Hi, welcome to our Summer 2026 Bush Chatter newsletter.
Contents
- Vale Graham Burtonclay
- Christmas Dinner 2025
- Club Defibrillator
- South Merbein Motor Show
- Benetook Farm Display
- Insurance Be-Aware
- Pee-Wee Test Ride Incident
- For Sale
- Out and About
- Wanted
- Member Profiles
Vale Graham Burtonclay
The club lost a valuable long-term member just after Christmas. Graham was the owner of Sunraysia Bearings and had a wealth of knowledge with engineering supplies not surpassed in the district. Whilst we knew him as Grumpy Graham, he was always happy to assist with our projects and hard to get parts. Graham would always turn up for club rides on his Honda XL250 Motorsport and was proud of the fact he road it in the inaugural BP Desert Rally at Hattah. This rally I believe started around 1973 run by Light Car Club of Australia Ballarat Branch and had a record entry list of 900 vehicles consisting of 600 bikes and 300 cars in 1979. Fun Times!
RIP Graham
Christmas Dinner 2025 Mildura Golf Resort
The club enjoyed a very relaxed 3 course xmas dinner at the Mildura Golf resort. It was great to see a good roll up of around 60 members and partners on a very good value meal, well done team and one of the few times I have enjoyed being on a golf course for the year!
Club Defibrillator AED
The committee has proceeded with the purchase of the AED. A big thanks to Dale Richards for his professional guidance on the purchase and his instruction on the operation of the unit. It will be carried by the tail end charlie’s and be present at major club events. A locator device is fitted to the carry bag so we know of its location.
For the record:
Again thanks Dale and please ride that Ducati on a monthly ride!
Below, Dale pointing out the finer points of our AED during our November meeting
South Merbein Motor show
Some pics of our club display at the old Merbein school ground. A fairly small attendance by our club standards but we attended!
Benetook Farm Display
It was good to see the club support such a great local organisation out at Benetook Farm. Feedback was that it was a top day, the kids enjoyed it nearly as much as the adults! More about this organisation below. Again thanks Baz Graham for organising.
For more information on Benetook Farm visit their website at https://srsinc.com.au/benetook-farm/
Insurance Be aware
Club member Jim Bray recently had an insurance claim refusal on his BMW K100 by a certain organisation starting with a Q. Scenario was: left bike idling to warm up went and got some gear on came back to an electrical fire. Repair was in the thousands. After ringing around Jim ran the scenario by RACV who indicated that would have been covered by policy and his insururer has now been changed.
Pee Wee test ride incident
A big thanks to the club members who came up and offered their stories and support after my reporting of a test ride incident that resulted in carpet burns to knees and elbows. One prominent member may have even flipped a mini bike on test at the back of Bayliss’s!
For Sale
1990 Honda CBR1100RR Blackbird
Club member Graeme Woodward has this Honda CB1100RR Blackbird for sale. 1990 model 2 owners always serviced at a bike shop with original spares. A bit weathered from sitting at his workplace, 130000kms. Motor sounds very quite and asking $3000 ono. Contact Graeme 0419477810
1979 Honda PA50 Express
I have this 1979 Honda PA50 Express for sale. Bike is complete but needs a little bit of work. A very good opportunity to own a rare 50cc 2 stroke. Parts are plentiful on line including big bore kits, expansion chambers and carbies. A great resto project for someone and it may even keep up with a BSA Bantam asking $400 Contact Graeme 0400078498
2002 Yamaha FJR1300
David Wood has this immaculate Yamaha FJR1300 Tourer. All the gear with panniers and top boxes, service history. 2002 model with 73735 kms $5000 bargain! Ph 0429939651
Kawasaki Shaft Drive
David also has this shaft drive Kawasaki not running, going very cheap if you are looking for a project bike[cafe racer?]. Ph 0429939651
Out and About
Spotted recently at the BSA rally in South Australia by Chris Sibley was this Ariel Red Hunter that was restored by Doug Laird. Gary King is the owner and is very happy with his machine. Doug’s legacy lives on!
Also present was this this neat C11 earlier than Ferg’s C11G. It handled the very tough 2 days of high wind and rain well.
I spotted this immaculate Suzuki Rotary in the Barossa recently whilst driving through Nurioopta. Lovely chap by the name of Graeme out on a recon mission for the Barossa valley historic Motorcycle club’s monthly ride, he is their ride co-ordinator who keeps an eye on our club from afar. Thankfully we are a well connected club on the socials as it was hard finding info on their private site.
Wanted
Ron Brown is chasing any parts for his Honda Benly 125
Member Profiles
Alan Tarr
Q1, how many years as a member of SHMCC and any committee positions?
I have been a Member for 11 years now I think, I’ve been a Scrutineer For 9 Of Those Now, Also Master Chef at the AGM Meetings For 6 Years
Q2, favourite food, home-made potato cakes
Q3, favourite drink, tomato juice, and beer
Q4, my dream bike, fell in love with my Z1 900 back in 1973 still one of my favourite motorcycles
Q5, Work Life,
Started my apprenticeship in 1967 on cars trucks and tractors from there went to work on small engines and MotorCycles, done vintage at a winery as a cellar hand then started my own business in 1988 selling ride on Mowers chainsaws and small engine equipment sold the business in 2001 worked part time at some businesses for a few years been Retired for some years now just do Motorcycles etc In my shed at home now.
Q6, your Motorcycle journey how did it begin?
Rode my first motorcycle at the age of 14. It was an old Ariel It smoked like a two-stroke,
Q7,Current motorcycles and past,
I had few BSA bantams, panther, Jawa 350 twin, XL 250’s and XL350’s QA50’s, first Motorcycle on the road was a triumph tiger 110 then three 450 twins then several Z1 900’s,CB750 Honda Fours, Suzuki 1150 Bandit
Current motorcycle, 3 x Z1 900 1973,1974,(1976 modified) a Z1000 2005 model Plus a
Z900rs 2018 model
Q8 Best and worst motorcycle Memory
Worst, Coming off my 450 Honda at the top of pump Hill back when it had a sharp corner at the top, Best, hiring Harleys over in America riding some of route 66 etc.3000 Miles Had a ball.
Q9, anything more you would like to see in the club?
I would like to see more social get-togethers that would be nice
Peter Guest
How many years as a member of SHMCC and any committee positions? 2years
Favourite food: Steak
Favourite drink: Yellowglen
Dream motorcycle: Yamaha MT-10 SP
Worklife: Qualified Motor mechanic then 43 years Ambulance Victoria
How did your motorcycle journey begin? I have loved motorcycles for as long as I can remember. I would hang around the Mildura salt lakes hoping one of the big kids would give me a ride. Roly Hawson taught me to ride at age 10 on his BSA Bantam
Current Motorcycles and past ones: 1994 Harley FXR, 1978 Kawasaki Z1R race bike, 2023 Yamaha MT-10 SP
Best and worst motorcycle memories: Lots of fantastic motorcycle racing memories. Worst? Demolishing my OW01 Yamaha race bike at Eastern Creek. (see photos)
Anything more you would like to see in the club? No
I found this ABC documentary on Bathurst Easter 1981 which may be of interest. Great fun times camping up on the mountain as a young bloke. I wish they would bring Bathurst back! Some photos also of my Tamworth mates on the Honda Boldor and a BMW I photographed back then which I recently spotted at the National Motor Museum Birdwood SA.
A couple of BOBS
A big thankyou to Australian Motorcycle News Editor Greg Barton for permission to reproduce this article regarding some motorcycle accidents that you might find interesting.
22 August 2024
Words: DARRYL FLACK
Photos: AMCN ARCHIVE
A couple of Bobs had a couple of crashes that helped shape political and music history.
Bob Hawke
Born in 1924, Neil Hawke was the first-born son of Ellie, a teacher, and Clem Hawke, a Congregational minister. When Ellie fell pregnant five years later, she wanted a girl and set aside the name ‘Elizabeth’. Ellie nevertheless suspected it was going to be another boy, and Robert James Lee Hawke was born in December 1929 in Border Town, South Australia.
Young Bob was brought up to the echo of ‘you were meant to be a girl’ from his loving mother, and thus formed a very close relationship with his father. Annoyed rather than hurt by his mother’s utterances, Bob dedicated himself to becoming a man to reinforce his gender to not just his mother but the world. Then tragedy struck.
Neil, who was Dux at Kings College and had just landed a job in Western Australia’s Treasury, was felled by meningitis aged 17 years. Devastated, Ellie devoted herself to her one remaining son, telling everyone and anyone that Bob would become Australia’s prime minister one day.
Despite his brilliance, Bob did not excel at school, instead dedicating himself to cricket with the dream of playing for Australia. At university in Perth, Bob was hardly setting the world on fire academically. When he asked for money to buy a motorcycle, his parents resisted. They eventually acquiesced and bought Bob a single-cylinder Panther 350. He was noted for darting around hunched forward, never looking left or right, just staring straight ahead.
On 1 August, 1947, Hawke was studying in the university’s law library when he began to feel unwell.
“After taking a couple of aspirins, I waited briefly then set off for home,” Hawke said years later. “Inside my windcheater I was carrying a heavy stand for the bike. I don’t know whether I actually blacked out as I was riding, but I have vague memory of careering off the road. I was in excruciating pain and barely able to move.”
Hawke was critically ill for several days, doctors believing the bike’s stand had ruptured his spleen. Close mate Jack Knight visited ashen-faced Bob and feared the worst. His parents prayed. The doctors successfully removed his spleen, leaving a large L-shaped wound.
Bob wasn’t religious, but remarked, “I was acutely aware of how close to death I had been, and I got this sense that the lord had spared my life. I can’t overstate how important that accident was. It was the total turning point of my life.”
The self-confessed hedonist, who had struggled to focus for much of his life, dedicated himself to his studies becoming a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.
Hawke later became a powerful leader of the ACTU, earning the respect of Australians across the political divide. He parlayed his popularity into winning a seat in the House of Representatives at the 1980 Federal Election. In March 1983, Hawke led the Labor party to electoral victory, becoming the ALP’s longest-serving Prime Minister. In 1984, Hawke achieved the highest-ever satisfaction rating of any Australian Prime Minister (75 percent). All thanks to surviving a terrible motorcycle crash.
Bob Dylan
Another Bob, Dylan, had a career-changing motorcycle crash that remains shrouded in mystery with suggestions that it was a ruse for Dylan to take leave of public life. In 2016, Classic Rock & Culture claimed: “Dylan’s motorcycle accident was a mid-60s turning point, a historic moment as significant as the Beatles’ decision to stop touring.”
The year is 1966 and Dylan is living in Woodstock, New York. He had just released Blonde on Blonde, featuring the much-covered Just Like a Woman. For two years, Dylan had been hounded for going electric at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. His life at Woodstock had become a “nightmare” with fans at his door and goons breaking in.
“Everything was wrong, the world was absurd,” Dylan said later.
On a sunny Friday morning on 29 July, 1966, Dylan fell from his 1964 Triumph T100, possibly near the home of his manager. He was driven an hour to the home of a doctor he knew, Ed Thaler. Thaler’s wife Selma said Dylan was “very upset” and said he didn’t want to go to hospital. They offered to take Dylan in.
He stayed with the Thalers for a month, visited only by friends, including Robbie Robertson who said Dylan got around in a neck brace. Selma Thaler said Dylan was sweet and quiet but she couldn’t recall him showing any visible signs
of injury.
Dylan’s upcoming tour and a TV special were cancelled. Although he recorded what would later become The Basement Tapes with Robertson’s group The Band a year after the crash, he didn’t tour again until 1974.
There was no police report of the incident and for 60 years journalists and Dylanologists have worked feverishly to uncover what actually happened… the sun got in his eyes, the bike slipped on oil, he was flung to the road, or the bike simply fell over while Dylan was sitting on it.
Rumours spread that he was gravely injured, disfigured or blind. Over the years Dylan has said he had fractured a vertebra and was also concussed.
Dylan, who once said he ran away to join the circus, and spoke in disjointed riddles and mumbled contradictions, was expected to reveal the full story in his long-awaited 2004 memoir Chronicles.
“I had been in a motorcycle accident and I’d been hurt, but I recovered,” he wrote. “Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race.”
Dylan later said his secluded recuperation marked the end of a busy and unsustainable period of his life, leading to an extended period of normality with his wife Sarah and young family.
Tired of playing to screaming fans, The Beatles played their last-ever concert exactly one month after Dylan’s crash.
And finally….
Congratulations to club member Terrance Moose McGowan on receiving his award for ‘Merbein Citizen of the year 2026’ for his commitment to arts education and his artistic contribution to the beautification of the Merbein township and the wider Sunraysia area.
You can read more about Moose and his artwork in our Spring 2025 newsletter Member profile.
That’s a wrap on our latest Bush Chatter. Don’t forget your Meander entry in what’s shaping up as a great event and location. Safe motorcycling.
Cheers Graeme
