President’s Report - June 2026

President

1 June

Welcome to Winter, comes around quickly doesn’t it, however every season has something to enjoy, maybe a glass of red grape “juice” and an open fire. It’s certainly no excuse though not to drive your PMC, after all they come from England and are quite familiar with winter – and just think they shouldn’t overheat. (notice I said shouldn’t)

We enjoyed a great night at the club in May being suitably entertained by our national treasure Ralph Plarre OAM. Ralph’s tales of the generations of the Plarre bakers and his more recent adventures in Timor and Uganda had everyone mesmerised. We were also very appreciative of the three varieties of cupcakes (Red Velvet, Vanilla and Chocolate) all adorned with appropriate Rolls-Royce livery provided by Ralph. Thank you to Ralph for his presentation and to our members for attending.

So do you know someone in our club that also has an interesting hobby, career or talent, please let us know as we may be able to encourage them to be one or our guest speakers. Our June guest speaker is one such man Mr Anil Bhatia – Anil is the founding Managing Director of Austral Asian Maritime and will speak on his seafaring adventures, so do come along and be suitably entertained and informed.

Its time to announce one of the feature events of our club year - our Regional Meeting on 28 and 29 August. This year we are headed to Mafra, home of the Gippsland Vehicle Collection. The popular museum has been the home to many a display and to their credit every quarter it changes to include a chosen theme (movies, 60s 70s etc) Our weekend will start with a run commencing on the Friday stopping at some points of interest on the way down. On Saturday, our meeting will be held at the Maffra Club with our guest speaker from the Gippsland Vehicle collection talking on the collection, and particularly their new $1M roof project. After the meeting and lunch members are free to look at the collection and enjoy some free time before a casual dinner on the Saturday evening. Further details to follow by email.

The 2027 Federal Rally hosted by Victoria Branch will be in Hobart Tasmania. As noted in the May meeting by our Rally Director Tony Wood, information has been released and can be found here:

https://www.rrocavictoria.org.au/s/FederalRally-2027.pdf

This will be a very popular rally and I would encourage you to book early, in particularly for the Spirit of Tasmania sailings and Wrest Point Accommodation.

I would also like you to lock in two dates towards the latter part of 2026: