Vintage Experience in the Hunter Valley
The Rolls-Royce Owners’ Club of Australia is now in its 58th year. The Club has Branches in all Australian mainland States and the ACT, it also has sections in the Northern Territory and Tasmania. The Club has over 1,000 members in Australia and all Branches have regular social and motoring events for our members.
Each year the Club holds a Federal Rally where members from all over Australia and guests from overseas affiliated Clubs gather with their cars to share knowledge, history and the latest updates from both Rolls-Royce and Bentley as well as to renew friendships and share some social time with fellow enthusiasts. Each Branch takes its turn to host the Federal Rally and this provides our members with the opportunity to tour to and discover different parts of this wonderful country. This year it is the turn of the NSW Branch to host the Federal Rally and the Branch has selected the Hunter Valley Region for the 56th Annual Federal Rally.
As a Club we are aware that we are custodians of cars that are part of the moveable cultural heritage of Australia. We enjoy using our cars and we enjoy the pleasure that others experience when they see these magnificently preserved examples of motor vehicle engineering excellence. Many of the cars in our Club have fascinating histories that are interwoven into the fabric of this nation’s history and we enjoy relating those and many other legends.
The 56th Federal Rally will be run over five days in May 2014, with the main opportunity for the public to view these cars being the Display Day on Saturday 10 May 2014. This will be held in the large car park behind the Aqua Golf Lake at Hunter Valley Gardens from 9.00am – 3.00pm. Whenever we hold an event such as this we always look to support a local charity or worthwhile cause and this year we are fundraising for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service. As part of that fundraising the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service volunteers will be accepting gold coin donations from any member of the public wishing to view our cars during the Display Day.
This year the Club is celebrating the 110th anniversary of the first running of a Royce motorcar, which occurred on 1 April 1904. Sir Henry Royce was a celebrated engineer who passionately believed in taking something good and making it better. He once said “Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing.” It is this kind of attitude and inspiration that has kept so many of the cars manufactured by Rolls-Royce since 1904, still on the road today. In mid-2013 there was a gathering of Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts in Europe to recreate the famous Alpine Rally of 1913. This event saw over 100 Silver Ghosts together in the one town, surely the largest gathering ever of these cars. Just to put this into perspective, the Silver Ghost was manufactured from 1906 to 1925 and some of the cars present at this rally took part in the original 1913 Trial. So no participating car was younger than 88 years old!
The oldest car in the Club in Australia is a 1909 Silver Ghost and that car is in regular use attending events and Club activities. This year we hope to have about 150 cars attending the Rally and these will come from every State in Australia. We also are anticipating having a number of Silver Ghosts and Phantoms from New Zealand, USA and the UK attending the Rally. This will afford our members and the public the opportunity to see some interesting cars that are rarely seen on this Continent.
The Sir Henry Royce Foundation, a charitable Trust, that actively supports the preservation of all things related to Rolls-Royce and to perpetuate his engineering philosophy, namely the pursuit of excellence. Among the Foundation’s collection is a 1967 Rolls-Royce Phantom V (photo 1), which is a former Australian Government car that has been used to transport visiting royalty and Governors-General. This car has also completed the 1997 ‘Peking to Paris Motor Challenge’ and will be in attendance at this Federal Rally.
During the Rally we will be holding our Annual Concours where the cars entered are judged in a variety of classes and this is a highly competitive event. There are 13 Classes in Concours, which broadly groups the 110 years of cars into similar models or characteristics. At the Display Day a rosette displayed on a car windshield will indicate that car has won either their Class or one of the major trophies such as Best Pre-War or Best Post-War. The owners won’t find out exactly what they have won until the formal Presentation Dinner, which will be held on the Sunday evening.
The public are invited to spend some time at Hunter Valley Gardens Shopping Village to enjoy the spectacle of some rare and wonderful motorcars on display. Please also help us to support the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.
For all media requests, interviews and images, please contact Alena Pople, Marketing Manager at Hunter Valley Gardens on 02 4998 4092 or email or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.