Classic trucks rolling into town

THIS weekend, vintage trucks are taking over the Bendigo Showgrounds as the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club of Australia celebrates fifty years with a special display.

Old time big riggs, including George Dawson’s 1946 Chevrolet Maple Leaf will be the main attraction.

Mr Dawson said he bought the truck at an auction in Newstead with just a chassis and a steering wheel and reconditioned everything himself.

Another of his projects, a 1951 Bedford OB bus, will tour Bendigo with HCVCA members on board on Saturday morning.

HCVCA president Russel Marshall said 50 years of the club is a “fabulous milestone.”

“We’ve got members all around Australian, over 600 members most of them in Victoria and a lot of them around Bendigo and Ballarat so we’re expecting a big show from them,” he said.

He said members of the club are bound by their love for trucks and the nostalgia of owning vehicles from their childhood.

“They’re old bangers, they’re good old stuff,” he said. “They’re what Australia was built on, not the fancy things with air conditioning and automatic transmission.

“It’s so the young people can see what it was like to get around in the old days.”

The club will host a special dinner on Saturday night at the RSL, which Mr Marshall said will be the first chance to catch up as a whole group for about two years.

“The old trucks run on a logbook, a special permit for us, I’ve got two logbooks that have nothing in them,” he said. “It’s really good to get out and about and see your old mates again.”

And Mr Marshall said if you see the trucks out on the road, give them a wave and they’ll be sure to sound the horn.