After a morning running around (mostly setting up the banking for the new committee), Ivan went over to Simon’s to help with the evenings firewood – it need splitting and loading and although Simon has a log splitter, both he and Ivan have bum shoulders! Fortunately Richard came to the rescue and did most of the splitting. Good thing too as it was needed later for a fantastic gastronomic delight.

Eventually we set off about 1ish, stopping for lunch at BP Caboolture to wait for Ivan’s mate Dean and his young son Jackson, and arriving at the Glass House Mountains Campground around 2.30. Tiny and Gary (and possibly Richard) were way ahead of us and Tiny was busy setting everything up – Gazebo, BBQ, tables etc.

While we were setting up camp, Simon and the girls, Emily and Jasmine, turned up. While sitting with a well earned cup of coffee and a biccie, Dean’s wife, Caroline arrived (good timing Caz!) – she turned down the cup of coffee because she’d had a frantic morning and went straight to the hard stuff – well some fizzy plonk anyway. Then came Leighanne and Evan came as someone’s passenger as Aleisha had borrowed the Cruiser for child ferrying duties.

As the wine was going down well at this point (Caz had insisted that I join her) I’m a bit hazy on the details (No Helen, I wasn’t drunk, maybe just a little merry!) I do remember Helen turning up along with daughter Teigan and a German student (so sorry I’ve forgotten her name) and a car full of goodies. Unfortunately, David wasn’t feeling well and so didn’t come along and thus Helen decided not to stay the night). Anyway, people continued to arrive throughout the evening, including the Brian, Buckley and Gill families. If I’ve missed anyone, sorry, blame the wine.

Helen furnished us with bowls of strawberries and her nuts and bolts concoction to start us off, while she put a damper on the fire to cook, then out came platters of cheese, olives, dips and fruit. We barely had to get to our feet as she insisted on bringing the platters around to us (she did get a little help from Simon). When the damper was cook (beautifully I might add) she cut the top off and put a whole triple cream brie inside and put the top back on – I don’t know how long she left it to melt but when she served it up, it was divine – soooooo good (that’s why we needed the firewood, just for that moment). Thank you very much Helen.

After yet more drinking and chatting it was decided to get some snags on for the kids, which morphed into the whole bbq getting going. The tables had been set up under the gazebo and were loaded with a selection of salads, beautiful rolls, a tray of cheese burgers and sausages etc, and was enjoyed by everyone, including the two dogs present.

In Peter’s absence, Ivan gave a speech thanking Peter as departing President for his work in the past year, and then he welcomed himself as the new incoming President! Thanks were also given to the old committee and outgoing members, followed by a welcome to the new committee, especially Evan as the new VP and Eamonn (in his absence) as the new Secretary – they were the only new members to join the committee.

One more duty for Ivan – presenting the club trophies, which were:
Helen and David Duncan – Trip Leaders 2013/14
Brent Brian – Trip Report 2013/14 (this was for Levuka back in February)
Eddie & Laurraine – Trip Photographers 2013/14
and finally, Clubbie of the Year went to the Grimstone Family.

We now moved on to pudding made by Tiny and Leighanne (not bought) – pavlova, chocolate cake and what was the third option? Damn that wine, I can’t remember – all with cream – lovely.

Eventually we got round to a bit of tossing, starting with the kids – I really can’t tell you all the details about who won what, but I think everyone was happy – well the kids were anyway. There was the usual hard tossing for the booze (and not just by the blokes either) even if Simon did clear the area a few times with his ‘gas attacks’ (ask someone who was there – this is a family mag). I know Richard got the Bundy and something else, possibly the Johnnie Walker, and Simon got the Vodka but not sure about the rest of it – who cares, it was fun and although we don’t aim to make a profit on this event, it’s nice to know we managed to raise the grand sum of $4.61

Hi, my name is Laycia and on the 30 August I came with my mum, dad and little sister as guests on a trip to Condamine Gorge. We had to meet everyone at 8.00 at Yamanto so I had to get up early but it was worth it.
On the drive out of Yamanto we saw heaps hay farms. I have seen them before but today there was a tractor out in one harvesting the Hay. 

At a creek crossing a Quail jumped in front of our car and tried to fly. Silly Quails you can’t fly you know - J. 
The countryside was beautiful. Sometimes we would see kangaroos and wallabies. 

We drove for a little longer and then we went through a little rainforest. After a bit we left the rainforest and we found out that we were on the edge of New South Wales and Queensland. That was super cool and then we got to see the Famous Rabbit Proof Fence. Construction of this fence was started in 1886 and at the moment is 555km long. It requires that the land be cleared by 5 metres on either side of the fence but I noticed that the forest grew right up to it in some places. Some of the fence has been modified to also keep wild dogs out and we did notice quite a few wild dog traps along the fence line. 

For morning tea we stopped at the Queen Mary Falls. It was so pretty and we stayed at the park for about an hour. There were 2 walks you could do. The first one was a nice easy walk along the top of the falls. We notice some pretty flowers and the view was so pretty. Some others from the group did the bottom walk where they went right into the gorge. I wish we had done that one instead but we can do that next time.

We did a quick stop at Dagg Falls and got a group shot in and then we headed down into the fun part. Along the road at intervals there was a rock formation called the Wall of China. We stopped at an isolated area near the track for lunch. It was beside the Condamine River. When we were all finished eating we played a game called Who Done It. It’s where you put on a piece of paper something you have done or happened to you on it. We all then have to guess who done it. For some reason nearly every statement that included jail, sky diving or cars they thought it was my dad, J.

When we finished the game we all went to have a look at a deserted shack on the hill on the other side of the track. While we were driving we had to count how many river crossings. I counted 12, I may have missed a 
few but Dad had so much fun driving through them. It was sad when we finished the last crossing and started to head back out of the valley because it was home time. I saw so many little shacks hidden away in the forest along the river. I would love to live in one of them. We also had a quad bike zoom past with a dog in a trailer on the back and just as we left the valley I saw a cow with a big question mark on its forehead.

Thank you so much for a wonderful day. We can’t wait to come to another event like this J
Written by Laycia with some help from her mum Krystal, dad Jay and little sister Savannah.

This is my first ever Presidents Report and I would like to start off by thanking the previous 
committee members for their efforts last year and to welcome in the new committee.
I would like to say thank you to the following retiring committee members:
Peter as President
Helen as Fund Raiser
Simon as Property Officer
Jason as Merchandising Officer
Now I would like to welcome the new and existing committee members.
Evan as Vice President and Membership Officer
Miranda as Treasurer
Eamon as Secretary
Genny as Magazine Editor
David as QLD 4WD and Care Representative
Michael (Tiny) as Property Officer
Leighanne as Merchandising Officer
Michael as Driver Awareness Officer
Aleisha as Publicity Officer
I would also like to thank all the committee members for their assistance in ensuring 
President’s Night went ahead successfully. A special thanks goes to Tiny and Leighanne for the 
BBQ and catering, Simon for supplying the firewood and agreeing to run the tossing, Richard 
for chopping all the wood up and Helen for supplying lots of nibbles.
I look forward to the club’s continuing success over the next 12 months and, finally, I would like 
to encourage members to attend the trip planning meeting on Friday 7 November at 7pm at the 
North Leagues and Services Club.
Ivan Proctor
president@mdorc.org.au

Trip Leader: Marcel Mascunan
Trip Photographer: Eddie Carleton
Trip Reporter: Miles Brennan

It’s the annual Brisbane EKKA festival, the second week in August, it excites the city and rewards us all with a public holiday on midweek Wednesday. For many it’s a chance to catch up with a sleep in and get some jobs done around the house, some people and families do actually take the time and go to EKKA on people’s day… Then there’s MDORC, up early and getting ready for another 4WD social outing; the plan, Duck Creek Road through the Lamington National Park.

It’s a 9:00am club meeting at Beaudesert McDonalds, for a 9:30am start, the crew assemble early and Marcel commences the administration, ticking names and taking cash… Time to allocate duties, Sergeant at Arms, Tail End Charlie, Trip Reporter… Trip Report… Miles and Lachlan finally rock into McDonalds in the bright green Jeep Wrangler… last ones into the car park, Trip Reporter role allocated. Marcel finishes off the admin and club briefings, radios are set to 27, a quick radio check and we’re away.

The first leg of today’s trip is from Beaudesert, up Duck Creek Road through the Lamington National Park and on to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat. We depart Beaudesert heading south on Kerry Road for approximately 18 km, then turn left onto Duck Creek Road, pulling the convoy off the road to air down tires. After a quick vehicle preparation, we head back off again until we reach the ‘starting gate’ and we all pull over and provide a gold coin donation in order to help the local track maintenance program.

Once moving again, it’s not long before the dirt road starts zig-zagging backwards and forwards as it starts tracking up the side of MacPherson Range, and as the convoys reach some of the vantage points, the views are spectacular as we slowly proceed passed the numerous look outs. 

The dirt road is in good repair and there are really no obstacles or locations where you are forced into low range, however some choose to select low range as we’re going slow enough, and it takes a little pressure off the engine while climbing the steadily inclining track.

It’s a lovely drive with breath taking views and many opportunities to take a ton of great outlook photos across the ranges. After about an hour’s drive, we reach the intersection with Lamington National Park Road, the sealed bitumen road most touristy traffic uses to reach O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, we turn right and pull into the car park about 2 km up the road.

Marcel gets us organised, we’re having lunch up at the cafeteria area and moving on to Canungra in an hours’ time. The views at the top of O’Reilly’s are just as good as the ones we saw earlier during the morning drive. After finally getting out of the vehicles, we notice the temperate in the national park has dropped considerably and is quite a bit colder, which sees many rummaging through their vehicles and storage containers to find the ‘reserve jumper’.

With lunch over, there’s still enough time that we decide to take the canopy walk through the top of the forest trees. It’s a rickety old suspension bridge that has seen better days, but it’s still in good repairs and safe to use, as long as you stick to 6 people per suspended section – and don’t jump up and down like a baboon.

Halfway along and about 40 meters off the ground, we reach a tree which has a ladder and safety cage, which allows you to climb all the way up and above the canopy, so you can see the forest landscape as it rolls back down MacPherson range. Unfortunately there are quite a few people already crowded up and waiting to climb the ladder, so many of us decide to pass on the experience this time and continue down the other side of the suspended walkway.

We slowly meander back to O’Reilly’s and are in awe of the wonderful wildlife we’re witnessing in the state forest, the birds, the insects and even some of the small animals jittering around the bush, it truly is a unique environment and completely different ecosystem to backyard suburbia… The joys of getting outdoors with a great bunch of like minded people says it all.

We’re back in the car park, spend a little time airing up the tires, we’re hitting the bitumen Lamington National Park Road back down the range and into Canungra. Convoy’s rolling, some more radio checks and we’re heading down the road and back towards civilisation. Similar to Duck Creek Road, the bitumen road is in good repair, but narrow in many parts, with many one lane designated sections quite often, to warn drivers to give way in these difficult areas. The roads, pull-in zones and give way signs are marked very well, so it is a merit to the local councils for maintaining a safe traffic environment while travelling between Canungra and O’Reilly’s.

The views and photo opportunities on the way down the range are just as good as the ones on the way up, it’s a splendid day and the weather has been grand – which is hard to comprehend as EKKA day is traditionally quite the opposite, the 4WD gods have been good to us today.

After about 45 mins, we reach the bustling town of Canungra and we pull over for a quick break before moving on again to… This is where Lachlan and I had to drop out early due to his Karate training still
being on. The trip ended 15 minutes later

I met the others as they rocked up at the IGA at 6:30pm in Dayboro. We all signed the 
book and then went off 4W driving, it wasn’t long before we hit the dust and aired down 
our tyres then off we went up the mountain. We all put our high beams on to see the 
track ahead, the dust was bad in some spots and I think I maybe a bit of rain would not 
go astray, as we got to the first stop to have a drink to get rid of some of dust.
After that we hit the big climb and David said my Nissan just walked up that so easily, 
so I thought that had to be a fine in my book, but we all got over the hard bit OK and all 
were happy with ourselves.
The night was a good night as there was no trouble with any of the 4WDs. We got to the 
mill park where Dave left us to go home and YET another fine for a burnout on the gravel 
road.
Not a good look to see David! As Nissan drivers don’t have to prove (it) to the cruiser 
boys, also we can’t leave out Brent in his Nissan, he didn’t get bogged at all.
It was all good as we headed down the track through the bush, back out to the IGA store 
at Dayboro to air up our tyres. By this time it was 12:00am and that was good night to 
all and all.
Thanks to trip leader: Gary Eickenloff
Trip reporter : Richard O’Shea
Trip photographer: Evan Gill
Sergeant at arms: David Meier
Tail end Charlie: Brent Brian.
My Mum was away for the weekend. So the boys decided to have fun. We left Erin with 
her friend Taylor and Sean and I set off in Dad’s new car. We packed a picnic and off we 
went. We had fun things to eat and the car was so comfy that I fell asleep. When I woke 
up Evan was driving my Dad’s car and I again fell asleep and when I woke up Michael 
was driving my dad’s car. I think my dad was the best driver – and yes he told me to say 
that. Thanks
Anthony Coughlan
As Anthony said we set off for a night drive and the car was shining and clean. Not for 
long it got covered in dust. We had fun going up and down hills and checking out the 
Land cruiser. I’m looking forward to more trips.
Sean Coughlan