australian campertrailers national meet at baradine 2011

past events

Baradine national meet 2011

Australian CamperTrailers
national meet at Bardine 2011

friday

coffee table trip book making

Geoff Lane showed one of the ways to use all those pictures we take on our travels around the country by demonstrating the ease of use of on-line software to design and lay out coffee-table style photo books and prepare for printing. He also showed a number of examples of books from recent travels both in Australia and overseas.

hitchmaster securing system

George Marvos demonstrated HitchMaster which is a pulley system without any moving parts & can be used for pulling, lifting or as a tie down. The best thing is about this system is there are no fancy knots to tie. The whole system is very compact & allowing it to go in a tool pouch that fits on your belt.

camper trailer walkabout

Dave Cook once again hosted another well attended camper trailer walkabout. Members give a brief talk on what they like about their camper, points they don't like & modifications they have done or they would like to do to make camping all that more enjoyable.

closing ceremony

Friday afternoon saw the closing ceremony. Kevin thanked everyone for their attendance & also the Camp Cypress committee & staff for making our stay such an enjoyable experiance. A especial thanks went out to the Baradine community for the warm welcome The CamperTrailers members received.

Baradine Hospital Auxilary president, Elizabeth Lord was on hand to accept the generous donation of $3,304 from the CamperTrailers Group & thanked everyone on behalf of the committee. The donation will go towards the purchase of a special $15,000 bed for the emergency department at the Baradine Multi Services Centre. Elizabeth said she was overwhelmed by the generosity. Money was raised via the trivia night, auction & raffle.

Neil MacDonald, Chairman of the Camp Cypress board thanked the CamperTrailers Group for choosing Baradine & in particular Camp Cypress for the venue of their national meet. He also thanked the people who had worked behind the scenes to make it all possible.

Rob thanked those who had presented of workshops during the week & personally gave them a certificate of appreciation. A special thanks to Margaret Pierce for the organising of the fruit & vegie bags. Also a huge thanks to those who did all the cutting up & bagging.

Next it was time to draw the raffle tickets. A big thanks once again to Alan & Amanda Haworth for donating the wheelclamp as the major prize along with four locks & lanyards as the four runner up prizes. Russell Street's drew the winning ticket while John Wilkinson, Alan Randell, Gus Skinner & Greg Carthew were runners up. $577 was raised for the Baradine Hospital Auxilary.

Spirit of the Group is awarded to a person who is brought to the attention of the CamperTrailers Group co-owners for a good hearted deed or his generosity in helping others during the week long meet. Doug McFarlane was the recipient this year. Doug is a quite achiever & the help he gave to others over the week was much appreciated. He was also the winner of the framed $100 note raffled by the Baradine Hospital Auxilary & Doug donated the prize back to the auxilary. The perpetual trophy was given to Doug by Neil Morton the maker of the trophy.

Baradine Blunders is awarded to the funniest or most embarrassing moment over the week. This years award goes to David Keller. David was observed in Piliga on a busy Tuesday afternoon, (four cars in the main street). Three CamperTrailers members vehicles pulled up opposite the cafe in the dirt after a swim in the hot bore baths. After exiting the cafe with ice creams & drinks there was a sudden cry of "I've lost my keys". The roadside was searched for the missing keys, then the cafe. The cafe owners joined the search. There was discussions of smashing windows which was filed away as plan B. The dirt around the Pajero was searched & searched again, this time with more frantic shuffling of feet. The cafe was searched again. Perhaps the keys had been accidently picked up by a local buying takeaway? Anyone seen which way the went? More searching the dirt. Discussions of did you bring the spare keys? Suddenly a sharp eyed daughter cried out "Dad what's that key tucked into your shorts?" Dad with the insight of sudden remembrance grabbed the keys tucked into the waistband & with joy said "I don't usually tuck them into my shorts & I'd forgotten". The ID of the observant member will remain nameless. Thanks John Koole for letting us know of this funny incident.

Jason then announced that we had been in consultation with the Wellington Council, The Wellington Showground Trust & the Wellington Lions on the central NSW slopes & plains with plans to told the next & 8th CamperTrailers national meet at the Wellington Showground during the 2012 September/October school holidays.

With that Kevin declared the 7th national meet closed & hoped to see everyone again next year.