The 2009 Australasian Cycling History Conference was hailed as a great weekend by participants. A wide range of topics presented by excellent speakers in a magnificent setting as well as an opportunity to view the Farren Collection made for a great event.
Our speakers on Friday evening, who reminisced about cycling in the 50s and 60s and the trials and tribulations of building a significant bicycle collection, set the scene for a great weekend. The evening featured a pasta night, and more talking, hosted by the Farren's and sponsored by the Vintage Cycle Club.
Saturday was a day spent in the grand old Treasury Building, now home to the City Museum and the Registry Office. A series of interesting papers on a very diverse range of subjects held the interest of everyone. Some of us went out to dinner that night too, not having had enough of talking about old bikes!
On Sunday the Vintage Cycle Club held a swap meet at Abbotsford Cycles; on Saturday we had been talking about Stevens Cycles, an almost forgotten bike shop in Sydney Road, and on the Sunday there was one of their frames for sale. Workshops on topics such as rolling lengths of steel into penny farthing rims, building frames and then painting and lining them, topped off with almost endless supplies of good coffee and cake, made for a fantastic Sunday at the Farren collection.
These were taken by Peter Horsley and the page opens with small images, click on them to reveal the full size, but be warned, they are big files!
There will be pictures of the Saturday sessions coming soon.
Thank you to all the presenters, who gave so willingly of their time, to the delegates who made the conference a success, and to the small band of organisers who created and guided this year's event so well.
The next Australasian Cycling History Conference is due in 2011, in the meantime this site will develop and become a resource for cycling history.
