June 2022 – President’s Run — Maryborough

Arti­cle by Jason King

What a great week­end away we had to Mary­bor­ough via the Castle­maine Rod shop and lunch at Newstead.

It all start­ed rather ear­ly for all the mem­bers that left the clu­b­rooms at 8.30 am to join the rest of us at the meet­ing point at BP Calder Park.

We left BP Calder Park on time at 10.00am for the dri­ve to the Castle­maine Rod Shop just over an hour away in Castlemaine.

Pics cour­tesy of Janine King, Big Trev and Kim Radenic

Castle­maine Rod Shop
We arrived at the Castle­maine Rod shop just after 11 am where we were met by Tris­tan, Pres­ley, and Paul Annetts. We parked up out the front of the shop. On arrival one of the own­ers of Rare Spares arrived with Rod Shop Ambas­sador and for­mer AFL play­er Bar­ry Hall. I enquired why Bar­ry was here and I was told he was play­ing local foot­ball in Castle­maine that day.

We min­gled out in the car park and even­tu­al­ly went inside and had a tour of the Rod Shops facil­i­ties and how things are made on site.

New­stead
After the vis­it to the Rod Shop, we drove through Castle­maine on the way to Mary­bor­ough. We had a planned stop in the small town of New­stead, where we had the choice between the local bak­ery or the cof­fee shop. By all accounts lunch was enjoyed by all. We all then left at our own pace enroute to the accom­mo­da­tion in Maryborough.

Mary­bor­ough
All cars trav­elled well to the Junc­tion Motel in Mary­bor­ough, and every­one com­ment­ed on how good our hosts where and the accom­mo­da­tion. Before din­ner we all sat in the car park and had a few drinks.

Mary­bor­ough — Din­ner
As the after­noon went on and Big Trev had a few adult bev­er­ages, it was time for din­ner. We were only a 5‑minute walk up the road to the Mary­bor­ough High­lands Soci­ety (Bowl­ing Club). A cour­tesy bus took some mem­bers that chose not to walk.

On arrival at din­ner, one of Janine and my favourite pub trib­ute bands INXSIVE (an INXS trib­ute band) was doing a sound check as they were play­ing at the venue lat­er in the evening. Janine and I, Tim and Michelle, Gary and Judy His­lop and Tim Fet­tell decid­ed to pur­chase tick­ets to stay on after din­ner to watch the band.

Din­ner was a great vari­ety of food on offer and plen­ty of laughs were had on all the tables. Every­one enjoyed the night and club mem­bers start­ed to wan­der back to the Motel either by foot or by the cour­tesy bus. Kim Radenic who was say­ing pre-run and talk­ing a big game about drink­ing with Big Trev, just hap­pened to slip out of the venue unno­ticed and back to his room.

Gary Beard­s­ley joined us on our table and as INXSIVE was start­ing to play their first set, decid­ed to stay and lis­ten to the music with the rest of us. Many mem­o­ries of lis­ten­ing to old INXS songs was enjoyed by all that stayed behind. Janine and I were rapt, for those who don’t know we had made a pre­lim­i­nary book­ing for INXSIVE for our 50th com­bined birth­day par­ty back in 2020 until COVID can­celled that.

After the band was fin­ished, we left the venue at about 11.30. It was freez­ing on the walk back and I would guess that it was hov­er­ing around the 0 degree mark about then. Michelle was quite hap­py and was won­der­ing which door she should knock on to wake up anyone.

Sun­day in Mary­bor­ough — Break­fast
Well, what a freez­ing start to the day. It was sit­ting on 0 and quite fog­gy when we all even­tu­al­ly got out of bed and went out­side. As you can tell by the pho­tos it was chilly.

Mary­bor­ough – Break­fast – Rail­way sta­tion
After the shock of how cold it was and after some of us had warmed our cars up to get the heaters going (for those who have a heater installed) we made the short jour­ney to the Mary­bor­ough Rail­way sta­tion cof­fee shop for breakfast.

We parked all the cars out­side the his­toric train sta­tion for a great pho­to opportunity.

After Break­fast – head­ing home
After we had break­fast we had a short tour of the his­toric Mary­bor­ough Rail­way sta­tion, thanks to the Mary­bor­ough Vis­i­tors Cen­tre. It was inter­est­ing to hear how the train sta­tion was built and how the ten­der­ing process went to secure the rail­way station.

After the tour all club mem­bers either went to the Tal­bot mar­kets or start­ed their jour­neys home.

It was a good week­end, a lot of kilo­me­tres over 2 days but well worth it. There were 37 peo­ple on the run, 16 cars and one motel ful­ly booked. The local hos­pi­tal­i­ty of all the venues was very wel­com­ing and could­n’t do enough for all of us. A good time was had by all.

Mem­bers with earlies.

Paul & Elaine Annetts.
James Creswell
Ray & Val Dag­gers
Trevor & Sue Dempsey
Ray & Judy Edsall
Tim Fet­tell
Aldo Gianchi­no
Bruce & Lil­lian Gra­ham
Rod & Sharon Grum­mitt
Gary & Judy His­lop.
Gar­ry Hodge & mate Bill.
Jason & Janine King.
Kim Radenic.
Bren­ton & Lyn Schi­er.
Derk Tuik.

Mem­bers without.

Gary Beard­s­ley
Tris­tan Coote
Allan & Jan Del­zop­po
Michael Del­zop­po
Pres­ley Eas­dale
Ray & Janet Howlett
Tim Sells & Michelle