Hi all! We have been so busy this month, especially with Clean Up Fraser Island so thank you to all the members and visitors that attended. The wind was strong, so with limited protection we set up low! We all enjoyed ourselves immensely and represented the club in a professional manner. It was great to see some of the kids of the club out and about having fun in our family friendly environment.    The meetings about the ICT have been progressing well and the management committee are getting ready to set up a Memorandum of Understanding with the provider. Deb and I attended the Four Wheel Drive QLD Rep meeting on the special resolution on fees. We have spoken to the committee and relayed the clubs thoughts about them cutting costs and the resolution votes will now happen on the 7/6/17 at the 4WD QLD, hall.
 The ARB open day was great and I'd like to thank all that attended this day to promote MDORC on a membership drive and building a relationship with ARB. The feedback has been very positive with lots of potential new members contacting to club.  I'd also like to say thank you for your concern about my health after the jack fell over and dropped the cruiser on my arm. I was pined by my arm and this was very scary. I did have a wheel under the car but I could have done more to be safer. A lesson learned the hard way. Thank you Ben Clark for your help the next day to get the cruiser up and fixed for the Fraser Island Clean Up Trip 
 Please stay safe and tread lightly! Tiny Grimstone President, Moreton Districts Off Road Club

​Arb grand opening MDORC were invited to cook the sausage sizzle at ARB North Lakes grand opening. We thought that this would be a great day to promote the club to like minded people. At first I was concerned that we would not have enough members to assist due to the Fraser Island Clean Up (FICU) that same weekend. We had a great turn out of members; it looked like anyone that was not at FICU turned up at sometime during the day. It was great to see them all supporting the club.
 ARB supplied everything that we needed for the day; all we had to do was cook. There were plenty of people all day coming to checkout the new store and try out the snags. We took the opportunity to ask customers if they were interested in joining a 4x4 club. Quite a few mentioned they were new to the area and were in fact interested in joining a club. So we hope that they come to a meeting/ trip and decide to join. Surprisingly we ran out of the sausages provided (20kg) and ARB dispatched someone to quickly go and purchase some more (10kg).  We also took the time to do a bit of networking with other displayers there. It is hoped that we can do something for the club from these connections. More to follow.
 So overall it was a good day well supported by members and some money made for the club. If nothing else it was a great chance to get the clubs name out there and for the public to speak with members.
 Thanks to all those that turned up to support us.
 
Cheers Eddie

​Well, what can we say, what a fantastic weekend!!! 4am meet up at BP Burpengary followed by a drive to Rainbow Beach, where tyres were deflated and breakfast was eaten. Kerry did some pole dancing and showed us all his amazing skills. It was our first trip to the beach and to Fraser Island and it didn’t let us down at all,  The beauty of the island is amazing. Friday consisted of picking the campsite and setting up. Saturday, we were early and ready to leave by 7:30am. Ross, Ebony, Terry, Lyle, Helen, Steve, Tanya, Mossy, Andrew, Bill, Kadia, Leighanne, Tiny, Ben, Laura, Kerry, Gail, Craig, Cooper, Trent, Josh, Brandan and Teena were all in the convoy consisting of 11 cars what an amazing turn out. We visited Indian Head and out to Champagne Pools, the water was low but what a view. Thoroughly enjoyed the company and appreciated all the advice and help over the weekend. We travelled to Platypus Bay for lunch, swim and a play in the sand. Everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather and the atmosphere of the place. We travelled to Waddy Point where we saw a beautiful dingo on the beach.  Sunday was clean-up day, cleaning from the Pinnacles down to the next campsite. Nothing to exciting was found by our group, apart from Kerry who scored $10. Lunch was hosted by the owners of the units and had a fantastic turnout, however the wind and rain drove people away early. So back to camp for us to enjoy some nibbles and jokes by Josh. Dinner was hosted by the Fraser Island Clean-up committee and the rain kept us all inside. We claimed our table and kept ourselves entertained. Laura and Ben received a chair for being the trip leaders for MDORC. Kerry won two prizes in the raffles with his lucky $10 and Laura won a prize as well.  Great night overall. Monday morning after a night of rain we began our trip home. We stopped at Eli Creek to test the water which was freezing btw. We were lucky enough to see a couple more dingoes on the way. We stopped at Eurong for lunch before finally heading to the barge for the trip home. We found the trip fantastic despite the weather and thoroughly enjoyed the company and appreciated all the advice and help over the weekend.

We haven’t been home much lately being  very busy with trips, family, and juggling work and club life.We have spent Easter in Bundaberg at Branch Creek, a wedding in Hervey Bay, the Wild Wild West trip, a broken Jeep (now fixed), Fraser Island Clean up, club meeting and committee meeting, four-wheel-drive Association meeting and MDORC management committee meeting barely having a weekend to spare.
 Congratulations to Deb and Ray for their first trip leading event. A great weekend was had at Branch Creek over Easter with the Rum City Off Roaders. A lot of thought and effort when into coordinating this trip, trying to go north and not using the Bruce Highway then returning south west down through the Burnett Highway with a lot less traffic.
 The management committee have been working on information from four-wheel-drive Queensland on a resolution vote for there  fee increase.
  Would like to welcome ARB Northlakes as our new sponsor to MDORC. If you can help with the BBQ and membership drive on 6th of May please contact Eddie Carleton. Your participation in this event will help to build a good lasting relationship with ARB.
 Our thoughts are with Peter Armstrong and Stacey Hodder as they are both going through a bit of forced bed rest. Hope you are both back on your feet soon.
 Please stay safe and tread lightly  
 
Tiny Grimstone: President, Moreton Districts Off Road Club

Day 1: Nobby-Nindigully (370km) We started the day at Nobby with everyone apart from myself already there; taking advantage of the free camping at “Rudds Pub” the night before. Everyone was ready early in the morning as we headed straight for Goondiwindi. We stopped and had lunch by the Macintyre River where we were on top of the 11 meter flood levy. This was our last chance to get supplies and fuel. We all set off with a full stomach and a full tank of fuel. The group of 8 cars all headed for the Nindigully Pub. We all arrived there safe only to find out that we were a day late as they were serving “Free Beer Yesterday”. We all picked our spot, set up camp and were awaiting our dinner at the “oldest continually licensed pub in Queensland”. We went inside the lovely old pub, had a drink and then they bought out our “Big Mack Burger”; a 1 meter long burger with the bun shaped into a MACK Truck. IT WAS HUGE. The most astonishing aspect about this pub is that it is in the middle of no-where, and it was packed. 
Day 2: Nindigully-Yuleba (240km) We left Nindigully, heading straight for St George. We had a look at the winery , where they make the very humorously named “St Georges F***ing good port”. Most people bought a bottle because of the name. Once we were stocked up on Port, we made the drive north to the little town of Surat. This is a lovely town with some Cobb and Co History. They had an informative museum there with artefact from the Cobb and Co Days. We refuelled our stomachs and started the drive towards Yuleba; along the old Cobb and Co Track, taking out the need to visit Roma. The track was interesting with little information boards at every “Change Station” along the track. The track was also situated along the “Boo region”, where some very lovely “Bees” may be seen. ;-). We arrived at Yuleba and set up camp on the open lawn. We had a pub dinner as usual. 
 Day 3: Yuleba-Oakey (260km)  Everyone was up early and rearing to go as we had the awful task of driving back home. We were about to start when we noticed that our DA officer had a slow leak in his tyre. This involved a demonstration on how to “Safely” jack a car up, change a tyre and change a broken valve stem on a tyre. We still managed to leave on time as we headed east to Oakey stopping off at Miles for fuel and coffee. We arrived at Oakey at midday, had some lunch in the park, and parted out ways.  This was a brilliant trip with a great group of people. It was great to have a taste of the touring life; to set up in the afternoon and get going in the morning. What was amazing was that the middle of the days were 25 degrees, then at night, it froze to single digits. This trip has only ignited the passion to travel more of the land. Thank you Simon and Emily for the great trip and running commentary (when we could keep up and be in radio range).  
​Nick Beresford

Left twin BP right on time considering Debbie is always late. Headed off from there with 4 cars in convoy Ray and Debbie our trip leaders, Oswald and Hannah, Mick and Leigh and Nick who was tail end Charlie. Traffic was flowing nicely until we hit Cooroy. Took 21 minutes to travel 10kms once past road works we were back on track to Gympie. Took the left turn to Killivan, then right turn to Woolooga where we stopped for a pit stop and to stretch the legs. Took the Biggeden turn off and made our way to Mt Walsh where we stopped for morning tea. Arrived in Bundaberg at 1pm topped the fuel tanks up and made our way to meet up with Luke who is the president of the Rum City Off Roaders. Arrived at our destination at Branch Creek at 2.45pm. Set up camp decided to give the night run a miss as we were all too tired to go. Next morning we went for a 3 hour drive and tested out some of the tracks on the property. At lunch time we headed into town to go to the distillery tour. It was a quite pleasant experience and a very interesting informative tour. At the end of the tour we got to taste some of the rum flavours and liqueurs which some of us decided to buy and take home. We all arrived back at camp just before sunset to make our dinners and have a few drinks around the communal fire pit. Sunday morning arrived and the Easter bunny had been to spoil the kids. Nicholas left in the morning to beat the dreadful traffic and a few more members of the Rum City Off Roaders joined us for another morning of track adventures. So at 10am we had 14 cars in convoy for the morning run which we decided to split the group up so we could cover more tracks on the property. Some tracks got our adrenalin pumping as we had to watch out for big ruts from where all the rain they had a couple of weeks ago had washed the tracks away. Did some interesting creek crossings, wheel placement activities and hill climbs then headed back to camp for lunch and bit of a siesta. Then at 2.30pm we headed out back on the tracks to do some more 4wding. The boys all pitched in to clear all the trees on track which we were driving on which was a great team effort !!! One of the tracks lead us to a beautiful waterfall then it was time to watch Luke and Vic climb Hilux hill which I think was only for the extremists. When I get my lockers I think I will come back and try it myself. Luke managed to put the pedal to the metal, while Vic just did the slow and steady method. They both got up successfully without any damage and managed to move just a few loose rocks in the process. So we made it back to camp just before sunset. Another few drinks around the campfire after dinner and showers we were all pretty tired after the day we had so it was an early night for most of us. Monday morning pack up which we all dread Hannah and Oswald left camp first as they were meeting friends at Maroochydore . 
So the convoy were down to two cars we packed up and left camp around 10am. Not bad considering we were aiming for 9am departure. We then headed out the back west way to avoid any traffic on the Bruce Highway going through Gin Gin, Mt Perry, Goomeri, Nanango, Yarraman, Blackbutt, Moore, Kilcoy, Woodford, Mt Mee, Dayboro and Petrie. A big thank you to our trip leaders Deb and Ray for keeping us in line, upright and safe for the whole trip. Also a big thank you to our sister club Rum City for all their hard work they put in to make us feel right at home. I highly recommend all members to try and keep your Easter weekend free next year and join the trip with the Rum City Off Roaders as they are such a friendly family orientated club who always makes us feel welcome every year. Their hospitality is second to none and the property is full of 4wd tracks to explore. In total we travelled 1071kms over the Easter weekend and I certainly look forward coming back next year, in the jeep !!!

Welcome to the april 2017 Mag.
Hi all, what a month! To all who attended Clean Up Glass House you did an absolutely tremendous job and to the visitors from DDU and Rum City Off-Roaders, thank you for your participation in joining our club in cleaning up the area that we all use. Our club has received letters of appreciation from the Moreton Shire Council, Sunshine Coast Council and HQ Plantations. The Mount Mee night run had a 17 car turn out! Photograph of the night goes to Eddie with the stunning photo of the Somerset Lookout (wink wink). Thank you Gary and Nicole, you put on that great trip and everybody thoroughly enjoyed the night. HEMA Q&A was a great success! A bunch of enthusiastic members and visitors turned up for a 101 on the HEMA Map system. A big thank you goes out to Graham for putting on a brilliant presentation and answering all the   questions that were put to him on the day. We would like to thank him and HEMA for finding the time to come out and answer our questions first hand. Thank you to Simon and Emily at La Zucca for their hospitality and allowing us into their space for the day.
 Registration for the Fraser Island Clean Up is due. If you are attending this trip please contact the trip leaders, Ben and Laura, to complete your registration.   Please stay safe and tread lightly!
 
Tiny Grimstone: President, Moreton Districts Off Road Club

Hema presentation and Q&A 18 Mar 2017 The Gala day was cancelled due to some sponsors unable to attend. However Hema were still keen to do something with the club so as that great song says “never let a chance go by”. It was decided to continue with the Hema presentation. Simon and Emily kindly opened their restaurant early for this to occur (a BIG THANKYOU to them both). So after a quick text message to the members to see who were interested in attending at the new venue. The replies came back thick and fast so within 30 minutes we had 22 people saying that they would come. This blew me away as when I first raised it at a club meeting there was only six members showing interest.
 
So Saturday rolled around and by now we had more showing interest. All up we had around 25 members attend. Simon and Emily had the coffee machine going flat out for a while. The members that attended came for various reasons: They own a HN7 (older device); They own a HX1 (new device) The club owns one as well; They had the app download onto a tablet; Or they were thinking of getting a device.
 
Graeme from HEMA spent the first session on the HN7 showing us how to plot routes, save and recall tracks and logs. We stopped for morning tea and for those that needed a top up of caffeine a coffee. The second session spoke about the new HX1 and the apps.  It was discovered that they are very similar in operation. But each has different benefits. Once again it was mainly about how to plot routes, save and recall tracks and logs.
 
I had some members mention to me that they learnt more in those couple of hours than they have the years they owned the device/ app. This was so true for me as well. I am now reasonably more confident in using the device for what it was intended.
 
There were lots of good questions and discussion throughout the presentation which allowed us to learn even more.
 
For those that attended I am sure that they went away with a better understanding of how to use a Hema product, I know I did. I understand that the club is trying to establish a way on how we can store the trips/ tracks/ routes that members have or do in the future so that they can be shared by all in the club.
 
So in closing thanks again for Simon and Emily without their support we would have had to quickly find a suitable venue. Thanks to all of the members that attended, Graeme was pleased and surprised to see so many there, it made the club look good.
 
See you out on tracks putting what we learnt into practice (if we haven’t forgotten it by then).
 
Cheers
 
Eddie

Click here to Trip report for Mt Mee night run on 11th February We grouped at Dayboro at 5:00pm, signed in and listened to our fabulous trip leader read the riot act and make sure all was good.  Tasks were assigned, Oswald was Sergeant of Arms, Ken  was our Tail End Charlie for the trip, Ray was appointed the honour of writing up the trip report (we all know who did it but don’t we), and Andrew Spencer assigned photographer for the evening.  We reached the air down point, and after everyone had let their tyres down ready for the drive we left at approximately 5:35 and headed off road. This trip is essentially timed to be held around this time of the year when there is a full moon.  This is so we can keep an eye out for the yowies and drop bears and once again they both eluded our convoy as we traversed the tracks through Mt Mee. There were 14 cars in all and we were joined later by our “Care Bear” Russell, the only bear we heard from or saw on the trip.  This took our number to 15. We reached “A Break” at 5:55 and it was still daylight.  Everybody had climbed “A Break” by 6:15 ready to continue onwards and upwards.  Next was a steep incline again travelling one at a time until we were all up the top.  Then we heard the call from “Care Bear” Russell to say he was looking for the convoy at 6:20.  At 6:30 our ever vigilant President Tiny asked trip leader Gary if he could pear off to find “Care Bear” Russell, which he did and by 6:45 both cars fell into place in the convoy. The hills were really great driving in the dark and it was really lovely to see the trees and canopy lit up with all the lights of the convoy.  We were all enjoying a lovely yet uneventful drive until …..  ooops spoke too soon, at 7.00pm as we rounded a sharp right turn to travel up a steep hill our ever faithful Patrol became lodged on a boulder protruding upwards on the edge of a large hole.   Ray had come to a halt with the rear diff sitting atop the boulder and the passenger rear wheel about 2 inches off the ground, which is why we were not able to move.  With lights from the car behind we found a few smaller rocks and placed them under the elevated rear wheel and Ray reversed back without any issues then chose a different line and this time his front drivers side wheel went up off the track as he navigated through the uneven terrain.  After that we were back on the tracks again.  This earnt Ray the title of Rocky. We wound our way through the tracks toward the lookout where we pulled up to have something to eat and stretch our legs at 7:30.  After all tummies were satisfied we pulled out and set off again at 8:00pm.  It was amazing from our position to see the lights of the convoy ahead of us as they wound there way though the bends up and down hills.  The trees and canopy were beautiful.  We were 4th car from Tail End Charlie Ken and had a great view of the cars in front of us.  It was a lovely night meandering through the tracks feeling like you were in a washing machine at times but it was worth it and is all part of the fun of off-roading.  Some passengers feel so good with the rocking motion of the cars on the tracks they somehow manage to fall asleep.   At around 9:15 “Care Bear” Russell found a nice little bog hole and lodged his wheels in the mud.  With Ben’s expert advice and information he managed to get himself out using a technique utilising his hand break in reverse.  Something I would like to learn more about.  After Russell went through everybody else behind went through uneventfully as we learnt from Russell’s little stop where not to go. We pulled into the Gantry at 9:30 and aired up, chatted for a while and left at 10:10.  Some people had already left as soon as they had aired up.  Some of us travelled to Hungry Jacks Kallangur where a last little nibble was enjoyed before dispersing to our homes after what was another great night run thank you Gary.
​Debbie Sullivan

With 12 days to organise such an event was a big ask,  but we got there in the end and it resulted in a great day for all those who attended.  A great effort was made by all, which led to the filling of a 30m3 hook bin and amongst the debris, we could possibly have rebuilt someone's 4WD with the amount of parts and panels found.   After feeding all the troops, some went for a play and others went home as I made a dash to empty the last 8x5 trailer of recyclables and tyres to the Tip   I would to thank DDU for there efforts, a shout out to the boys from Rum City for making the trip.   Thank you to HQ Plantations, Moreton Bay Regional Council and Sunshine Coast Council for there support. Looking forward to next year!