About The Club

Published: 12 January 2018 12 January 2018

 

Our Club History

The Australian Caravan Club (ACC) was initially founded in September 2006 at the Golden Beach Caravan Park at Caloundra in Queensland.

A group of caravanners felt that the then existing RV Clubs did not focus enough on protecting and representing the interests of owners of caravans.

Since then our Club has grown and evolved to include the owners of pop top caravans, motorhomes, slide-on campers, camper-trailers, campervans and fifth wheelers. While our membership base has changed, our simple foundations have remained. Our focus now is to protect and represent the interests of all RVers, not just caravanners.

Under its Constitution, our Club’s main objective is to ‘promote the use of recreational vehicles and the RVing lifestyle throughout Australia’.

With a strong focus on advocacy, our Club is a voice for all RVers to all three tiers of government and the RV industry on issues ranging from freedom camps and rest areas, to RV lifestyle issues and manufacturing defects.

While many RVers join our Club to strengthen our impact as a strong force to protect our RV lifestyle, RVers also join for the social environment or member benefits that membership of our Club brings.

Our Branches

The first branch of the ACC to form was the ACC Sunshine Nomads on 13 April 2007 in Queensland.

The second branch, the ACC Southern Nomads, was established later in the year on 12 October 2007 with a view to establishing a branch of the Club for caravanners living in Victoria.

From these humble beginnings, the ACC has grown from strength to strength. We now have 46 branches at various locations around Australia from Cairns to Perth, including Tasmania.

Our branches provide a great social environment for members to get together with like-minded people, discuss tech tips, and share friendships and adventure at branch musters, tagalongs, and other branch activities held throughout the year.

To find a branch near you, click here.

Our Special Interest Groups

Catering to the special interests of our members is something that our Club feels strongly about. So with a diverse membership base, to cater for our members who share similar interests, our Club has established a number of Special Interest Groups (S.I.Gs) –

✽ The Lone Trekkers (for solo travellers). For further information, click here.

✽ F.T.T. (Full time Travellers). For further information, click here.

✽ Armed Forces Personnel. For further information, click here.

✽ Evernew Owners Group. For further information, click here.

✽ Jeep Owners. For further information, click here.

Our S.I.Gs are in addition to our branches. Club members can be a member of a branch and a member of a S.I.G. at the same time.

Club and Branch Events

Each of our branches organises upwards of six musters per year.

Branch musters are always an enjoyable occasion for all attendees. Musters are generally held over a weekend at a location within easy reach of branch members. The number of attendees varies at each muster depending on the size of the branch and availability of its members.

Each year a National Muster is held to coincide with the Club’s Annual General Meeting. The National Muster is a much larger, organised gathering held over a number of days at various venues around Australia –

✽ 2007 – Byron Bay NSW

✽ 2008 – Casino NSW

✽ 2009 – Mildura VIC

✽ 2010 – Maryborough QLD

✽ 2011 – Bingara NSW

✽ 2012 – Mallacoota VIC

✽ 2013 – Mudgee NSW

✽ 2014 – Lucindale SA

✽ 2015 – Beaudesert QLD

✽ 2016 – Shepparton VIC

✽ 2017 – Bingara NSW

✽ 2018 – Denmark WA

✽ 2019 – Warrnambool VIC

✽ 2020 – Not held due to COVID lockdown

✽ 2021 – Rockhampton QLD

✽ 2022 – Lithgow NSW

Our club can also host State & Territory Musters which are smaller and differ from our National Musters. All our events provide an opportunity for members to have fun, exchange information and experiences in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

The Nomad

Our Club publishes a full colour magazine, The Nomad, containing a wealth of topics including articles on Club News, technical tips, RV lifestyle and travel, RV product profiles, upcoming musters, branch contacts and our Club Shop catalogue.

The Nomad is issued electronically to members each quarter. Members can elect to pay a small annual fee and receive a hard glossy print version by post.

Club Website

Our Club maintains a dynamic website containing a large amount of information of interest to our members and website viewers.

Latest news, an events calendar, a membership directory, an active members’ forum, lists of member benefits and Farm Stays, an Ask the Caravan Guru service for members only, useful links and a What’s On page, are a few of the facilities on the site available for our members.

Our Facebook page

The ACC Facebook page is another news source and social tool for our members and other RVers to keep abreast of RV and Club issues and to contact us via message or visitor post. To view our Facebook page, click here.

We welcome both members and non-members to ‘Like’ our page and ‘share’ posts of interest.

Becoming a member

To find out more about Club membership, click here.

Contacting our Club

Contact details for the Club’s –

✽ administration can be found by clicking here.

✽ branches can be found by clicking here.

Club Management and Operational Structure

A board of directors controls and manages the affairs of the Club according to its Constitution. It consists of six directors elected by the membership. A number of committees have been established to assist the board in specific areas. All directors are dedicated volunteers who receive no remuneration for their work. Details of our Club’s directors are listed at the end of this page.

Dynamic Committees

Our Club has several dynamic teams who constantly work for the betterment of our Club members and all RVers.

Our teams include –

✽ policy, advocacy and town support

✽ finance and administration

✽ RVSTAY (Farm Stay and Freedom Camping)

✽ membership support

✽ marketing and member benefits

✽ annual national muster

✽ communications and publicity

Registered Company

Unlike other clubs that are State-based incorporated bodies, the ACC is an Australian Registered Company that reflects our truly National identity. 

We have a comprehensive Constitution which clearly sets out our objectives and governs the operation of the Club.

To view our Constitution, click here.

The document is in Adobe pdf format and an appropriate reader may be obtained free from Adobe by clicking the following button.

 Image
   

 

The Club Directors

 

Steve Buckingham - Chair, Director Finance and Company Secretary has a Science and Accounting background with large manufacturing companies such as Australian Wire Industries, Crane Enfield Metals, Crane Aluminium Extrusions, Austral Wright Metals, Stegbar and finally JELD-WEN Australia where he was Corporate Controller Finance and Tax. Steve is a member of the Australian Society of CPA.

He has volunteered with a number of Not for Profit organisations such as Uniting Care Hawkesbury Village, PCANSW Zone 19, and Hawkesbury Valley Pony Club where he is a life member.

Steve and his wife Shane are new to caravanning, but have spent many nights sleeping in the back of their horse float whilst their two girls attended pony camps and competitions.

   

 

Kerrelyn Carey  - Member Benefits and Events Director has a background in the performing arts consisting of 20 years as a professional dancer / actress appearing in all genre of Ballet, Theatre, TV and Corporate work and in 1968 opened her own performing arts school which she ran successfully for 43 years.
During this time Kerrelyn served on many Boards and Advisory Panels including representing the Royal Academy of Dance on the NSW Board of Studies HSC.
Kerrelyn was a Protocol Coordinator for the Sydney 2000 Olympics as well as being involved with the opening and closing ceremonies.
With her husband Tom they have been caravanning since 1978, joined the ACC Sydney Explorers in 2016, and are now onto their third caravan.
 

 

 

Susan Grondin - Deputy Chair, National Muster and Communications Director having been involved with running a business, working in a mental health unit and now with a NDIS provider doing both quality control and customer and staff relations,  life has been filled with many different opportunities and learning experiences. 
Working with Sydney's homeless would be one of the most gratifying and character building periods of my life.
Having camped for over 30 years it was time to purchase our dream caravan and look forwarded to venturing out longer than a week when I fully retire.
I am looking forward to meeting as many of our members as I can.

 

 

 

John Porter - Nomad Editor and Special Projects Director from NSW, is retired after 40 years in the financial services industry with the last 18 years involved with technology.  Together with wife Elaine, they have been RVing for the past 17 years in both motorhomes and caravans.  They became ACC members in 2013 and then joined the Sydney City Slickers.  Since joining the Sydney City Slickers, John has spent time as the branch vice president with the most recent position being that of the branch secretary.  John was the ACC Company Secretary from July 2020 until November 2022.  

   

 

Graham Humphreys - Membership Director I commenced my working life in the motoring industry with Larke Hoskins, as a spare parts salesman. I became the relief Parts Manager before taking over as Parts Manager at Larke Hoskins Miranda. I later joined JRA (Leyland Australia) and held the position of Parts Technical Manager. The role entailed researching new vehicle requirements and recommending stocking requirements. With a change in direction, I moved into the Purchasing department and later joined Echlin Australia as Purchasing Manager, became a member of the companies Quality Control, and WHS committees.

I have been a member of the Australian Caravan Club since 2006, joining the Golden Westerners branch when formed in 2008. I have been Branch Secretary from 2013 -2015 & 2023. Branch President 2016 – 2018. I have conducted the branch Tag-A-Longs and helped with the organization of the branch Musters and held a successful chairman’s muster in 2021, in Trangie.

 I managed the ACC Drought Relief Fund; I was the first NSW Membership Representative.

Over the years I have had dealings with various Statutory bodies (local Councils, NSW Police, Forestry Corporation of NSW) conducting and managing 50 competitive Car Rallies.

Judy and I have been caravanning since 2001 and are currently travelling in our 5th caravan and enjoying our club and branch activities.