Revving up veteran support

RESPITE and brotherhood are what the Veterans’ Motorcycle Club is all about.

Six months ago, the Central Victorian chapter of the club opened in Myers Flat, in a shed known as Central Station.

Local club president Jay Lindley, a former president of the Victorian chapter in Melbourne, recently settled in Bendigo and saw the opportunity to connect fellow defence force veterans.

“Bendigo is massive military veterans’ community, there’s a heap of reserve in this city and there’s a lot of industry that works with the ADF here,” he said.

“Our goal as a new chapter here, is to bring as many people as possible together.”

This year’s Anzac Day was the Bendigo chapter’s first major event, with veterans riding in from all over the state for a service held at the club.

“We had 200 people here over the Anzac Day weekend,” Mr Lindley said. “We want to get that bond going we use to have that a lot of us, when we leave the defence, is gone.

“It was a good motivation to keep doing what we’re doing. There was excitement, it was happy, there was a friendliness between every single person there. It was fantastic.”

The VMC holds a Friday night get together for veterans to have a drink and a chat, and regularly hosts motorbike rides and trips.

Mr Lindley said much of the work done at the Central Victoria club is thanks to government grants, which he has become accustomed to applying for.

“It’s not the hardest thing to do, it’s time consuming but we’ve been extremely lucky in the acceptance of grants we’ve got so we haven’t felt like it’s been a waste of time,” he said.

Earlier this month the club finished constructing a commemoration, made possible by a Federal Government grant.

Mr Lindley said another grant from the Department of Families, Fairness, and Housing will be used to have solar panels installed on the roof of Central Station to fully power the building.

The club is open from 6pm to 10pm every Friday for any veteran, regardless of motorbike experience, looking for support or just a casual catch-up.