DEDICATED TO THE PRESERVATION OF VINTAGE VEHICLES 1919-1930

The Aims of the Club are to :  

• Encourage restoration and preservation of Vintage Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles; 

• To display our vehicles in rallies, tours, exhibitions and other suitable events,  to share our knowledge and enjoyment and to educate;

•  Establish and foster correct driving and maintenance techniques for Vintage Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles.

All  vintage vehicles and their proud owners are very welcome to join us.

History of the VVCA

The Vintage Vehicle Club of Australia (1919 – 1930) (VVCA) was founded at a meeting on the 23 May 1977. 

The Founding Members were:-

The first ten members were:-

The inaugural meeting elected the following Office bearers

President :                                      Ben Bronk

Honourable Secretary :                Laurie Stewart

Honourable Treasurer :               George Jones

In the first year the membership rose to 94 making a total membership (including Founders) of 104.  

The first outing was a Family Day at Greens Motorcade Museum

 
George Roberts, Bob McCarthy, Max Roberts and Ron Selig were all very active in the early days.  

Over the next 30+ years the VVCA has travelled thousands of miles and grown and diversified.  It now has over 120 members and associates plus families and friends. It was incorporated in 1987.

Three honorary life memberships have been awarded to members who have shown exceptional service to the club.   

Recipients have been :

 1.     Ben Bronk   

2.     Ron Selig      

3.     Roger Page  

We are all proud of our history and the work our members have put into building up the club.  

The past Presidents of the VVCA have been
 
Ben Bronk
Ian Milburn
Ron Selig
Barry Thew
Rodger Page

and the present one is 

Andy Auchterlonie

Some early member reminiscences are …………….

Robert McCarthy (Founding Member 4)

 “Back in the mid 70's there was pressure in the Veteran Car Club of Australia to broaden the interest base and to include Vintage Cars but the club constitution did not allow. In 1977 10 people decided to officially form another Club, after quite lengthy discussion and being aware of the other Clubs involved with Vintage vehicles - Antique and Classic, Vintage Motor Club,  VSCC etc.  In fact the VVCA invited comment from these and they were positive about the aims as stated and as mainly still current. Founder members, I think, were Ben Bronk, George Green, George Roberts, Len Sheen, George Jones (all sadly now gone) Ron Selig, Allen Blythe, Laurie Stewart, Max Roberts and myself.  All have played a big part in the movement at one time or other. My wife, Fay, worked with George Green at Leppington and then managed the associated museum at Birkenhead and received much support from both the VCCA and VVCA.  I did various tasks - investigations, treasurer, editor etc - we maintained a close association with the VCCA and met in their hall.”

Tony Falstein (Member No 7)

 “I was a founding member of the Daimler Lanchester Club, and through them a long term delegate to the CVVTMC. George Green 'volunteered' me as Rally Director for the Annual Event at Warwick Farm (now held at Eastern Creek), which I ran from 1974 to 1977, and through this I was in contact with the leading lights in our movement.

One day in 1977, George (Roberts) rang and said that Ben Bronk was forming a club, the aims of which was to provide a club in which members would be encouraged to use their cars, rather than let them sit in sheds with just the occasional run, hence the annual Tour and Hub Rallys. I thought that it was a terrific idea, so I paid my subs and joined.”

Bill Ardus says  (Member No 243)

“ Ben Bronk was a member of the Veteran Car Club and like other members had Vintage cars as well. He tried to get the Veteran Car Club to accept Vintage vehicles on their activities but the majority of members were not interested, Ben then decided to form a vintage only car club. At the inaugural meeting chaired by Ben, those present were Veteran car members and became founder members of the VVCA.

 Ben  received an  Honorary membership for his long dedication to the VVCA.   Ben iniciated the VVCA.  Ben was President for over 10 years.  Ben also promoted Annual Tours. At the time, very few clubs ran Annual Tours and they were invited to participate with the VVCA and often there were over 70 cars in arun. Ben also put the club on a sound financial footing and I believe his idea was for the VVCA to have its own clubhouse. This was before the Veteran car club built the new hall next to the old church hall.  The VVCA lent the Veterans money to help finance it.  Ben was always looking at ways to raise revenue.

He also had garage crawls and visits to factories and those who supplied services to the restoration industry to keep members interested.

Ben was the backbone and driving force behind the VVCA and had a lot  joined the VVCA during his Presidency, before other clubs sprung up to usually support one make of car.

When Ben stood down he still attended meetings and runs.

 Our next President was Ian Milburn (brother of Jim). Ian was very active but unfortunately he died of cancer whilst in office.

 Ron Selig was a Founder member and I understand he was one of the Vice Presidents for the majority of the time that Ben Bronk was President and whilst Ian Milburn was President.. He also held to position of Permits and Insurance for a long time.  I would say that Ron Selig was the Founder Member that contributed the most (not including Ben Bronk) of all the founder members and contributed the longest. Ron was involved in everything and you could say he was Ben Bronk's right hand man.

 Whilst Barry Thew was President, I spoke with many members about giving Ron Honorary Life Membership. The result was that all agreed, with the comment from some, that it should have happened a long time ago. Hence he was given Honorary Life Membership for his long service to the VVCA.

 Barry Thew was our next President for a few years.

 Roger Page then took the position of President.  On joining the VVCA, Roger Page became very involved. He attended all meetings and runs. I don't think he missed an Annual Tour. Chris Madden decided to run a Hub Rally each year and Roger was very involved in its running. Roger held many positions on Committee, in fact he was on Committee for many years.

I am not too sure whether or not Roger Page was President when he passed away.

Roger was in hospital with not too long to live and Ron Selig suggested he should be given Honorary Life Membership for his services to the club. The procedure was short circuited as time was running out. Roger was presented with it at his bedside.

Roger had been on many Committees and expressed the opinion that Honorary Life Memberships shouldn't be handed out willy nilly. I believe he wouldn't have accepted it had he been well but in the circumstances he accepted and I heard it really gave him a boost.”

Complied with help from Bill Ardus, Robert McCarthy, Tony Falstein, Bob Shipway, Darryl Blythe and the club records.

> Home <