Corowa 2003 www.remlr.com

The Corowa event was well organised and well attended: in sheer numbers it has got to be the single biggest ex-military vehicle event in Australia. One reason for its long term success is that is fairly central location for ex-mil enthusiasts who live in South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory. Unfortunately it is a very long road to travel from Queensland and Western Australia...

The Corowa Swim-in set an official Guiness Book WR for "the greatest number of privately owned GPAs ever assembled since WWII". In 2002 the same thing was done for the WWII Blitz trucks and on the programme of Corowa 2003 was an attempt to set a world record for the number of WWII Studebaker trucks. Hmmm, wouldn't it be good to gather as many ex-mil Land-Rovers as we possibly could in one place... one of these days?

REMLR at Corowa 2003

Some NSW, Vic, and SA REMLR members convoyed to Corowa in 2003 to meet up and celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Series 2A Land-Rover entering service in the Australian Army (March 1963 -- March 2003). The REMLR commemorative sticker was designed and set up by Dennis M. (thanks for a terrific result) in yellow and green colors. They will become a collectors item.

The REMLR secretary was unable to attend when the event came around and is relying on video and photo evidence when he says that everyone had a great time...

On the Thursday, Dennis M., Graeme D. and Warwick L. (from NSW) drove down to Bandiana RACT museum, arriving about 2pm. There they met Hugh T. (from Vic) and 20 or so other ex-military vehicle enthusiasts. They all departed about 4pm when the attraction closed and travelled to the Corowa area, some into motels and some into the camping grounds. Dinner was had at the pub and it was 'good'.

On the Friday, Dennis M. detailed Chloe and drove around looking at the sights. Meanwhile back up the highway, on the way to Corowa, Mike S. had a bit of bad luck with a water pump in his Landy and had to return home. The town was dotted with olived drab military trucks, fourwheel drives, motorbikes, armour, amphibs, etc. There was eye-openers everywhere. Later other REMLR members arrived; Dave T. from Sydney, in his Series 2A Landy... and Peter L. from Mittagong, in his Series 3 ½ ton Landy... and Phil H. from Sydney, in his Series 3 ½ ton Landy. Richard L. lodged a last minute apology since he had to go to a wedding. Ross C. had put in a apology as well. In Corowa, everyone went out for dinner that evening at the pub (with about 60 other people) and had another 'good' time.

On the Saturday, after a 9am start, and under a sunny blue sky, fifty or more ex-mil vehicles convoyed out to the Rutherglen Vineyards. There were the Studebaker 6x6 trucks as the star attractions and everyone else. Graeme D. drove Chloe with Dave T. as a passenger in the convoy and Dennis M. put the 'camera-car' Landy to good use putting the sights on video tape. REMLR members in the convoy were:

Dennis M. - Graeme D. (REMLR NSW): Chloe, Series 2A 88" GS.
Mike K. (REMLR Vic): Series 2A 109" GS.
John B. (REMLR Vic): Series 2A 88" MP.
Hugh D. (SA): Series 2A 109" Workshop.
Peter L. (REMLR NSW): Series 3 Lightweight 88".
Phil H. (REMLR NSW): Series 3 Lightweight 88".
Other Landies including Series 3 and Series 1 models.

After the picnic at Rutherglen, the convoy returned to Corowa and drove around the main streets. The Police directed the traffic in 'One Way' fashion over the bridge etc. After that 21 Studebaker 6x6 trucks drove out to the airstrip to establish the record. On their return to the camping grounds the Corowa Swap Meet got going. Dennis and other REMLR members were kept busy answering questions from enthusiasts. Chloe in particular had her picture taken lots and lots of times with Graeme in the driver's seat wishing he had $10 for everyone who asked him if it was alright to take a picture. A certain Hugh D. spent a lot of money and loaded his purchases onto semi-trailers for the journey back to SA.

On Saturday night the dinner and auction event went off very well and on the Sunday morning people started packing up their camping gear and handing in their motel keys. Dennis M. and Dianne went to the All Saints winery accompanied by a GMC 6x6 DUKW ('Duck'). When they returned in the afternoon, Corowa was all but empty of military vehicles and Corowa was returning to normal. Taking the hint, Dennis M. & Co did likewise, having an uneventful trip home.

The following report was written up by Dennis M. and Dianne and has much more detail....

It's always the same ain't it, you wait a long time for an event to come along and before you know it it's over, it passes like a blur, so here are my recollections of our trip to Corowa and it wasn't our first attempt either as we tried to get there for the previous 2 years but due to a confusion with dates etc we didn't arrive until 2003.

The planning for the event started for me quite some time ago, Ross and I spent many hours on the phone and sending emails with all sorts of suggestions about who what and where it ought to be!! I designed a commemorative sticker one night at work during my tea break, it was a line drawing of Chloe from memory, and if I say so it looked pretty good then it was outlined against a map of Oz showing Corowa, then came the difficult bit of how best to word the 40th Anniversary of the Series 2A going into Military service in 1963. Anyhow that got sorted and it was then off to the computer sign/design people to print it out then I emailed it to Ross C. to put it up on the website so as to gauge how many of these stickers we were going to get printed. Eventually we settled on 20 and those who ordered them either picked them up in Corowa or had them mailed out.

Chloe was made ready for the long tow behind my 110 County diesel (3.9 Isuzu). We used an A-frame attached to extra long grade 8 shackle bolts at the front. This was trialled on Wee-Wullie some weeks before to see if there was going to be any problems and the trial was a success. Next I made a light board (aluminium 3mm thick) and attached this to the toggles for the tailgate and secured at the base with a hockey strap around the pintle hook (this board had stop lights x2, side lights x 2, and of course turn signals, it was painted white with red reflective tape around the border and had painted in red Caution Vehicle Under Tow, these letters were 75mm tall and 15mm wide, this was connected to the trailer socket in my 110 by a 9 metre cable, which went up through the vent on the LHS) - and that reminds me - I haven't put the vent mesh cover back insitu yet.

I always err on the side of caution and I made a bracket to attach a Amber rotating light into the tac plate holder on the RHS side of Chloe, this was attached to a 11 metre cable which I plugged into the fridge socket in the back of the 110 and I could turn it on/off at will by a switch on the dash. It was used quite a bit during the drive down and back to warn faster drivers of the possible hazard posed by a slower travelling vehicle.

Early in the week of the Corowa event Chloe was positioned in the driveway her front prop/shaft was removed and put away in the shed (after all we weren't going 4WD), the rear prop shaft was taken off the differential and secured up out of harms way with a small length of chain, all oil levels checked and the battery disconnected.

The time had come to head off. The honourable member for Morpeth, Mr Graeme D. (Esq.) had the pleasure of travelling in Chloe all by himself. He was a bit daunted by this at first but we had comms (UHF h/held for Graeme) and we chatted at various times during the long haul. We left Cessnock at 0004hrs Thursday 14/3/03 it was raining lightly and continued to do so until we passed into Sydney, it took us less than 20 mins to get from the end of the 'F3' freeway to the start of the 'F5' freeway, not bad going I thought at the time. It was around 0455hrs that I realised that if I continued to drive that we risked a crash so I pulled into one the V.C remembrance rest stops just short of Goulburn on the Hume Highway, it was freezing and I was dressed in shorts and sandals... I managed to sleep for approx 1hr and 20mins didn't hear the two semi's that stopped next to us and left their engines idling over -- I must have been tired.

We headed off down the road after a hot cuppa and about an hour we were passed by Warwick & Carol L. enroute to Corowa also. They had left on Wednesday and stayed in Yass overnight. We continued on until we arrived in Albury at approx 1340hrs where we disconnected Chloe from the 110. With all the gizmos stowed into the back of the 110, Dianne went off to Corowa to the motel on her own and Graeme and I headed off to the museum at Bandiana (always worth a visit if you are the area). While there we saw lots of people that we hadn't met yet... by that I mean the real organisers of the Corowa event. They were having a personal tour of the museum by the curator. We wandered about trying to get as much in as is possible in the 1 ½ hours before the doors closed at 1600hrs.

We got back into Chloe for the drive out to Corowa and after having some time to stretch the legs we finally arrived there at about 1800hrs - and boy was I stuffed. We had a quick shower and then went out to "The Pub" one of the better eating houses in Corowa. We enjoyed tea and a few brown ales, and after tea we went to the caravan park: WOW! it was like being on the set of M.A.S.H. with all the Studebakers, GMC DUKW's, Jeeps, Dodges, Blitz's, Chevrolet's, Ferret's, and of course Land-Rovers, and one Haflinger.

Friday was great. After detailing Chloe (de-rigging after the trip down), we set off with plenty of time to drive around Corowa. It was great. The local people waved at us, and it is a very friendly town -wide streets and shady verandahs...

Driving around in Chloe was hot after a while. We checked out the parade route for Saturday and then just generally kicked back and enjoyed the company of like minded people. Later on Friday afternoon the other REMLR members turned up minus Freddo, a Series 2A GS 88" (it's 110 Defender 'escort' did a water pump so it headed home - very disappointing for those concerned). Another no-show was Ross C., who after all the planning couldn't make it. Well, s**t happens so they say. To those who missed out... there's always next year!

Saturday dawned bright and clear we were ready to go but Chloe didn't want to start, Graeme cranked her over but she refused to start until he turned on the ignition - then Vrooom!! (Well, she ticked over roughly until she cleared herself of the flooded cylinders). We headed off to the assembly point to join up with the other REMLR members, Dave and Tracy T., Pete and Tracey L., Phillip H. (and son), Mike K., John B., AND some REMLR related enthusiasts from South Australia in a Ferret (rescued from Kangaroo Island all they did to get it going was remove the grass from around the engine bay check the oil levels fuel into the tank and it went believe it or not and it went well in the parade too).

About 65 trucks and military vehicles lined up for the parade. The local police stopped the traffic and they were off to Rutherglen in convoy. I walked back up into town to take up my position to video the parade as it went up and down the main drag.

After the grand parade we were treated to a swap meet I spied some things and thought I will come back for them... but they were gone! Should have bought them!!!

Saturday night was a organised event with a two course meal and an auction, lots of interesting characters and yarns and Jan Thompson's fiancée was indoctrinated into the fold (poor bastard) they pulled him to bits (the guardians did anyway). You really had to be there to experience it.

Sunday was a much quieter day with some of the people heading home, we filled our day in with a trip to the local dump but there wasn't much there, in the late evening we prepared Chloe for the long drag home, we left at 0700hrs and arrived home in Cessnock at approx 1740hrs, Graeme sat in Chloe by himself both ways... he says he would do it again but would prefer some company.

Well, to sum up, we were all much richer for the experience and my thanks goes out to the organisers of the event for a job well done, and if you haven't been save up your money it's worth the effort to get there... and you find out that it is really a small world; we were only there in the caravan park for a matter of minutes and met a bloke who knows Ho Chi Hicks. You can't go anywhere can you!!!!