THE South Gippsland 4×4 Camping and Caravan Club is set to celebrate 25 years of existence.
It started out as South Gippsland 4×4 Club, with its first meeting held in April 1991 at the Miner’s Rest Hotel, Wonthaggi.
A family oriented club, there have been hundreds of trips over the past 25 years, and now a reunion will be held at one of the original members’ properties at Wattle Bank.
People are invited to camp the night and join in the fully catered meal on Saturday, May 14.
The children of the early members now have families of their own, and are very welcome to come along and reminisce.
Old newsletters and photos will be displayed.
See the advertisement in the classifieds for more info.
The club continues to promote family-based 4WD touring, exploring and camping activities, and the responsible and safe use of 4WDs.
Club meetings are held at 7.30pm on the second Tuesday of each month.
It runs regular trips/excursions to Victoria Alpine regions and has run extended trips to outback South Australia and New South Wales and Victoria’s desert regions.
From the original committee, there are three who are still members, and of those, two are still on the committee.
Gary Edwards is the current president and has served in that role for eight terms.
He’s also had two terms as vice president, five as events coordinator, two terms as the driver training officer and one as the insurance officer.
Gary has been a committee member on all other years not listed above.
He has run many club trips as leader and submitted many trip reports to the newsletter.
He has won the Best Club Person several times.
Alan Parker is the current access and tracks officer – a position he’s held for 18 years.
He has also previously held the positions of driver training officer, treasurer and publicity officer.
The inaugural treasurer Dr Leon Malzinskas had two terms in that role, was vice president for two terms, and has run many club nights and trips as a leader.