Club Cruise to The Depot Museum & Diner in Deniliquin
12th December, 2020
12th December, 2020
Well that's it - done and dusted! Christmas again and another year over. It doesn't seem like we've done many Cruise's this year, and if you think that's the case, you'd be right. This was only our third - Daylesford Motorfest way back in February and the Clunes Truck and Car Show at the start of March. All seems like so long ago.
We were even lucky to have been able to run this event, with Dan only just relaxing the rules enough for the Cruise to Deniliquin. Many thanks to Club member Mal for researching and organising this event - I had comments during the day and several since that it was a really good run, and a wonderful museum. Unfortunately we couldn't really do the Clubhouse Christmas function after the cruise due to Covid rules, but we'll do something even better than Christmas during the coming year.
Deniliquin is a bit of a hike and there was a fair chance it was going to be hot - so despite that - it was very pleasing to see around 20 Club members turn out at Huntly for the 9am departure. It was a good day to take out a rotary with air-con and cruise, so today we fired up the RX8, filled her with premium and then topped up with R30 for some extra sweet smelling roses. Most of the usual suspects were there, including the Prez and family who hasn't been seen on a run for a while now, and lucky Adrian who got to smell the castor fumes all the way to Moama. We left Huntly on time and headed north with Mal in the lead and the Prez coming up the rear. A couple of slow vehicles on the road made it a bit more interesting with some passing moves performed by us one by one. After a short stop at the park in Moama to re-group, we cruised though the dry countryside and into Deniliquin. The Museum is easy to find being on the southern outskirts of town and as far as I know, no-one got lost.
For a small country town in the middle of nowhere, it was surprising to see such an impressive building. The Museum is relatively new - did someone say 12 or 18 months? At a guess you'd say many 10's of thousands of dollars were tied up just with the building itself - not to mention all the vehicles from buses through every genre of motor vehicle and some motor bikes as well. Around the mezzanine floor are displays of kitchens and associated stuff and all displayed as it would have been back in the day. Not sure how much money is generated from running a museum, but it all makes a little more sense when you realise the museum is owned by the well-known Deniliquin Purtill family who has operated busses, trucks, servo's in Deni and the surrounding towns since the start of the motor vehicle industry. This is a great way to invest some money back into the Deniliquin community.
It took quite a while to wander around all the exhibits and while chatting to the owner he explained they were planning to extend the building and increase the size by quite a lot. Would definitely be worthwhile coming back again - maybe for a winter cruise.
So, after a fully paid for lunch and drinks in the restaurant for all Club Members - (thanks also to Custom Addictions for the free entry to the museum for all members too) we all began leaving and making our way back to Bendigo. On the way out of town a sign pointing right caught my attention - "Rotary Park". Wow, what luck - that's gonna be fantastic! We did a u turn and came back. Sure enough a couple of hundred metres down the side road there was an entry through an expensive looking brick gateway and we were hoping there were other rotaries there. We drove around looking, but the place was deserted. You'd expect the Rotary Club of Deniliquin to have more than just an oval with a small building. Very disappointed. Might go back and check again another time.
I hope everyone got back home safely and you enjoyed the day. Thanks again to Mal Fraser for doing all the talking to the owners of The Depot and organising this Club Cruise. It was a great day.
Merry Christmas to all, have a great holiday season and we'll see you again next year!
We were even lucky to have been able to run this event, with Dan only just relaxing the rules enough for the Cruise to Deniliquin. Many thanks to Club member Mal for researching and organising this event - I had comments during the day and several since that it was a really good run, and a wonderful museum. Unfortunately we couldn't really do the Clubhouse Christmas function after the cruise due to Covid rules, but we'll do something even better than Christmas during the coming year.
Deniliquin is a bit of a hike and there was a fair chance it was going to be hot - so despite that - it was very pleasing to see around 20 Club members turn out at Huntly for the 9am departure. It was a good day to take out a rotary with air-con and cruise, so today we fired up the RX8, filled her with premium and then topped up with R30 for some extra sweet smelling roses. Most of the usual suspects were there, including the Prez and family who hasn't been seen on a run for a while now, and lucky Adrian who got to smell the castor fumes all the way to Moama. We left Huntly on time and headed north with Mal in the lead and the Prez coming up the rear. A couple of slow vehicles on the road made it a bit more interesting with some passing moves performed by us one by one. After a short stop at the park in Moama to re-group, we cruised though the dry countryside and into Deniliquin. The Museum is easy to find being on the southern outskirts of town and as far as I know, no-one got lost.
For a small country town in the middle of nowhere, it was surprising to see such an impressive building. The Museum is relatively new - did someone say 12 or 18 months? At a guess you'd say many 10's of thousands of dollars were tied up just with the building itself - not to mention all the vehicles from buses through every genre of motor vehicle and some motor bikes as well. Around the mezzanine floor are displays of kitchens and associated stuff and all displayed as it would have been back in the day. Not sure how much money is generated from running a museum, but it all makes a little more sense when you realise the museum is owned by the well-known Deniliquin Purtill family who has operated busses, trucks, servo's in Deni and the surrounding towns since the start of the motor vehicle industry. This is a great way to invest some money back into the Deniliquin community.
It took quite a while to wander around all the exhibits and while chatting to the owner he explained they were planning to extend the building and increase the size by quite a lot. Would definitely be worthwhile coming back again - maybe for a winter cruise.
So, after a fully paid for lunch and drinks in the restaurant for all Club Members - (thanks also to Custom Addictions for the free entry to the museum for all members too) we all began leaving and making our way back to Bendigo. On the way out of town a sign pointing right caught my attention - "Rotary Park". Wow, what luck - that's gonna be fantastic! We did a u turn and came back. Sure enough a couple of hundred metres down the side road there was an entry through an expensive looking brick gateway and we were hoping there were other rotaries there. We drove around looking, but the place was deserted. You'd expect the Rotary Club of Deniliquin to have more than just an oval with a small building. Very disappointed. Might go back and check again another time.
I hope everyone got back home safely and you enjoyed the day. Thanks again to Mal Fraser for doing all the talking to the owners of The Depot and organising this Club Cruise. It was a great day.
Merry Christmas to all, have a great holiday season and we'll see you again next year!
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We'll see you on a cruise somewhere!
