Get your motor running

By Graham Davis

Left to right: With Choppa 2 (EH model) are AB Richard Van Huisstede, LS Rob Richie, LEUT Nick Kous, and LS Shane McMillan. Choppa 1 is at the right. The image was taken at the recent Combined Shoalhaven Motor Expo fundraiser.

What a sight ... 110 veteran fire engines, ambulances, buses and cars, including two Holdens made to look like RAN helicopters, rifling down the Gunbarrel Highway through the middle of Australia, in great clouds of bull dust.

This will be the scene in just a few weeks when drivers and crews set out for the annual Variety Bash.

This year the bash will begin on Sunday August 8 at Burramatta (the Aboriginal name for Parramatta) and conclude 5756 kilometres and 11 days later at Bather’s Beach, Fremantle.

The bash will travel through four states and territories with overnight stops including Broken Hill, Coober Pedy, Uluru and Kalgoorlie.

It will take participants through some of the most remote parts of Australia, where water and petrol are scarce.

Fifteen official vehicles, a fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter with a doctor will shadow the vehicles. Last year, four HMAS Albatross aviators drove a car in the event and raised $25,000 for the needy children who are supported by the Variety bash.

This year LCDR Graeme Wong will lead eight RAN members in two cars.

The group already has $19,000 in the kitty and hopes to top the amount raised last year.

Graeme’s team currently consists of LEUT Nick Kous, LSATV Phil Herschhausen, LSATA Shane McMillan, LSATA Rob Richie, ABATA Richard Van Huisstede and ABATA Jimmy Vella.

The team’s newcomers will call on the experience of the three personnel who went in the 2003 bash to stay out of trouble, LCDR Wong told Navy News. The group will re-use Choppa 1, an HR series Holden sedan used last year and a “newcomer” an EH Holden, dubbed Choppa 2.

“The cars have identical paint schemes and rotor blades,” Graeme said. “This year we can rotate the blades,” he added.

“There is still a fair bit to do preparing the cars, but the team’s AEO, AB Van Huisstede, has it well in hand. “We are on track to have both cars in good mechanical and physical shape by the start of the event.”

Graeme and his companions already have received excellent support. L3 Communications has provided $5000, while sponsorship ranging from $500 to $2000 has come from Kaman, BAE, Tenix LADS, Thales, Boeing, Sikorsky, Planit, Westlands, Serco, ADCU, Kurrajong Kitchens and the HMAS Albatross Welfare Committee.

The aim of the bash is to raise money for Variety to help disadvantaged Australian children. The 2003 bash raised $2.4 million.

Modern vehicles are banned from the event. It attracts vehicles such as old style fire engines, ambulances and buses, along with many styles of cars and station sedan.

This year’s bash takes participants through the heart of Australia with vehicles pushing west from Uluru to the remote weather station at Giles in WA, along the historic Gunbarrel Highway and through to Warburton.

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