4WD Club Focus

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BY PETER VINCE

Sometime, somewhere in 2012, three friends were sitting and talking over coffee (or at least they told me it was coffee…). They all had a common interest (dare I say a LOVE) of the outdoors, sightseeing, camping and a wish to have a family friendly group of friends to do this with. In a very short time, the Freedom All Wheel Drive Club of Western Australia was started. The first AGM of the club was held in August 2012 and consisted of quite a few likeminded people including an honour roll of members who are still members today. One honourable mention goes to an 82 year old widow who joined with no previous experience.

So why the Freedom All Wheel Drive Club?

Most of the members had a mish-mash of small all-wheel drive cars and small SUVs including a couple of X-Trails (we still have two of those), RAV4s, a Zook (Suzuki) or two, a Honda CRV, a Lada Niva!, and (I think) a Toyota LandCruiser. There was no dedicated club for smaller vehicles so the idea was to open up to anyone that didn’t fit the bill of a regular 4WD or didn’t want the 'hard core' aspect of 4W driving (we all know rock crawling and mud sliding can be fun but not all the time, and it does tend to break things on your car). The main goal of the club was to get out, have fun, see stuff, do it safely and take that photo to brag or reminisce about. The author of this article joined the club about two years ago. The first six months or so was pretty much dampened by COVID-19 but since then, the club has had some amazing day trips such as the Julimar

Some of our vehicles lined up at Mt Augustus in 2020. This trip was 9 or 10 days of remote driving, camping and sight-seeing. Yep, that IS a Hyundai Kona! It didn’t skip a beat the whole trip.

Jaunt, Wildflower Wanderings, 'Dam' Good Drives, weekenders and longer trips. Some trips include Birdsville, Uluru via the Great Central Road, Simpson Desert and the Flinders Ranges. The only trip not suitable for the littler cars was the Gibb River Road. Following are some photos of said trips with a brief explanation of each.

About as hard core as it gets on a Freedom day out. The Powerlines near Mundaring.

A drive onto the beach at Broke Inlet during a weekender at Shannon National Park. We even did a night run once… …now THAT would have been interesting.

The club itself is pretty unique, even including the logo. I love the way it looks like a map of W.A. It’s not a 'specific' club by brand of vehicle or location of the club. It’s open to anyone who has a vehicle that remotely resembles a 4WD and to anyone of any skill level. Someone is always able to help in a tight spot or recovery situation. And if you’re just starting out, most of the members have spares (eg. hand-held radios etc.) to get you OFF the road. We meet at the Manning Senior Citizens Centre (no reflection on our average age or abilities…) on the 4th Wednesday of every month at 7.30pm. For more information about the Freedom All Wheel Drive Club of W.A. follow the links below:

Website - www.fawdcwa.com.au Phone - 0418 944 304 Email - info@fawdcwa.com.au FreedomAllWheelDriveClubWa