Ken to start a Cadillac club in Australia. 

Ken was a member of the Veteran Car Club of NSW and was reluctant to break away from that club and its pioneer and good friend Bruce Cooper, as he didn’t want to be disloyal. 

However by 1970, 35 letters of invitation were sent out to known Cadillac owners in several states and Mossie and friends staged the first ever meeting of the Cadillac LaSalle Club of Australia. The Club was formed and had begun to exist. It was as simple as that – no name was registered, no company structure set up and they had yet to draft a constitution – they just called themselves a Club and got on with it.

Unofficial “Cadillac Club” in Sydney – late 1960s

Interestingly in the late 1960s, well before a club had been thought of, some Cadillac owners who lived in Sydney’s inner north-western suburbs – places like Ryde, Epping and Carlingford started to become aware of each other. They mostly drove Cadillacs that were 20-30 years old and they knew others from around Sydney including some Veteran Car Club members. Unsurprisingly, Ken Moss knew just about all of them.

When a Cadillac Club got started officially, there was a range of owners of all sorts of models who already knew each other.

Through the Veteran Car Club, Ken had also made the acquaintances of two other Aussie 1912 Cadillac owners, Dave Fiechtner from Drayton in southern Queensland, and Henry Formby from Drouin, east of Melbourne.  Dave and Henry were keen to help get such a club going, and each knew other local enthusiasts with various models of early Cadillacs and LaSalles.  These gentlemen soon created interstate regions of the Cadillac LaSalle Club.

It was essentially a Sydney club in the early years, but a few Victorians and one Queenslander always attended the Annual General Meetings held in the Veteran Car Club hall at Fivedock, in Sydney every July.  Sydneysiders would arrange a busy weekend of activities for locals and visitors alike (which Mossie described as “Tour and Looting”), and many decades-long interstate friendships can be traced back to those AGMs in the seventies.

Veteran Car Clubs were formed in some states in the fifties (1954 in NSW, 1955 in Vic), as were clubs for vintage sports cars, and later for other vintage cars.  There was little enthusiast interest in thirties, forties or fifties American cars because these were still plentiful in good condition, offering little challenge and even less appeal at the time. There were no clubs for individual makes except Rolls-Royce, and in the late sixties Packard and Buick clubs were formed in NSW – these were the first one-make car clubs in Australia.

Obviously this changed as the years rolled by. Today there are active Cadillac LaSalle clubs in five states of Australia.

Peter Ratcliff National Historian, Cadillac LaSalle Club