Membership Drive

Sunshine Coast hinterland

 

March 25, 2001

 

After being advertised as a membership drive in the Courier Mail Car 2001 magazine, and with flyers placed at Subaru dealers and at our magazine advertisers, we were expecting a large turnout. The final number was 23 vehicles, too many to list individually. There were 3 Outbacks and 5 Foresters, including Jody Reid’s fully set up Suba Xtreme GT with air bag approved front alloy bull bar, moulded sump guard, polished alloy rear bar with tyre carrier, lift kit and big BFG All Terrain tyres. Auto John and Val Schliff made the long trip down from Maryborough in the turbo Brumby, as did Keith Peters with John Petersen aboard in Keith’s Outback. New member Shane Taylor brought along his rare 4WD converted MY sedan, whilst past president Leo Boonstoppel had his new fully set up 80 series LandCruiser wagon complete with front and rear diff locks, raised suspension and big tyres.

The club’s hand held CB radios were fitted to Peter Algate’s Brumby and Phil Woods’ Forester, and then after a brief drivers’ meeting we set off for the hills in hot, sunny conditions. Arnold and Pat Schoemaker in their Toyota Dyna 4WD were Tail-end Charlie. We soon left the bitumen and were climbing the range on a back track near Mt Mee.  The track was in good order as it had been recently graded. A few people enjoyed getting their clean cars dirty, driving through shallow puddles lying across the track. The big convoy was travelling well with everyone doing the right thing.

Now we were back on the bitumen travelling through Mt Mee, down the range to D’Aguilar and then onto the centre of Woodford for our morning tea stop. Because of our large group Peter Kallenbach kindly offered to travel via the most direct route to Maleny to check on room for our planned lunch stop at Mary Cairncross Park. It is a popular spot and usually very busy on Sundays. The break gave people a chance to catch up with everybody and to meet the newcomers. John and Jody attracted a lot of interest because they were testing their new alloy folding table that takes the place of the spare wheel cover in Foresters and Outbacks. The stop also provided Shane with some time to pay some attention to his MY 4WD sedan as the top radiator hose was leaking.

We were soon underway again, travelling on twisty narrow bitumen climbing the range again via Bellthorpe and then on to Maleny. Peter gave us the all clear on the CB to continue on to the park for lunch. This section of the range is very scenic with great views of the Glasshouse Mountains, the coast and out to Moreton Island. We all managed to find a parking spot and then enjoyed a leisurely lunch whilst taking in more great hinterland views.

After lunch, Graeme and Julie Laws had things to do at home, so they turned their Brumby out of the convoy at Maleny, whilst the rest of the convoy continued through Maleny and down the range on route to Conondale . There we turned left and then started climbing via another dirt back track which was also in good condition. At the top we had a quick regroup, where one of the visitors in an Outback, who lives in Maleny, turned for home. We had another quick stop in Peachester. Soon after, we turned right near Beerwah and said our goodbyes over the CB to Keith, John, Auto John and Val who needed to head north for home in Maryborough.

This last section of the trip was a mixture of more narrow bitumen and dirt that lead us through the Glasshouse Mountains and past all the pineapple farms and on towards Caboolture. We all stopped at a park on the outskirts of Caboolture, which became the finishing point of our trip.

It certainly was a successful day, with some of the invited visitors signing up on the spot.

Some of the keener members continued on to do more back track work near Narangba, where Leo was able to test his big Cruiser by easily climbing a steep, rutted hill. It was too rough for the Subi’s, but Jody had a few attempts anyway whilst Kathy captured a few of Jody’s Xtreme moments on celluloid. Jody then demonstrated the clearance, front approach angle and rear departure angle of the lifted Forester GT.

We will plan another similar trip later in the year to the Kilcoy, Blackbutt and Esk areas.

Finally, a big thank you to everybody who came along and especially to Simone Martin who designed the smart info flyers, Greg and Kathy Bryant for the typing and everyone else who helped on the trip.

David Martin SC180