Ghost Town Rally 2011

This years Ghost Town Rally Hosted by the Broken Hill Branch of the Ulysses Club was again a huge success with 250 members making the journey to our Copi Hollow Caravan Park.

This year seen old and new bike enthusiasts alike making the journey from all parts of Australia to enjoy a weekend of renewed friendships, new friendships, socialising and good food.  Copi Hollow was transformed into a visual feast of leather and highly polished chrome, the pride and joy of each biker proudly displayed for all to see.  Camps were set up on the lawn on the banks of Copi Hollow, some small, others elaborate showing that this is a fantastic lifestyle for these bike enthusiast.  Of course not all bike enthusiasts have 2 legs, Ratty really enjoyed the weekend showing off his leather outfit complete with new goggles that he seemed to prefer to wear around his neck.  Ratty attends most Ulysses club events held in various locations around Australia, riding on his bike trailer complete with his own riders licence.

The Ulysses Club is an Australian motorcycle club that caters for the needs of the ‘more mature’ rider. The club was established in December 1983 and is the largest motorcycle club in the southern hemisphere. The clubs motto is “Grow Old Disgracefully” and I’m told they now cater for 40 years and over.

The original suggestion for a motorcycle club for over 50’s was put forward in a letter by Stephen Dearnley published in the August 1983 issue of Bike Australia. This drew two significant responses: one from Rob Hill, a reader at Albion Park NSW, who suggested the present name and motto for the club: the other from Peter Thoeming, then the editor of Bike Australia who sketched the logo and offered support from his magazine if Stephen could get the club off the ground. This was done at an inaugural meeting in Sydney on 6th December, 1983 when the five people present approved a basic constitution and the Ulysses Club was duly formed.

From that tenuous beginning it has never looked back and the club now boasts a large and extensive network of members throughout Australia and in New Zealand.

Through a number of regional branches & groups, the Ulysses Club arranges regular meetings, outings and social events.

The Ghost Town Rally is one of the major events held every year by the club.

Rickie Cooper “President” of the Broken Hill Branch of the Ulysses Club said “The Ghost Town Rally committee were very happy with the numbers that attended the 2011 Ghost Town Rally and we had many attendees saying they loved the location, and that the rally and food were great!  Members suggested that they will be back if held again next year and we will be discussing The Ghost Town Rally at the next  Ulysses Club meeting.”

The weather didn’t seem to deter the seasoned bikers, wind and rain threatening to ruin the weekend but seemed to only add to the atmosphere.  Cold nights were spent by the open fires in and around the club rooms.

Outside the clubrooms Mildura band “Reflections” entertained the crowd while inside the club rooms the Ulysses members were able to relax with good food and drinks.

Saturday night the Ulysses Club held speeches in the club rooms before dinner was served and drew the raffle winners with heaps of  prizes being given away.   Some of the lucky winners included members from our Broken Hill Speedboat Club.

As was done in previous years the tireless volunteers of the Broken Hill Speedboat Club catered for the entire weekend.  Cathy and Barry King coordinated the weekend with up to 30 volunteers helping out.  The highlight of the weekend was that some of our Copi kidz worked as hard as the adults!  The Copi Kidz did various jobs such as dishes, waitressing, sweeping, mopping, serving, general cleaning up, collecting cans, emptying cans and them putting them in the recycling bucket and some of the older kids looked after some of the younger kidz freeing up their mothers to be able to help out.

Ulysses Club Broken Hill Branch President Rickie Cooper said:  “I’d like to thank the Broken Hill Speedboat Club for your hospitality and for catering for the weekend, the Ulysses Club feel the weekend was a huge success!”.

The Broken Hill Speedboat Club Committee would like to thank all the volunteers (including the children) and Sharon and Andrew for their tireless efforts that made the 2011 Ghost Town Rally a huge success!