The Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) is blowing out 100 candles, after a century of industry support.
It unveiled a bronze plaque at the former Bendigo Chamber of Commerce in Bendigo on September 20, as the board meets with the town mayor.
The VACC’s ancestral home of Bendigo will host a 100-car cavalcade on Saturday, as a tribute to its 5000-plus members.
The organisation says it wants to especially recognise its regional dealership, service and repair workshops and specialist automotive members, some of whom have worn the orange VACC sign since the beginning.
The Wilson Bolton Holden and Mitsubishi dealership (and RACV shop) on Ocallaghans Parade in Horsham, has renewed its membership every year since 1918.
The Edney’s Hyundai and Nissan dealership (and also the local RACV depot) in Leongatha, and Donalda Motor Service in Victoria’s Gippsland dairy town of Maffra both signed up to the VACC in 1920, less than two years after the end of World War I.
Wangaratta Toyota has been a VACC member since 1927 and Innes Motors, in Bendigo joined in the same year.
The VACC says its operational scope has evolved over time, from protecting the local automotive industry from large overseas competition to becoming one of Australia’s most influential employer associations and an advocate for automotive businesses.
Chief executive Geoff Gwilym says since the VACC was founded by brothers Henry and Percy Rickards, and Montague Simes – all local Bendigo car dealers – the association has always had the same core focus.
“Today the VACC still upholds the values it was built upon, supporting automotive business owners and being a driver of good business,” he says.
“Think about our population back in 1900; maybe four million people, but by 1918 Victoria had around 15,000 vehicles on the roads – Australians were very keen adopters of the motor vehicle because it solved our problem of distance between towns and cities,” Gwilym explains.
“What eventually became the VACC, meant locals as far as Warrnambool or Swan Hill or Mallacoota, and everyone in between, could be represented and protected from big overseas companies threatening their family business.”
“We’re still doing this in 2018, as Victoria’s automotive industry faces the rise of online vehicle sales, digitization of the automobile and employment and training deficits,” he says.
City of Greater Bendigo mayor Margaret O’Rourke says the VACC 100-year celebrations are something the region should hold dear.
“The City of Greater Bendigo is proud of the VACC’s origins in our city, when the visionary Rickards brothers put their heads together in 1918 to create what went on to become the VACC,” she tells AutoTalk.
“As a result of their ingenuity, the future of the automotive industry in Victoria was secured for the generations of workers and motorists that followed.”
O’Rourke says the work of the VACC in the past is the reason many automotive businesses still stand in 2018.
“There are 118 VACC member businesses in Bendigo employing a large number of local people,” she explains. “Today, we continue to enjoy the benefits of the VACC and its contribution to protecting and promoting business. We are pleased to congratulate the VACC on its 100-year anniversary and the contribution it continues to make to our local and state-wide economy.”
Join the conversation