On Sunday 6th May (that’s in two weeks’ time) the lovely people at the Grey Gum Cafe on the Putty Road, north of Windsor, will be holding a special event. Most of you will recall that this road house was the subject of a recent vicious and totally unjustified attack by the Singleton Council who issued the owners with a Notice to Close unless they spent $250000 installing purpose-built slip lanes for the entry and exit from the cafe onto the Putty Road. Despite the fact that the owners, John and Kim, had satisfied all council requirements when building the establishment just a few months before this action was taken, council, for whatever reason, none was ever given, pursued them outrageously and did everything that they could to close the Grey Gum down. As a cafe, approximately half way between Singleton and Windsor, and the ONLY place where travellers could stop, revive and survive on that whole stretch, the actions of Singleton Council and the motives that provoked them seem as bizarre now as they seemed then.
Due particularly to my brother and his well-developed sense of right and wrong, the motorcycling fraternity became aware of the predicament of John and Kim and a huge campaign of support, fuelled by widespread exposure of the scandal on online motorcycle forums began. It rapidly gathered momentum to the extent that the media got involved, the RTA was petitioned and Singleton Council were left looking very totalitarian and very exposed. It took a while, but, by the time that inspectors from the RTA arrived to inspect the situation, the first words from the RTA exec’s lips to Kim were, “We don’t want you to shut down, you are providing a very important road safety function.” (which John and Kim and everyone else except the cretins on the council already knew). The council’s case wasn’t helped at all when two of the elected council members stopped in for a coffee, purely coincidentally, identified themselves as aldermen on the council and were totally mortified when Kim asked them why they were trying to close the cafe down.
“What do you mean, close you down?” was the reply, “We don’t know anything about this.” Bureaucracy gone rampant. A subsequent “Show Cause” meeting with the council was a debacle with the council buckling completely to public pressure and to their exposure as a bunch of little Hitlers in the public eye and the Notice to Close was rescinded.
So, as a means of saying a big “Thank You” to their supporters and particularly to the motorcycling fraternity of NSW, John and Kim are having a special celebration day at the cafe on the 6th May, as the above flyer indicates.
It will also be a charitable day. My best mate’s partner suffers from Parkinson’s disease and when Dave and Sue were passing through last year they stayed at the Grey Gum, parking their motorhome in the dedicated camping area around the back. John and Kim were very upset when they saw first-hand what a terrible toll the disease takes on those who suffer from it and those who care for those who have it and they asked Dave if he’d be interested in staging an art exhibition there as a fundraiser for Parkinsons NSW. Dave is a very talented botanical artist, working in water colours. Dave agreed in principle and said he’d get back to Kim with some tentative dates. He reckoned without Kim’s dynamic organisational abilities. By the time he and Sue had returned from a quick loop through South Australia, the exhibition and the date were already set in stone and Kim was on the warpath.
So, the event will feature around 24 original artworks by Dave Thompson as well as over a dozen original artworks by one of his students, my wonderful wife, Helena. All of them will be for sale with John and Kim waiving the usual commission to which they would be entitled for running the exhibition and providing the venue. The usual commission will, instead, be donated to Parkinsons NSW. As well, one of Dave’s original works will be raffled on the day and the full proceeds from the sale also donated to PNSW.
There will be entertainment, static displays, jumping castles for the kids and a Junior Painting Course, conducted by Helena and Thommo to introduce kids to the joy of water colour painting.
If you can make it on the day, please try to. It’s going to be a great day in support of a very worthy cause as well as your chance to encourage John and Kim in their new business venture. As my brother always says, “Don’t miss it if you can.”
teza51 says
Good cause i would have loved to attend but we will be up that way a couple of weekends later for the Entrance ride wish you all a lot of success
Phil Hall says
Thanks, mate. I’m sure it’s going to be great.