About Us
CHACA Wagga Wagga
CHACA Wagga Wagga is a friendly club for Historic and Classic car enthusiasts that has been going since 1981.
A main focus of the club is running the annual Wagga Wagga Swap Meeting which started as an idea to find a few spare parts together with raising some money for charity. The Swap has now grown into one of the largest events on the calendar in Wagga Wagga.
We meet on the first Tuesday of each month (currently at the Rules Club) for general business and try to organise a run each month to some location of interest. We are fortunate to have a number of members with strong knowledge about older vehicles with many from various backgrounds and experiences.
The Club started following an unofficial meeting in the park which was attended by the CHACA Albury members with the inaugural meeting of the CHACA Wagga Wagga region being held in The Lake Albert Hall on the 24th August, 1981.
This meeting was attended by eleven members and within a period of 6 months there were 31.
The inaugural care-taker committee consisted of:
President - Ken Reeves
Secretary - Ben Hall
Treasurer - Norm Garth
Technical Officer - Trevor Garth
Events Director - Joel Clout
Publicity Officers/Editors - Keith Wheeler & Ruth Reeves
First Formal Meeting of CHACA Wagga
Attending:
Ken & Ruth Reeves - ‘33 Ford Coupé
Trevor & Wendy Garth - ‘38 Pontiac Sloper
Ben (OBE) & Bonnie Hall - ‘38 Austin 10
Norm & Marg Garth - ‘48 Buick
Joel & Dianne Clout - ‘49 Rover
Jim & Liz Owen - ‘40 Ford Sedan (being restored)
John Parmenter
6 kids
Special Events Rallies
CHACA Wagga held it’s first Easter Rally in 1989, this was such a great success that it was decided to hold a rally annually.
In 1992 the Bush Council meet was incorporated with our Easter Rally and this became a very big rally with over 250 entrants.
Our usual Rally attracts approximately 100 plus vehicles and is much easier to organise.
In 1993, it was decided to forego our rally in order to attend the Bush Council meeting in Orange, however, in 1995 our rally focused on commercial vehicles as well as our usual range of restored cars. This was very successful with many trucks, buses, fire engines and other commercial vehicles attending.
Special People
To show the Club’s appreciation, Honorary Memberships have been given to two special gentlemen who have helped our club above and beyond the call of duty.
Firstly to Neil Skeers, of the Wagga Show Society, who has every year been very helpful during rallies and swap meets. Neil is always willing to find equipment needed and is also great support. Neil was presented with a special plaque at a function during 1995.
The Second Honorary Membership was bestowed upon Alf Barklem, also known to one and all as Santa Claus, for his years of service at Christmas time and the great entertainment he provides to young and old. This was a very popular presentation at the adults Christmas party 1995.
Swap Meets
In July 1994, CHACA Wagga held it’s first swap meet at the Wagga Showgrounds. This was organised by Trevor Garth, Brian Horsley and John Rigby. It was a great success and crowd pleaser. It was sponsored by the Wagga Daily Advertiser and received terrific publicity.
The 1995 swap meet was just as good, if not better, and ensures that this will become an annual event and keep on growing.
CHACA - The Beginning
The Classic and Historic Automobile Club of Australia owes it’s inception to a group of people who were interested in the cars of the 1930’s and 40’s without requiring them to be expensive, of high performance or built in a particular country. This broad outlook has stood the test of time and continues to this day, enabling the member owning a small inexpensive car to enjoy membership as much as the owner of the most exotic vehicle built.
In 1965 the Vintage Driver’s Club of Victoria appointed Mr Jim Kerr to investigate the formation of a club covering the era following the vintage dating limitation of December 30th, 1930. Jim was able to contact enough interested people to arrange a series of meetings at his home where the decision was taken to advertise, in The Age newspaper, an exploratory meeting to be held in the Deepdene Park Hall. Of those involved in the prior meetings Jim Kerr, Dennis Walsh, Max Austin and Gordon Wightman agree to act as a steering committee to form a club.
The public meeting in the Deepdene Park Hall on May 6th, 1966, was attended by some 40 interested persons and confirmed support for the concept of a club catering for vehicles of the 1930’s and up to 1942 when it was generally conceded that the era under consideration had closed due to the Second World War. A number of people even expressed interest in cars of the late 40’s and the 1950’s. Excellent discussion took place regarding the proposed aims of the club and, of course, a name for the club.
Some 20 persons agreed to become members as soon as the fees were established and paperwork in place. A clear mandate was given to the steering committee to draft a constitution, by-laws, find a suitable name for the club and attend to the hundreds of little things that go to make a smooth running organisation. the meeting closed on a pleasant and enthusiastic note with the hat being passed around to raise some funds for the committee to meet expenses. This collection grossed the sum of $15.53 which strangely enough was never used, as membership fees soon rolled in at a satisfactory rate.
Following this successful first public meeting, further meetings were held to formulate club policy and operations. The steering committee positions were decided with Dennis Walsh taking up the position of Librarian/Historian; Jim Kerr, that of President; Max Austin as Secretary; and Gordon Wightman, acting as Treasurer/Editor.
At the next meeting on June 6th, there were 15 paid up members who agreed that the organising committee, with the addition of Arthur Blair as Technical Officer, carry on until 3rd November, 1966, the date set for the first Annual Meeting and election of officers. Consideration was given to a list of suggested names for the club, one prerequisite was that the name must contain the words “Of Australia”. After a deal of debate the “Classic and Historic Automobile Club of Australia” was selected as being the most appropriate and now the club had a name to build on.
The Club Badge
During 1966 many designs for the club badge were considered by committee. Finally a design drawn by Marie Alger was chosen. The particular design of the wheel was chosen, because most cars of the era used this type of wheel at some stage.
The first casting was presented at the April meeting and aroused much comment among members. Among the mant comments heard were, “hell it’s heavy, wonder what it’s scrap value is?”, or “I don’t think my car will drag that around”, or maybe, “Wonder where I’ll put it, the badge bar’s full now”. This prototype badge was presented to Marie in recognition of her design efforts.
The badge patter is made of aluminium and the badges are made of gunmetal. The badges are cast in sand. The production method and materials used make the badge quite unique among other car club badges.
There has only been on change during the thirty years and that was to change “1931 - 1942” to “Founded to 1966”.
Gallery - Notable Events
Presidents:
1982 - Ken Reeves
1983 - Keith Wheeler
1984 - Kieth Wheeler
1985 - Michael Butt
1986 - Michael Butt
1987 - Grant McRae
1988 - Brian Henry
1989 - Keith Wheeler
1990 - Keith Wheeler
1991 - Keith Wheeler
1992 - Brian Horsley
1993 - Jeff Nye
1994 - Dick Williams
1995 - Keith Wheeler
1996 - Brian Horsley
Club Person’s of the Year:
1985 - Brian Horsley
1986 - Peter Caitlin
1987 - Norm Garth
1988 - Peter & L yn Wright
1989 - Brian Horsley
1990 - Jeff Nye
1991 - Alan & Lorraine Thompson
1992 - Geoff Reeves
1993 - Bill Cox
1994 - Dick WIlliams
1995 - Grant McRae
Life Members
1990 - Ben Hall
1993 - Trevor Garth
2000 - Brian Horsley
2020 - Dick Williams
2020 - Shane Dobson