NHMA Fairbridge event - W.A.

G'Day all - Well, the NHMA Fairbridge show is over and done with, and congratulations to the people who made it a highly successful event.

Unfortunately, the weather turned on a vicious blast of Winter, over every day of the event, making it a little less enjoyable than it could have been.
Luckily, it only rained seriously on the Friday .. the Saturday and Sunday were relatively rain-free .. but still bitterly cold and heavily overcast all weekend.

I went down on Saturday, and was immediately stunned at the sight of the entire 3km-long driveway into Fairbridge looking like a car park .. with traffic crawling at a walking pace .. and the South West Hwy traffic waiting to gain entry, backed up for a kilometre in each direction!



It took me 40 minutes to actually reach the car park area, and get a parking spot. However, the Fairbridge crew were well organised, and parking was no hassle.
I spoke to one of the parking men, and asked if he'd expected the crowd to be as big as it was.

He said "Heck, No!". I said, "Did you know the traffic was banked up a kilometre on the highway, each side of the entrance gate! He looked a bit concerned, and said, "Geez, the cops will be onto us!!"

Once inside the show area, I was amazed at the huge number of Eastern States exhibitors and visitors. Some people put a vast amount of effort into travelling a VERY long way to attend.
Many thanks to them, they made the show a very good event, compared to our local limited offerings.

Here's just a quick snapshot of the engines and small machinery displays, with a few local vehicle displays around the edges. This oval is actually quite large, the pic is deceiving.



One of the first things that took my eye, was this local EH ute, a low miler (33,000 miles from memory) that was in mint condition. It came from the East Coast and had previously belonged to an elderly gentleman.
I owned a new ute exactly like this when they were new, and it was even the same colour! Talk about bring back some memories!



Here's one for Bugly and the fire truck lovers. A magnificently-restored 1951 Dennis .. the "before" pics show an absolute wreck, that had stood outside a car dealers yard for many years, until it literally fell to pieces.

The wooden framed body had to entirely rebuilt from scratch, and even the engine had to be replaced with a unit imported from England, as the original engine was totally unrepairable due to massive corrosion, created by the fire pump pumping its water through the cooling system!
Thus, if the pump had been pumping brackish water onto a fire, the brackish water stayed in the block and radiator!



Next along, was a lineup of classic Inter trucks, that all looked good ..



A nice old AS Inter and an early Landrover ..



Someone brought their unrestored '42 GMC all the way from QLD! A neat old Model T ute was parked alongside the GMC.



The local HCVC club had a small display .. but a big banner! This F1800 is well known in W.A., but I hadn't seen the Bedford furniture van before.



A very nicely restored, local DCO Inter ..



A very neat, V8 powered, D1310 Inter. H.S. Hyde is a local builder, and the original Mr H. S. Hyde, an old man then, lived and operated right down the road from me, when I was a teenager, in Bassendean in the early 1960's.



A couple of nice old Chevs on display. Can't say the puke green paint job does anything for me, though ..



Up the back of the tractor display area, was this pair of nice old Fords, with a classic Maple Leaf parked alongside them.



The Fairbridge entrance was "guarded" by this neat old Austin, that is signwritten as an original Fairbridge truck.
Whether it IS the original Fairbridge truck, or just a similar one, I don't know .. there was no information card on it.



And just to add some additional flavour to the show, someone had brought in a KW C510 mine haulage truck, with a powered trailer.
Unfortunately for Swishy and the Screemer lovers, this one is powered by a QSK19 Cummins ..

Great report, Ron. What a show.

There's some very familiar trucks for me and some I've had a bit to do with.

I think the Holden ute belongs to Matt Warnock - story sounds about right. He's also got a station wagon in similar condition but chased a ute for a long time.

The Dennis belongs to a former HCVC WA Prez whose name escapes me at present - McLean or something like that. Ian?

The green Inter with Duns Bros on the side of it is owned by Alan Duns in Manjimup. His family is from SA hence the sign-writing on the truck. Very clever man.

I think the Army Inter parked next to him is owned by Doddy Davies of Bridgetown who has a massive collection of old girls. The sunvisor is possibly the one Alan and I found on a wrecked ute in the bush east of Manji back in about 2003. We delivered it to Doddy but just left it in the truck's cab to see if he would find it.

The Loadstar with the Hiab is Des Curtis'. I haven't spoken to him for a while and last I heard he was pretty crook so I'm hoping he drove the truck to the show. She's got a tilt bonnet and we used her to go to Wagin to pick up my 51 Beddy ML back in 2006.

I last saw the Beddy furniture van at Brookton 2006 (IIRC) but still have no idea who owns it.

The ASC is Brian Brookes'. Another of the Brookes clan and an Inter nut of course. He probably had a few vehicles there.

The HS Hyde D1310 is owned by Robert Hyde of Bassendean. Lovely bloke who also has a Chev 4 in similar condition. Am intrigued by the S21 Foden on the sign in front of the Inter.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Thanks for the pics Ron, the little blue AS 110 is Tony and Michelle Buccannon's from Toowoomba, it's got a Diahatsu diesel in it, they are a long way from home.

Andy - The sign in front of the D1310 is the advertising sign for the Vintage Automobile Association of W.A. I was in the VAAWA for a few years back in the 1970's, but gave it up as I moved further away from Perth, into the Goldfields. In addition, the club waffle and BS didn't do much for me, back then.
Most of the members seemed to be public servants who had more money than what they knew what to do with .. lots of time on their hands .. and lots of dreams, with no real restoration efforts.
I was too busy at the time, running a heap of earthmoving equipment, that was an 80 or 90 hrs a week tie, that gave me little time for meetings, and even less for restoration work, as well.
Like most people, you have to reach retirement age before you can spare the amount of time needed to restore stuff.

did you get a pic of the rhodes ridley

Juan Trak
Gudday M8

Gr8 Pix
Keep m Cummin

Cant say th@ the KWhopper iz a pritty sight
Looks abit of a monster

LOL

Cya
[ch9786]

bitterly cold ????

wuz wandering in shirt gettin sunburnt on sunday

with the 4.30am start time sat morning i wuz rugged up pretty well and had to shed most of it

rmodelsteve - No, I didn't get any pics of the Rhodes Ridley, as I've got some pics of it previously. However, now that I think of it, I think I lost those pics in a computer crash ..

OzFamine - Well, I'm struggling to understand how you were getting sunburnt with an 18

Great pictures Ron, especially the Dennis F1! The owner of this truck is the guy who gave me the spare wheels and wheel nuts for my truck not too long ago. It certainly was in a sorry state before the restoration commenced! Looks like a new truck now!

The Dennis belongs to a former HCVC WA Prez whose name escapes me at present - McLean or something like that. Ian?

Andy ... the truck was originally owned and restored by Ian Br***s, but was not too long ago sold to the present owner Steve.