Memories and Thoughts from Terry O’Neill
AMCC 50th Anniversary 2022 A little over fifty years ago (1972) I met with diecast model car collector Vic Wills to discuss the possibility of starting a club solely for model car collectors and modellers. I had been introduced to Vic by my mate Bill Hamer, himself an avid car modeller with similar notions. Vic was very excited about the idea and spoke to some of his other collector friends including Les Mills and Ian Mackie, who were also keen to start a club. These few of us spread the word to others by word of mouth and from a poster advertising a meeting to be held in Ray Black's now defunct Model Car and Porzelack Car Polish shop in Toorak. About 8 persons attended and voted to go ahead with the idea. We needed a meeting place (Ray's shop was too small) and one of the attendees, Kim Axton who ran "Replicars" slot car track in Oakleigh, said we could meet there as long as we wanted to. We held two meetings at "Replicars". The first one became the club's inaugural night in April of 1972. Twelve persons attended and were deemed to be "Foundation Members". Club names were suggested and eventually the "Australian Model Car Club" was selected as being the most appropriate. The second meeting in May saw more persons attend, about 18 in all and the AMCC's membership grew again, to the point where we realised a larger and more intimate meeting place was required. Vic made enquiries at the Light Car Club of Australia, situated on Queens Road in Albert Park, Melbourne. No doubt Vic's membership there assisted us to gain a meeting room in one of Australia's most exclusive sports driver's clubs. The LCCA club rooms were steeped in history with wall mounted photos and art paintings, motoring books and magazines, trophies and replica model cars on show amidst warm dark timber surroundings. Early AMCC meetings there provided a mixed variety of model cars and related items. It proved a perfect environment for our meetings and I'm sure it attracted more new members, ready to share their love of model cars and related stories together. Early AMCC membership was divided into two camps; the diecast collectors and the plastic modellers. The ratio was about 50/50 with both groups amicable to each other and even showing genuine interest in each other's models. There was an annual competition for the plastic model builders with an Model-of-Year trophy, with guest judges from other modelling clubs. The AMCC's annual Vic Wills model car inter-clubs competition was born there in 1981, and was completed in the space of one nightly meeting. By 1990 the LCCA had become too expensive for a regular meeting place and the AMCC found a new home at the Oakleigh HQ of the Royal Live Saving Society of Australia, courtesy of Dave Evans. In 2001 the AMCC again moved to a new meeting location in the Ashburton Library, where it has remained ever since. In 2022 the AMCC celebrated its 50 years anniversary. |