It’s the 20th annual Variety Queensland Bash and it departed Townsville on Thursday with 550 wacky characters and 125 equally wacky vehicles, 22 auxiliary
workshops and 38 official vehicles. Every four years the states get together for a national Bash and this year there are more than 2000 entrants who will converge on Alice Springs. The national Bash concludes with a concert featuring John Paul Young, The Mike Brady Band, Frankie J Holden, Wilbur Wilde, Brian Cadd, Lisa Edwards, James Blundell, Leo Sayer and John Williamson. The 11-day, 3500km Queensland leg of the Bash features two 1920s Whippets and three participants who have done all 20 rallies. Gold Coast butcher Vince Carroll is one of those three. “We do it for various reasons – mainly for the kids – but it helps to have an understanding family,” he says. His first Bash car was a 1964 EH Holden he stretched 1.5m into a limo.
“It was a fabulous vehicle. I spent something like $40,000 on it and used it 10 years then sold it and made my money back,” he says.