Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, good afternoon, everybody. It's Talking Talk with Darren Chanter.
Yeah, we're. It's Sunday afternoon. It's been great to have a great Sunday afternoon here in Rocco. And Talking Talk is live on the air for everybody interstate and overseas. So today, today is a very special day as we have Lawson Dixon from the Black Dog Riders on the GM of Black Dog Ride. It's great to have. Lawson. Welcome, Lawson. How are you today?
[00:00:31] Speaker B: I'm very well, thanks. Darren, what a great day. Thank you for having me here.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: No worries. We've got to thank our good friend John Hitchcock. John's. John was gonna come in, but he's found himself to be on a plane coming back from Karatha or somewhere. Somewhere strange like that. So it's. It's been good.
So, Lawson, where do we start? Welcome to IPL Radio.
You know, music is a big part of IPL and stuff like that. And tell us a bit about yourself and Black Dog Rides.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Right, okay. Well, I've been riding motorcycles since I was seven, so that. That's 50 plus years.
And I was a sailor at a young age as well. So my two passions as a kid with sailing, motorcycle.
Eventually, after many different sort of career paths, I was lucky enough to be able to be involved in the motorcycling industry.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: And setting up dealerships in Vietnam, of all places. But that eventually brought me here to. To Perth, and it's been in my blood. So the cause of Black Dog Ride, the cause that we support, is one that's very close to my heart as well.
The idea of being able to talk about depression, being able to talk about suicide, and being able to contribute to prevention of it is something I'm a really strong believer in. Marrying my passion of riding motorcycles along with such a great cause was a fantastic way for me to remain in motorcycling when I left my career running dealerships.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, I've been reading a bit about you and where you started and things like that. And you were the GM of Sailing Australia too? At one stage. Yes.
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Yeah. General manager of Australian sailing for Western Australia.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a great, great gig.
And again, one of those things, I was able to indulge myself.
But funnily enough, I did less sailing when I was helping run the sport
[00:02:50] Speaker A: than
[00:02:52] Speaker B: I did at any other time.
But wonderful place. And the interesting thing about sailing, particularly in Western Australia, is that we're 10% of the population, but we're 20% of the participants of the sport of sailing.
So, you know, the Participation rates here are just insane.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: I suppose it's insane because of the great weather and the winds and you know it's gonna blow a gale in the morning and you know it's gonna blow a gale in the afternoon and there's nothing like. I've only sailed a little bit in Melbourne on Albert Park Lake and I found it very exhilarating especially. Yeah. Bit of white Bollinger, it's a bit of sail and you, you're off, you're off like a rocket.
The other thing you're associated with is the STS Lewin. Yes.
Tell us a bit about that.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I was down there this morning.
Today we were able to farewell Lewin on her first voyage following the dismasting more than 500 days ago. So she left with a complement of 27 trainees, 14 crew and she's off the coast of.
She's at Gauge Roads at the moment.
Sails up and, and she's got sails up.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: I hope so.
Yes.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: But yeah, this is the first proper week back since the, the accident back in 2024.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, that's, that's.
It was a must have been a wild time that all, all of that happened all at once and yeah, that
[00:04:31] Speaker B: was an interesting, an interesting period. I, my, my last day at Australian sailing was, was the day of the, the accident and as a consequence I didn't go in and actually do my last day. Sorry Kate, if you're listening.
Threw her into, into, into the mix early. But the, yeah, the accident happened. I got a call from Fremantle Port six o' clock that morning, basically saying, Lawson, we know you haven't started yet but you better come on down and, and check out. There's been a bit of an accident with the ship. And of course when I got there it was a, it was a complete mess. But thankfully the two crew we had on board were safe.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that's like. I mean we saw it at work and it was containers. When a cargo, when a cargo ship hits anything, it runs through the office. Yes. And especially one of those large container vessels. It ran through our sea freight office like to us though tomorrow.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: And there was video, everyone was showing video of it. Now we're. What are we gonna do if. Oh man. All they're worried about is the containers but we were worried about the, you know, the ship and, and if there was any damage or if there's any injuries on board or anything like that. So you know, it's one of those things. Awesome. But where did it all start? Where did your passion for riding a bike. Start.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Oh look, seven years of age on a, on a XL70 that was owned by my cousin and it had a clutch and a little four speed box and, and I had ridden mini bikes before, but getting in, getting on the XL70 and being able to ride a proper motorbike at that stage I was young was just fantastic.
It awakened something in me and a real passion that stayed with me for life.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Awesome. Yeah, I've had a lot of friends who have had bikes. I'm not sort of a bike person, but I appreciate going to bike shows and stuff like that. So, so yeah, it's, it's. And did that lead you into a career of motorbikes?
[00:06:51] Speaker B: No, absolutely not. I, I was, I had my career sites were set on doing something in the engineering field and I took a year off off work of, of study after HSC and, and decided I was, you know, gonna go and indulge my passion to become a graphic designer.
And that led into an accidental marketing career where I found out that I was actually.
Well, I enjoyed doing the design work and the actual artworks on things. Back when cut and paste was actually cutting and pasting. Used a scalpel and you used glue and you stuck artwork together on cardboard.
But I was better at selling the work than I was at doing the work.
And that led me to a career in advertising. But in the administration of it. And I became what they call a suit. And I worked my way up an accidental advertising career of about 20 years.
Ended up running a couple of multinational agencies in Southeast Asia at the end of my career, which I enjoyed immensely. But it set me up for my sort of next phase, which is a bit more entrepreneurial.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yes. Things like that, they come out of the blue and they don't come all that often, but when they come, you're at that right time in your life.
When a position like that comes up, it doesn't come up all that often.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: No.
[00:08:27] Speaker A: And it finds you. It's not a, it's not a thing of searching for it, stuff like that.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: No, absolutely. And the, the clients that I had as a young advertising executive were fantastic. You know, I end up working on the Ford retail business. So that's the, you know, the come and buy a Ford from this dealer.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Sort of stuff. And this is back in the, in the early 90s.
And I eventually got approached by the agency that was running the Holden Advertising.
And so I was taking in charge of the Ford account at that point, the retail account. And then they said, come along, we're Going to do what we want to do, the same thing. Ford are fantastic at how they had started the their dealer and Holden hadn't quite mastered it. So I defected, took all my secrets with me and set up the Holden retail advertising program with a company called Fame Advertising.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: And if you cast your mind back to the late 90s, you know, the happy new Holden with Peter Brock and Deborah Hutton and all that sort of stuff. I was lucky enough to be involved in that. And so that was back in the day.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: That's really interesting you say that because being a Ford guy and being involved with Ford Australia back in the 90s, obviously we, the early Falcon Car Club or Victoria were involved with the late Adrian Ryan.
We did the 30th anniversary of the Yu Yangs.
We did a lot of stuff with the xk.
Anytime they wanted something early, it was Adrian Ring and me or Stan Gibson or one of those guys.
And then I suppose passing of Adrian and stuff like that and then seeing some stuff from Holden and then having contact with Del Deliberto, the Holden dealer regional. I think it was a Chuka.
Yeah.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: And he was also down in, down in the. He had some. The Del Burdo family had a bunch of stuff. Fantastic people. And Melissa, if you're out there, g'. Day. How are you?
[00:10:39] Speaker A: She ended up as a dealer principal
[00:10:40] Speaker B: having worked in J. Walter Thompson back in the day.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So he, he did a lot of stuff with Peter Brock in, in the day and especially those ads you're talking about. He was, they were instrumental when Brock was, was out the, was out in the boonies and then they invited him
[00:11:00] Speaker B: back and it was, that was a really interesting thing because the dealers at that point had, had, had set up a structure and had decent funds, but their charter was that they had to spend their money on the advertising itself and they had no money to put the ads together or get a spokesman. However, Peter Brock was already on the books and the motor company wasn't using him.
You know, all the polarizer stuff had
[00:11:30] Speaker A: gone, had gone through, but he was
[00:11:33] Speaker B: still a bit out there. So our creative director at the time, Doug, jumped on it and said, we've got this icon, let's get him back into the, into the fold. And of course that was a masterstruck. He was absolutely well loved at that point. And getting him back into mainstream advertising.
We did our original campaign had him driving a Barinac, throwing, throwing catalogs out the window and we were shooting that ad at the back, out the back of Campbelltown.
Wonderful experience.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Yeah, it's Interesting. Like, I mean, I was talking to Peter Hughes, the motorsport guru artist, does all the liveries for Holden and stuff like that and those days and even Al and that back in the day it was. I reckon it was amazing.
From out of nowhere that came.
So now we've sort of followed the line and even a motorsport photographer called Ian Smith, he was Peter Frock's original photographer and Ian was on. He's had. He's had two shows on Talking Talk and he mentioned all those times, all those, all those.
I was photographing Peter somewhere or with Holden and when it all blew up, there was nothing and then he was out in the wilderness and then all of a sudden this marketing campaign came out of nowhere, back in the game.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: And the interesting thing about Peter and this really taught me a lesson that has stayed with me for life, which was basically, don't forget what made you famous.
We put the commercial in the camp and we'd finish for the day and it was, it was late, it was getting dark.
But the word had got around the local Campbelltown area that Peter Brock was up from Melbourne and that he was shooting a commercial. And all of a sudden people started turning up, turning up in their cars, turning up. They pulled the lid off the gallop box and had a squeaky pen and said, here, sign this. And people were.
Young ladies were saying, shots, sign my shoulder.
And there was probably a couple hundred fans, Brock fans that had turned up just through word of mouth. He stopped and talked to every single one of them. It was late for his. We had to put the flight, his flight back to Melbourne three or four times and at the end it was the last flight. We had to drive like a batter hell to get from, from Campbelltown to Kingsford Smith to get him on a plane to get back to Melbourne, to get him back, back to Bev that night, otherwise it would have been trouble.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, he was, he was, he was well known for that. I mean, talking to Ian and other people who had dealings with Peter, he was.
You don't know which Peter you were going to get. Yes, sometimes you're going to get the. Peter Brock the race driver, Peter Brock the family guy, Peter Block, Peter Brock the marketeer.
So I suppose that would have been really interesting times, dealing with absolute, consummate
[00:14:42] Speaker B: professional every time we dealt with him. And that was, you know, a few times a year over a number of years. And.
And also, you know, Deborah Hutton as well. She was, she was, she was a fantastic spokesperson for, for the brand.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: They did a crocodile ad or they did some sort of ad where they were cutting themselves through a jungle or something.
Something like that. That's.
Yeah, I vaguely remember that ad because that's what.
Yeah, that, that was one of the ones I thought that is a weird ad.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: But you know, the, the bit of
[00:15:17] Speaker B: dialogue which was, you know, Happy New Year, Brocky. It was Happy New Holden, Deborah. Yeah, that was the whole thing. And it was an interesting time because the New Year period was never a period for selling vehicles until we sort of realized, okay, well nothing's happening in that, in that period of time. Let's make it an automotive retail event. And that took off awesome. The other interesting piece in there was, you know, Ford at that point were by far and away the market leader.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: And this was going into the launch of AU Falcon.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: And of course, you know, Holden had launched VT the year before and Sydney Motor show was coming up, everyone was talking about ru. There was going to be a great, great unveiling. And of course the came around, the unveiling started to happen and then the word had got around that there was a, a Monaro about to be unveiled. And the press got up in one unit left and went to watch the unveiling of the Monaro. It was unreal.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: It was, it was
[00:16:26] Speaker B: really seat of the pants marketing. That was a lot of fun back in the day.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Yeah, sort of. Well, you know, we had a bit to do with Adrian Ryan in the day and he was involved with the Melbourne Motor show and stuff like that. And I remember him saying, you know, see what Holden did to us, you know. And that was probably seat of the pants.
IPL is all about mental health and that's inspiring, passionate lives. That's what we're all about here.
We're a community radio station.
We have, we ask for grants from great people and companies and stuff and we've been lucky enough to get a grand of Black Dog riders the past 18 months.
Tell us how BDR transfer the funds and how do they, how do they garnish the funds to, to help community enterprises?
[00:17:37] Speaker B: It's a really awesome question, Darren, because we're a grassroots charity. We're really, you know, there's, there's three part time staff, probably a headcount of 1.5 if you like that. Look after the charity nationally, I'm one of them. We've got Rhonda down in Busselton. G', day, Rhonda and Hope over in Kilkenn in New South Wales. We're the three that are essentially driving it, but we do that through a network of volunteers, estate coordinators. You mentioned John Hitchcock here in wa.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: And because of that our overhead is extremely low. Yes, we're often confused with the Black Dog Institute, which is a 50 million dollar organization run out of the University of Sydney.
But we're our own organisation and we're very, very grassroots.
That means that our overheads are incredibly low. We don't have an office, we don't have a building.
We've got some donated premises from Busselton Toyota where we, we store our merchandise.
But our biggest overhead is some part time salaries that allows us to make sure that any donations or any fundraising that come into the organisation go specifically into what we call a gift fund.
And that gift fund is 100% expended on community grants or mental health first aid training and things of that nature. And so over since 2009, we've distributed at this point just a little shade over $4 million into community programs like IPL.
And you know, there's a lot of pride in the fact that, you know, we're able to, we're nimble enough to be able to deploy small grants which sometimes are complicated and expensive to administer, but we can deploy them in areas in regional Australia in particular, which is where we get a lot of our support into mental health projects, grassroots mental health projects that matter.
And we see that that's making a huge difference, particularly in regional Australia.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: It's, I suppose regional Australia, Australia's so large and really we are concentrated in the capital cities and mental health, men's mental health in general is very much not spoken about as much.
Black Dog ride helps a lot of individuals, helps a lot of communities. It's isolation that actually that's the most, the biggest part of mental health.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Starting a conversation, yes, is what it was about. And Steve Andrews is the founder, he founded the ride sort of by accident and a friend of his, his wife suicided and it came out of the blue and he was shocked and he, you know, why hadn't she talked about her issues was the question.
Steve's a bit of an introvert himself. Look at this amazing thing that he's found. But he's a bit of an introvert himself. So he jumped on a motorcycle and rode around Australia in, in an effort to get people having a conversation. And at the same time he raised a bunch of funds and that was how the movement started. In the 35 days it took him to ride his motorbike around Australia, he raised about $35,000 and had numerous hundreds and hundreds of Conversations about, why have you got a fluffy back black dog toy sitting on your motorbike?
Why is his name Winston?
Why you want a motorbike in the first place? And things like motorbikes and fluffy black dogs and being in a group starts a conversation. What are you guys doing?
We're writing to raise awareness for mental health.
And by having that conversation, you're destigmatizing mental health and you're able to sort of take away that sort of little bit of shame or a little bit of.
And this is particularly amongst men, you know, the stigma of saying, you know, I've got a mental health issue.
Whereas, you know, we'll talk all day about a broken leg and how we broke it.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: But being depressed and being to the point of wanting to take your own life is something that, that gets bottled up and that's a real shame.
And the more we talk about it and the more we talk about having a conversation, the more that comes out of the background and starts and it has over the last sort of decade or so become more and more mainstream. Talk about, are you okay?
Came after us, but therefore had a great success in talking, asking that question.
And I think that's one of the key pieces. If we're just destigmatising mental health issues, that's the first step into having a good discussion about suicide prevention and being able to help fund some of these supports are in place and we don't do anything other than raise awareness. That's our biggest thing.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: It's just an amazing what Steve has done in the legacy because it's actual. It's. I mean it all. It always. Everything starts from one person.
And for him to start that because of that's what happened his wife to her life.
It's actually.
It's a great thing that he's done because the movement has grown from one bike to how many.
How many runs?
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we're hoping to have at least 6,000 out on 15th March this year, which is.
This is one day we'll have 50 ride locations around Australia. I think it's 52 this year.
And some of them have maybe half a dozen riders.
Some of them have 200, 350. Collectively about 6,000 riders around Australia across 50 odd locations, all riding on 15th of March, the third Sunday of March every year, and essentially making a bit of noise, riding through communities, having conversations and shining the spotlight on what's a serious, serious health issue.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: That definitely it's. It can hit anybody from any way shape form of Life, depression, mental health, sickness, stress.
And it's great that there's a, you know, there's a outlet and it's all about the discussion as, as, as you've said.
Sunday 15th March, where, where in WA.
I think you're starting from Baldivas for some.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Well, there's, there's a, there's a bunch of rides here in wa. Yeah. And the Baldivas ride is an excellent ride. We've got new coordinators there. Chris having having passed the bat on, on they'll be, they'll be getting together at the Bunnings Warehouse that, that have been after them since the inception. Yes, that's a great ride.
I'll probably head, I'm based in Big park so I'll probably help. There's a new ride starting up north, north of the river. Those guys and I'll wave them off. Probably won't ride.
Although I love to be on, on a one day.
Really want to make sure that I'm in communication with coordinators and our number one concern is that, is that everybody that goes on the ride gets home safely.
Safety is our number one priority.
And you know, we just want to, I just want to make sure that you don't need to pick up the phone in case, in case we need to mobilise, you know, emergencies or emergency services. It doesn't happen often.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: No, no, but I suppose we just had a fateful incident here in Waikiki on Friday and you know, it's, it's a terrible tragedy.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: The, yeah, the, there's been a spate of motorcycle fatalities recently and particularly across Western Australia. And I suppose, you know, we're a national movement, but again, bit like sailing.
There's a, there's a disproportionate amount of motorcyclists on the Black Dog Ride here and probably because, you know, the ride started here and has grown nationally. Very, very proud of the fact that we're a WA born and bred charity that has grown.
But there's incredible support right around the country and particularly rural areas. You know, places like Dubbo in New South Wales have got an enormous ride and, and incredibly well organised and they do an awesome, awesome, awesome job. Seymour in Victoria of all places has got a tremendous ride that's organised there as well. So there's some really good. You know, I'd hate to just pick out a couple, but. Yeah, but that gives you an idea. You know, here in wa, the Busselton ride, obviously it was the first one that was ever, ever done. So that goes from strengths and strengths every year. But down in Denmark, the. What a beautiful motorcycling roads, but very strong community there that really gets behind the cause.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really. I know a lot of people in Seymour, Victoria and they are passionate, passionate motorbike riders and they're passionate.
They've just had the fires through there and it's been devastating through Alexandria and that part of eastern Victoria.
I suppose I'm on the roads a fair bit and I. And I like to give a rider a fair bit of space only as far as respect because I know that I'm going to be okay if I have a crash.
But at 100ks with trucks and the sort of loads that are being transported on the West Australian roads and the. Some of the behavior on Western Australian roads is not.
Not great.
And I hope the government, they sort of. I'm not sure whether it's actually.
It's a. I, I think it's a behavioral thing about West Australian drivers emerging, giving way, taking time, stepping back.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Merging is one of those things that we're all criticised for over here and you know, my interstate mates look at us and they shake our heads and carry on. But I think it's.
Visibility for motorcyclists has always been an issue. And the perennial excuses. Sorry, I made. I didn't see smidzy.
It's up to the rider though, to make themselves visible.
We traditionally dress all in black. You know, that's not great for visibility.
I'm guilty of that. I've got a black helmet and black leathers and all of that sort of stuff. But the, you know, it's up to us to ride in a manner that's safe and considerate for other road use. And we're very much about that. You know, we don't, we don't flood or clog intersections, we don't. We don't block off traffic. We don't try not to.
A lot of people give way and let us through and things like that.
Knowing about the course is number one. Generally, if they see a fluffy black dog on somebody's rack or backpack or windscreen, they'll realise what's going on. And even though we're a small grassroots charity, our mascot Winston is very, very well known and know tends to. People do tend to give you a little bit of birth, but just. Yeah. So there's some road behaviours that you look at and you go, gee, it's a little bit unsafe.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Winston, what an unusual name. You'd think that he'd be a bulldog or Whatever. How did, how did the black dog ride mascot get the name Winston?
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Wonderful question.
It's almost as if we set that one up, it goes back to, it goes back to Winston Churchill.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: And when he was Prime Minister during the war, the Second World War, he wrote in his diary about the black dog of depression following him around.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: And so Winston is our black dog.
And we've decided that we're going to acknowledge it, acknowledge him and encourage him. And St. Winston's the name of a mascot. And if you ever see a fluffy black dog on a motorcycle, you know that somebody's there riding for the black dog. Right. And essentially that's what's given the, the charity.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Now look, that's awesome. I mean you've, you've got to have a good read of or know of Sir Winston Churchill. He was the, he's the only British Prime Minister to get a national funeral.
Right. So no one has ever got a state funeral in London in England, and the only Prime Minister was Sir Winston Churchill. And you know, if you, if you read some of the books that he wrote and he was an artist, he was a bricklayer, you know, I mean, but you know, it comes across that he had the black dog of mental health following through, through history, you know, and he, he loved his Paul Roger champagne and chomping on cigars and stuff like that. But you know, he was a high functioning alcoholic also.
Just one of those strange men in history that actually stood up in history and was one of the great orators of the world, I suppose. Indeed.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: And you know, he was able, he had an incredible turn of phrase and this one is one that's stood the test of time. And us taking on a mascot of a black dog, I mean, that's something that the other charities obviously have done as well, but it's become synonymous with us and it's obviously on our little logo and you know, it's, it's well recognized. And so well recognized, in fact, that I was, I was down in North Cliff a couple of years ago.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: And I had driven there with a friend. I was not even on a motorbike, but I was wearing one of these shirts and had just topped up the car with petrol at the service station just outside of Northcliff and going in to pay for it, and an old cocky came up, put a hundred dollar note in my pocket and said, you know what to do with that, make sure it gets to the right people. So, you know, there's people that recognize just our logo and they've come up and said with their generosity. And this is the sort of generosities that we get. You know, we don't attract huge donations from government or from big, big corporations. We really do get a lot of small dollar donations. The fives, the tens, the twenties. There's a lot of raffle tickets sold. There's a lot of people saying, you know what, here's my hundred dollars. There's a group of, there's a group of ladies in Tasmania who have a small portion of their pay packet each fortnight. Put aside the Direct Debit Bandits and pull all that together and that then gets donated to the Tassie ride.
[00:34:36] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: On one day. And that's a big donation all up.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:34:41] Speaker B: But it's made up of hundreds and hundreds of small donations done throughout the years.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: The small donation, put it to One side with 1, 2, 3, 20, 30, 40, 50 people, ends up being a large donation. At the end of the day it
[00:34:57] Speaker B: all ends up being, you know, over the course of a year, quite a few hundred thousand dollars that we're able to put towards. And all of that, all of those funds, all of those donations get, get put towards our grants program.
And you know, that's, that's one of the great things about, about what we do, you know. Yeah, we've got some great merch merchandise we sell, helps keep the lights on and the salaries paid. But every single donation, every single raffle ticket, all of that income goes directly towards our community grants program.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Amazing. Amazing.
That's sort of unheard of too. I've never come across that, but thank you for sharing that. Those ladies in Tassie, Raylene Glover and
[00:35:44] Speaker B: the director, Debit Bandits, I mean they've done an incredible job down there and they've gone from being from supporting the ride to actually helping run the Campbelltown ride in Tasmania.
And again, that's another little ride in the middle of Tassie that absolutely punches above its way and they have a wonderful time.
It's a great ride in a beautiful area and with some really, really good people.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: That's fantastic. That's. Yeah. So Sunday the 15th of March, where is everybody? You guys? Is everybody heading to one place in wa?
No.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: So individual rides.
And in wa, for example, we've got, we've got Valdivis here, south of the river, we'll have one in Malaga. North of the river there's Avon Valley and Busselton and Denmark.
So that covers Perth. And in the south west there's.
Each ride has its own course.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:36:58] Speaker B: And each individual ride has got Its little crew that put together. Some are bigger and some are smaller there. You know, you'll see a group of a couple of hundred motorcycles on the road somewhere between Busselton and Nanna.
On that morning in Denmark you'll see those guys on the road. They're heading from Denmark up to Katani.
The Avon Valley ride is always a great ride around.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: Around the
[00:37:34] Speaker B: wheat belt.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Assuming haven't seen the route yet for Malaga but I'm assuming that'll head up towards, you know, Moore river, that area.
And obviously the Valdivis ride rides out up through Serpentine.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: Awesome. We hope to take talking talk to the Valdivis guys on that morning.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Fantastic.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Get up there and take some photos and promote and do a little video and show it on our socials.
So they're the West Australian rides. Is there an annual ride to a major destination in Australia every second year?
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Yes, we do a destination ride and we do that at a, at a time where we try to make sure it works for everybody.
This year the destination is Cairns.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: And our West Australian riders are going to ride over the top to Cairns and probably more than, more than likely they'll finish by coming back down around the bottom and across the Nullarbor. Having done then a lap of Australia.
Big ride.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: That is. That is massive.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: It's a massive ride.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: The, that is massive.
[00:38:59] Speaker B: However, two years ago our, our friends from Queensland did much the same thing when we had the, the ride finishing in, in Fremantle in September of last year. So that was, that was very, very good.
Then in the alternate years the odd years will have a big state ride and so the state coordinators will organise a long distance ride around their respective states.
John organised the last one and he's in the present league. John Hitchcock is presently putting together the itinerary for getting people across to Cairns.
But there's some really blessed here in WA that not just the fantastic metro roads that we've got that are incredible condition but our B roads and our country roads are also fantastic. They are very good and riding a motorcycle around WA is just awesome.
And the sense of freedom the moment you leave Metro Perth, everything, the traffic cools down, everything becomes a lot easier and a lot more free. And of course road courtesy out in the country with a wave and a nod and all that sort.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: Oh yeah, that's awesome.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Tracks giving you the indicator to let you know that it's great to pass and things like that. I mean the truck drivers are fantastic to our community and we really like, we really love their support. So you know, riding distance, riding around Western Australia is just something awesome. And the last one I did was we left Perth, we went up, through, up through to Newman and then all the way to Headland down the coast on the way back. And that I've seen, you know, I've seen some magnificent areas of Karijini. Just mind blowing. And when you're out there and you're in it, it's very, very different from being in a car or any other kind of.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it's. It would be mind blowing. The roads are extremely good.
Like, sort of, as you said, the B roads are very, very good. So a bit like I've never ridden. I've only been a pillion on a bike a couple of times.
And I'm not the great person to. I'm not a great. I'm not a great passenger either.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: I'm a terrible passenger on a motorbike. Don't put me on the back unless it's behind my wife in the traffic in Saigon. That's a whole different thing.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: And I'm not riding in Saigon, so that's.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: I wouldn't be riding in Saigon neither. Or would. Neither will I be riding in Bali. But I mean, it takes its own nerve to do that.
You take your own life at hand if you want.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: After a while, you know, I did spend a lot of time in Asia, and after a while you get used to how the traffic flows. And essentially it's the law of the jungle. You know, the bigger you are, the more you stay away from somebody, you know, the more. If that bus is bearing down and I'm just getting out of his way and it's the school of fish mentality. If you're one of 50 scooter riders, you're less likely to be. You're in the middle of it. You're less likely to be picked off by the sharks or the buses or the trucks or whatever else that's going around.
It also unfolds at a much slower pace.
You're traveling at 10, 20, 30 k's through the streets of Saigon, for example, apple. Not at 50, 60, 70, 80.
[00:42:52] Speaker A: So that would be an awesome experience.
Saigon on a. On a.
On a moped, whatever. They sort of, you know, like 250. I don't think they'd have anything more higher than a 250, would they? No.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Well, the, the licensing originally stopped at 175cc, so people would, would learn on a.
You don't even need a license there for under 50cc, so a lot of motorcycles are 49cc's okay.
But you then get a, a license for.
Typically the, the size of the motorcycle is 125.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: And they're all step through Hondas. 110, 100, 125 cc's that was your standard Honda Cub.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:43:36] Speaker B: Yamaha or whatever the brand was. Honda. Honda had the blind share of the market share.
But it was really interesting when we first were able to introduce Harley Davidson into Vietnam. This was in 2013.
The Vietnam government had signed up to the World Trade Agreement that got rid of what they called non tariff trade barriers in the country. And that meant that the trade barrier at that point was if you were a normal person, you couldn't get motorcycle license that allowed you to ride a 175cc or greater motorbike. That was only for various. You had to join. You had to be a member of an official government motorcycle club to be able to have such a license.
And those clubs were put together for, interestingly enough, for ceremonial purposes. So they would be the guys that would accompany parade, things like that.
Anyway, those, those, that barrier was lifted the same month we opened Harley Davidson of Saigon. And the sales went bananas. Absolutely went berserk because that was, that was the biggest barrier. You couldn't get a license to legally ride. You could buy one, you could buy a motorcycle. You bought whichever motorcycle you wanted, provided you paid for it.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:58] Speaker B: But you couldn't legally ride it until you had the correct license.
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: And all of that came together really well when we launched Harley Davidson of Saigon and riding a.
I've had a couple of really lovely experiences riding Harleys across America and a few other things.
But riding a Harley through the middle of Saigon is fantastic. And up through, up through the Ho Chi Minh highway and up into Khe San and, and some of these amazing, this amazing scenery on the border of Laos in Cambodia. But the best riding experience I've ever had is being able to ride a brand new Harley on a dealer trip through Tokyo. And there's a group of us cruising through the Ginza through that amazing traffic and those amazing pedestrian crossings.
It was, it was astounding. A lot of fun. And oh yeah, Tokyo traffic is a whole different level of mayhem as well.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: Yes. And the Philippines again, another.
Oh my God. I was. Yeah. Even in a car watching these bikes is just utter mayhem.
[00:46:17] Speaker B: The, the Harley Davidson dealer in the Philippines, he's a great guy. And they've got a very active Harley owners group that do a lot of them. My very first experience when I became a Harley Davidson dealer was going across to what they call Asia Harley days and that was held in Manila that year and there would have been, there'd
[00:46:40] Speaker A: been
[00:46:42] Speaker B: 1500 Harleys all doing a parade.
Bill Davidson had flown out from the States. It was quite the, quite the big to do in downtown metro Manila.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: Yeah I suppose we were there and we had. I was in a little minivan with a number of international racing drivers one that actually was racing at the 12 hour this year and there's a couple that race overseas quite frequently ones that actually afford sign driver and back 10 years ago, 15 years ago it was amazing. They said they would never ever ride a motorbike the way that they used to see.
[00:47:33] Speaker B: You must be happy about the Red Bull team switching into Mustangs.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah I mean I suppose you know it's a different, it's a different ball game. I mean I saw the accident this morning. Chris Myers in the GT3 Mustang.
Skippy got cleaned up at 250km an hour going down Conrod straight and it took the front half the front end of the car and he ended up with a lot of roadkill on him.
Unfortunate. He, he, he's, he got out safe. But on the near misses of Skippy in the past probably two years that one takes the cake as the number one racing car hit. Even though last year Kai Allen in the headright Mustang going down Conrod.
I don't know if it's the same kangaroo but he's not, he's not, he's not the same kangaroo this year. Don't think he's the same kangaroo but yeah, Ky Allen nearly hit one in the rain late that afternoon and it clipped the front of the car.
This time he wasn't so lucky. I suppose it's happened at Phillip island. It's happened a lot of tracks in Australia and I wasn't surprised to see it happen today at Bathurst. I was surprised that it actually took out a car because there's been a lot of near misses with echidnas, with kangaroos.
I mean I hit a rabbit at Rob Roy hill climb at 160.
You know it's just Australia they don't, they don't have these things overseas but.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: Oh and that's one of the, that's one of the, the perils of riding motorcycles here is, is the wildlife.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: And I've had a, I'm lucky. I've had a few near misses.
The scariest one was an emu heading I was on is in Western Australia near Ouija, Malta heading towards Norseman. Yes and you just came out and he's. His legs are going and his eyes looking at me and I'm looking at him and I'm going, where are you going, mate?
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Starting to roll off the throttle to
[00:49:56] Speaker B: make sure he gets ahead. He slows down.
But yeah, emus are. Emus are terrifying.
Yeah.
The kangaroos and things like that are equally as terrifying. But Emi got me going there for a while because he was keeping pace, I suppose.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. They are very, very quick. It was that old song in the back in the 70s. Old Man Emu kick the guts out of a super room. You know, it's not a Holden jargon advertising campaign of back in the day. You know, Old Man Emu.
And there was a song called Old man name you and it hit the airwaves and hit the top 10. Grantly D, the blind DJ Melbourne.
Yeah, they used to play it a lot in the 60s. Old man Amy. Right.
So yeah. Emus. Kangaroos. Yeah. I had a couple of close encounters with some kangaroos in the day.
And I wouldn't drive going interstate early or at dusk.
No.
[00:51:00] Speaker B: We'd pull up well and truly before dusk normally.
Unless mechanical issues keep out of time. And that occasionally happens.
But the other danger in Western Australia is honky nuts.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: Sorry, the honky nuts.
[00:51:17] Speaker B: The big giant gum nuts.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:51:21] Speaker B: So we.
And this is where the riders in Denmark and in Busselton in particular they go out the day before and sweep whatever honky nuts they can off the quantities. Where's the gravel? But yeah, it's like these big giant ball bearings and.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: Yep, I'll get it now.
Never heard of that.
Yeah, never heard of that. So that's. That's a danger to a.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: Absolutely danger.
You can slip on those very quickly.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: Wow.
Unbelievable.
That's. That's pretty interesting. So that's another wa. Because I've never. I've never heard that out east. I did have a couple of guessing before Christmas that actually said to me that they'd never seen a kangaroo. They drove from Perth to Bathurst for the Cortina Nationals.
Robin.
Those guys. And they only hit kangaroos in South Australia coming out of South Australia to New South Wales.
[00:52:32] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Is there in plague proportions there? Obviously.
[00:52:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And I did.
My first Nullarbor trip was in 2019 from Sydney through to Perth and didn't see much wildlife at all until we got to Wilcannia. And the stretch between Wilcannia and Broken Hill was just a charnel house. It was. There would have been ruse every few metres. Yeah, that's What I said, it was, it was awful.
But on the other side of Broken Hill and then through to South Australia, we saw nothing until we got into South Australia and then on the road all the way through to Peterborough was pretty bad. But that Peterborough stretch where you're heading over Horrocks Pass and into Port Augusta, it's just magical, fantastic motorcycle riding.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. The roads are good for it and it's great to see, you know, I love seeing guys two by two going down the highway. It's just one of those, I suppose it's one of those romantic, romantic things that you see. Even saw a few Vietnam veteran guys on their bikes down at Canberra one year, we were going to a car show, they were going the opposite way and it was, look, have a look at these guys. How cool is that?
And then we stopped a few days later and they go, you guys in those early Falcons. I said, yeah, yes, that was cool. I said, that's what we're saying about you guys.
It must be, it must be just one of those.
[00:54:11] Speaker B: Oh, there's a lot of admiration between motorcycle riders. Quite often it's the very same people.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Oh yeah, they're, they're just, they're just awesome. They're just, just one of those things.
Fifth, what other initiatives? Getting back to BDR and the fundraising, what other initiatives do you. Does BDR do for the community?
That is an initiative of the fundraising from the events.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: So again, our big program is really the community grants side of things and so they can range from $thousand to $10,000.
Occasionally we will do things like support the Men's Sheds association and we've supported them over a couple of years doing a program called their Shed Mates program, which is all about not just mental health, but just shared well being.
And the Men's Shed is an interesting organisation because it does exactly what we think needs to happen is having conversations. Because men don't talk face to face about issues, they'll talk about something when they're working shoulder to shoulder on a project on a workbench.
And so therefore the service that Men Sheds provides to particularly to retired men, which are a big part of the demographic of people who have mental health issues.
The work they do is fantastic. So we support them.
We support organisations like Probus, which is where Rotarians who have retired essentially do this, their sort of work and they do a lot of community work. So we've provoked, we've helped Provis Club help with their recruitment and getting, you know, for better mental health outcomes, getting people involved in community work, we've also done work with Royal Flying Doctor Service, particularly in the Queensland bit, where they've got a dedicated mental health outreach program.
[00:56:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: And so those are the bigger grants that we've put into some of the communities there's. And some of. Some of which have obviously got national reach, but we want to make sure that we don't.
We went down a path initially, when fundraising started, of supporting Lifeline, which is a fantastic course. Yes, it's a fantastic course, it really is.
And.
But we never really knew where the dollar that we raised was being spent. It went into a big pot and a fantastic pot that Lifeline is.
But what we thought, you know, particularly with the regional fundraising that happens with our movement, it was really important to see, for example, you know, something happening in the Southwest, because that's where a bunch of money happened to get raised and benefiting a local charity there or a local community drive. You know, we've done everything from having contemplation benches, reflection benches in South Australia, to also supporting mental health first aid programs around, you know, train. The trainer program is one thing that we do do.
They're quite expensive for a person to actually pay for themselves. They're about $5,000. So we'll cover the cost of a train, the trainer program, provided that trainer has a reasonably good business plan to get mental health first aid out into the market.
And we'll also support things like putting mental health first aid into the community. And so after the big bushfires in Kangaroo Island a couple of years ago, this place was pretty well wiped out.
We organised a series of workshops and put in 20 mental health first aid trained individuals through that program. So those are the sorts of things that happen on the ground.
And, you know, we really look to support and we want to be able to sort of, you know, try and spend a dollar where it's raised. And one of the lessons I learned doing retail advertising for Ford and for Holden was that the dealers at the time want to say, well, if I'm raising, if I'm getting charged 100 bucks a car.
[00:59:01] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:59:01] Speaker B: It goes into an advertising fund. I want to make sure that my hundred bucks is spent in my area.
[00:59:05] Speaker A: That's right, my dealership.
[00:59:06] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, there are ways that you can make sure that that happens.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:12] Speaker B: And it is important for a local community that does so much.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:59:16] Speaker B: To see some of the benefit of that.
[00:59:18] Speaker A: Yeah. No, I suppose that is the key ingredient of being successful.
The key ingredient of being successful is to.
That when you raise money in your community, you spend it in the community.
And I suppose as you've spoken, that lifeline, you guys, even though it's a great cause, that you actually didn't know where that money was going to and it wasn't if it was going to the right areas where, where BDI believed it should go to.
[00:59:55] Speaker B: Oh, look, absolutely. You know, Lifelines are tremendous organization and, and they'll decide and determine where the funds need to go. I think us as a grassroots organisation with zero government support, we're nimble enough and able to determine where and when we spend those funds. And it's important that we're able to articulate to the person who's putting the hundred dollars in my pocket where that hundred dollars is likely to end up. And, and I think, you know, for a grassroots organization like that, I use the term grassroots because it really is, you know, community based.
[01:00:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: Volunteer run.
You know, it's really important to know that you, that, that the limited funds that people have that are contributing to this great cause because it means something to them are actually being put to use.
[01:00:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, look, that's, I suppose that's, that's one of the, that's one of the best things that you can do for a community because then the community get enthused, get enthusiastic about what you're going to do.
[01:01:09] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:01:09] Speaker A: And they say the, the even though they like to see the money value of what any community likes to see the money value of what's being spent on their community that they're raising.
So I suppose, you know, that's, that's one of the fundamental, fundamental things of having a great community organization and they, and groups in the community that sort of do all that sort of stuff. So 15th of 15th of March, 15th
[01:01:40] Speaker B: of March is our big event. National one day. National one day and best way, best, best way if you, if you. For the motorcycle riders out there, if you want to be part of it, jump onto the underwear website.
[01:01:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:01:54] Speaker B: Www black ride.org click on Rides and it'll take you to a whole list of where they are. Find your state, find your local area, sign up if there's not a, a ride locally to you. We do the, we do what's on going called a virtual ride.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: So you can sign up, get a virtual ticket.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: Go for a ride or not.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: Awesome.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: You can sit at home and say
[01:02:24] Speaker A: you did if you wanted to.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: But the good thing about a virtual ride is, you know, there's a lot of people out there that feel uncomfortable in groups.
[01:02:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:02:33] Speaker B: That don't particularly want to have that face to face communication. So the thought was, well, you know, it's okay, go for a ride, you can support the cause. We'll send you a sticker and a patch that you can put on your vest.
[01:02:46] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: And by the way, you know, you've just contributed to helping Black Dog Ride reach some of his goals.
[01:02:53] Speaker A: Well, that's another great.
I suppose I don't know who came up with it first, you guys.
[01:02:58] Speaker B: I wish, I wish I did, but I can't even claim to that. I think that goes back to one of my predecessors and that's awesome.
It was a great idea. But that was something of necessity born
[01:03:09] Speaker A: out of COVID Yes, a lot of, a lot of good things came out of that era. A lot of bad things came out of that era. But in saying that, I suppose the, I suppose they do that at the Sydney test, they do something virtual too.
But you saying that today, it wasn't part of the questions either. It was just something that sort of came out of the blue now. But I suppose that actually helps people with their mental health.
[01:03:41] Speaker B: It can look helmet time, right?
[01:03:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:43] Speaker B: And motorcycle riders know what the value of helmet time is. And you know, you put your helmet on, you're in the moment.
I've never been one to be able to organize, although I have Bluetooth bits and pieces that connect to my phone in my helmet.
I don't use it for that reason. Perhaps listen to music or whatever, the purists poo poo that as well. So. But you know, having your head in the helmet, being on your motorcycle, looking around, being aware of your surroundings takes you out of those incredible intrusive thoughts and, and gives you the diversion, distraction sometimes people need in order to, to be able to, you know, to blow the cobwebs out.
[01:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool.
Well, we're gonna play some music for Lawson, a couple of tracks, then we're going to come back and finish it all off. So here we go with some tracks for that. Lawson's chosen this afternoon at IPL radio
[01:04:56] Speaker B: the best music from the 60s to today.
[01:05:00] Speaker A: IPL radio still in the studio and playing some Aussie music. And Lawson's a big fan of some Aussie music. So we've played the Hunters and Collectors, Powder Finger, Thirsty Merc and spoke for a good hour. So maybe we should have had a break. But when things keep rolling along, you just generally just keep rolling along. Lawson.
[01:05:26] Speaker B: Absolutely. And it's, it's been like having a. We've known each other for five minutes.
We've known each other for years and that conversation, I know it's been really quite interesting.
[01:05:35] Speaker A: It's been pretty, it's been pretty interesting. I suppose, you know, you, when you're in, when you go into different things of walkers, walks of life, like I'm a chef by trade, restaurants, people that you see. I worked at a law firm.
Hey, Nick Blackmore, Hope you're listening.
35th floor, 52nd floor of the 101 Collins Street.
Free Hills Law Firm.
You know, 42nd floor, kitchen.
You meet different people. You meet, you meet some really interesting people even though you're not supposed to talk to them or at restaurants or you're a chef and they bring you out and stuff like that and you've done the same. And we've had some, with some great banter about people who we've both known out of. Into car racing, bikes, corporate world, you know, some of the things that you see and do and, and stuff like that and it's been great and you know, we've spent a good hour talking about everything. I mean, we were only supposed to be talking about Black Dog Ride but we talked about advertising it, Holden and Ford and people and all sorts of stuff. So it's been a pretty interesting afternoon already. And you know, this is the last, last session with Lawson this afternoon. Black Dog Ride, 15th of March, Bell divers all around the country.
That's the national. Everybody's around the country doing the, doing the right for Black Dog Ride, which is amazing.
Helping the communities, helping countries, helping out in the boonies.
It's been, it's, it's an amazing organization that you lead.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: Thank you. And of course it's, I don't necessarily lead them. That's the interest because while I'm technically the general manager, the point is that.
And the reason for Black Dog Ride's success is we've got a fantastic volunteer board for a start that really sort of sets and gives me and Hope and Rhonda some fantastic support in doing what we need to do. But the whole success of Black Dog Ride is the fact that it's a community organisation and that individual rides are set up and run by either individuals or their committees that they get to.
And they self organise.
[01:08:06] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:08:07] Speaker B: And so my job is to try and take away some of the barriers that may be in front of people trying to. Trying to organise a ride. One of those things is organising things like liability insurance.
If you want to use somebody's car park to host an event, they're going to ask you for your Liability insurance and not everybody has the opportunity or the wherewithal to try and get that organised. And so, you know, for us being able to make sure that we've got national liability insurance that covers our volunteers, that makes sure they're not exposed to any legal issues that allows us to use a shire's car park or you know, some, some roads and bits and pieces that'll allow the ride to go ahead and it's, it's my job more than anything is to try and take away those headaches.
[01:09:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:09:08] Speaker B: So that, so that the, the ride coordinators can get on what with what they do, which is organizing rides and, and having a great safe event for our, you know, 6,000 odd riders, hopefully more this year.
That'll, that'll be part of the, part of each of the events.
[01:09:25] Speaker A: I suppose.
One of the other things that I know John had mentioned to me about the
[01:09:34] Speaker B: motorcycle show at York Motorcycle Festival, which is awesome. You know, when I first moved to Perth, I got here at the end of 2000 2016.
[01:09:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:09:47] Speaker B: And my very first trip out of Perth itself by myself was up to York.
[01:09:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:09:56] Speaker B: And, and it blew me away. The ride up there was through Mundari.
[01:10:01] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[01:10:02] Speaker B: So through the, the twisties up there. I was on one of the, the dealership's bikes.
So all care but no responsibility and just a wonderful, wonderful afternoon. And I. And then, then it was. Oh, by the way, you know, in a couple of months time we've got this motorcycle festival and yeah, it was great.
I was part of the HOG group at that point.
[01:10:27] Speaker A: Yep.
[01:10:28] Speaker B: Being part of the Perth Harley Davidson dealership. Chris rode with a HOG up there and that was a really nice event.
But what a great little community and what a, what a lovely country town it is. Thousands of people turning up out of nowhere. I know in, in this little street that the townsfolk allow us to use for a day or two.
[01:10:50] Speaker A: I know it's.
The guys there are amazing.
They've invited. We've had them on the talking talk to talk about the museum and yeah, they are, they do put on an amazing event.
[01:11:07] Speaker B: It's a great event. You know that, that museum by the way is fantastic as well and it seems, it seems motorsport is something that wa. Seems to do particularly well. And yes, you know, the, the museum out at, out at Caversham is, is eye opening not just for the Brock exhibits but everything, everything in there is. Is, yeah outstanding. But the York Motorcycle Festival happens the week after our one day so it's a bit compressed this year.
But what we try and do with the blessing of the coordinators with a charity of choice for them is that we lead a ride from Midland and we arrive at the motorcycle festival in time for the opening of it. Okay, so Depart Midland at 9am, head into York. We're there and it's an hour.
Last year, I think we had about 200 in the group and the group stayed together pretty well.
It's a quick ride, quick and easy ride.
And of course, what we've got the honour of doing is being the first there. So we get the best parking spots.
[01:12:24] Speaker A: Well, that's always. That's always what you want.
[01:12:26] Speaker B: And our volunteers that are already there, you can tell them by the. By the big giant Winston, the inflatable Winston that we've got there, help marshal the traffic. So we end up with pride of place right in front of the. The main entrance or the main part of where the street's set up.
And then after that, you know, the next couple of thousand motorcycles all line up after us.
[01:12:51] Speaker A: So, no, it's Gary Byfield and Trisha and all the people, they're all volunteers. And York actually owned the museum, so it's not private. You've owned it once. Once once upon a time it was. But now they've got a great group of individuals. And Gary Byfield and he's. He's the main. He's the main man there.
And we had him on Talking Talk late last year and he invited me to go and have a look through York Museum in January and we took a video and did some stuff and were there for a few hours and it was great.
And I'm sure that a few thousand motorcycle enthusiasts would bring that town alive over that weekend.
[01:13:44] Speaker B: It's an amazing atmosphere. The pubs, pubs go off, there's live music.
I get to visit my favorite Vietnamese bakery on the main drag, then wins.
[01:13:55] Speaker A: He was close a day I went,
[01:13:56] Speaker B: oh, what a shame, what a shame. I was spewing a decent meat pie and he's absolutely cracked a vanilla slice.
Just food of champions. It's food of a motorcycle champion halfway through an afternoon ride.
But that. That's probably about the only time you can get that combo just right.
[01:14:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, well, I've made. Actually, talking about pies, I've made some brisket.
[01:14:23] Speaker B: Saw those.
[01:14:23] Speaker A: Some brisket party pies for the crew here at ipl.
Yeah, I'm sort of into that. Sort of trying to do a pie.
[01:14:32] Speaker B: I love a pie. A good pie is fantastic. And I'm going to shout out to my friends down at the Mount Barker Bakery.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:14:39] Speaker B: Where they have I think probably one of the best curry pies that I've ever had.
[01:14:44] Speaker A: Awesome.
That's fantastic. So yeah, and, and Hardwired Entertainment have taken over that. They have York Motorbike Festival and we've had, we've had them on, we've had them on the radio, we've had them on Talking Talk. So the plan is to have Hardwired back on. John Hitchcock obviously will come back on to talk about that event.
The wash up of the 15. So we've got.
Yeah.
What over a month to go.
[01:15:17] Speaker B: Just a month today. Yeah. So four weeks out. Four weeks out of the one day and then the following week is the, is York.
So that's a, that's a lot of, a lot of commitments. And of course York's a little bit earlier this year so we hope that we get the tail end of the good weather. Generally if it's later in March or in early April, weather's starting to turn and you start to get wet roads and sadly a lot of weekend motorcyclists are fair weather motorcyclists.
[01:15:56] Speaker A: Well, it's anybody in Western Australia with a bike weekend motorcyclist, car enthusiast. Because if there is a hint of rain, they don't come out.
[01:16:12] Speaker B: We don't handle rain particularly well, do we?
[01:16:14] Speaker A: No, definitely not.
[01:16:16] Speaker B: And I think my, you know, I've lost my wind feet.
Having lived in WA for a while, enjoying the dry heat and the four seasons, I, I love it. But yeah, I've got to admit that riding or driving in the wet is a skill that the eastern states have over us.
[01:16:37] Speaker A: Oh yeah. It's only for Victorians and people that live in New South Wales and Tasmania.
In saying that I was one of them and when I said to the guys here, hey, who cares if it rains, man? We don't take our car out. I don't take it out if there's a hint of rain.
A five day weather forecast. If it says I don't do it anyway. Really? What are they doing, Mel? They just go out anyway. Yeah, that's right.
You got the four seasons in a day. That's true. You got no choice. So.
So yeah, so we're going to have John and to talk about York Motorcycle Festival and Hardwired entertainment.
[01:17:19] Speaker B: Hardwired have taken, they're just taking on the, the ride. The festival this year.
[01:17:24] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:17:25] Speaker B: And we've had some great discussions with them already. So, you know, I don't think things are going to be mightily changed in terms of the, in terms of the format and you know, they seem, seem like good people.
[01:17:37] Speaker A: They are. He's. They've been exceptional to deal with, exceptional to deal with over the phone questions, what they've asked for, the whole lot. John's put me onto them too.
We've had quite a number of discussions about what Talking Talk is going to do.
We're going to have them on. We're going to promote the event.
I suppose I spoke to John about coming on three times.
The first time, unfortunately, John couldn't make it. And you made yourself available. And we've got to thank Lawson for making himself available today because generally stuff's done over the phone and things like that. But to have you in, and you called it the gold star treatment, which is mighty fine.
John's going to come on, talk about the York Motorcycle Festival and then the washer because obviously this is the push towards that. And then obviously the week before or two weeks before, we're going to talk about the York boat and then after, how did it go as far as event wise patronage, obviously the money wise stuff like that. So you have to have, you have to have a three part show to discuss an event like this and where we're going. And when I said to John, I said it sounds like a three part show. Because you can't just put everything, you can't just say, all right, we're going to promote this this week and then next week and then nothing.
You gotta. To promote and to push an event.
People want to hear the aftermath. Yes. And the aftermath is so important because it keeps it in the back of their mind.
And next year they're gonna, I'm gonna go there. Yep.
[01:19:29] Speaker B: And hopefully they're gonna go again because they've had fun.
[01:19:31] Speaker A: That's right.
[01:19:32] Speaker B: Not only have they had fun, but they've been part of something that's just bigger than not just the local community or the state, but nationally.
[01:19:39] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:19:40] Speaker B: And if you're able to say, hey, I took part in that ride and I was with, you know, 200 other motorbikes at Valdivis and we had a great time, but I was part of six or seven thousand motorcycles that went out that day to make a contribution towards depression and getting those conversations started, definitely, then you're part of a bigger community.
[01:20:05] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[01:20:06] Speaker B: And that's, that's really important that you know that, that, that inclusion and being part of something is, is a very big motivator into, into being, you know, part of the community. And once you've gone on a black Belt ride.
[01:20:22] Speaker A: You.
[01:20:22] Speaker B: You're. You're part of the family.
[01:20:24] Speaker A: That's right.
[01:20:25] Speaker B: You are. You are one forever.
[01:20:26] Speaker A: And. And that's part of the community. And part of the community, like ipl, we're part of the community about mental health. And Tris Reddick and Paul and the whole team at IPL is all for mental health. We run mental health workshops and stuff like that. And we've been a recipient of a grant from Black Dog Ride, which has been fantastic, and they've provided us with some equipment and it's been. It's been a great thing for us to be associated with.
Excuse me.
And on that note, Lawson, thank you very much for coming in today.
Appreciate your time and your effort and. Yeah, it's been great. It's been great. Even off air. I mean, we could keep going for hours. You know, this is. It's just a. Darren chanted. The way that we do things, we move our hands and we just. It's just. It's been such a. A fantastic afternoon. I was really nervous and anxious. At the top of the front crane is this fellow.
[01:21:25] Speaker B: We don't know who he is.
[01:21:26] Speaker A: We don't know who he is and they don't know who I am. And when we leave, we're the best of friends that we've been drinking for 20 years.
[01:21:32] Speaker B: Exactly. I've really enjoyed it. It's been an easy, easy, easy for me to have this discussion with you and with the team here and a lot of admiration for what you and the team have done.
What an amazing space this is and it's awesome to be a part of it.
[01:21:48] Speaker A: Thank you. Awesome. And we're going to play some music, Lawson. We've got some Hunts and collectors and we might even play some Angels and stuff later on. Nothing like.
Listen to Doc.
I listened to Doc at the Agora Theater at La Trobe University.
[01:22:07] Speaker B: Fantastic.
[01:22:08] Speaker A: Back in the 80s when it was like 2.50 to get in because you had to know uni. Uni students. We just happen to know some nice Italian uni girls.
[01:22:22] Speaker B: Saw the Angels at. At the Antler in. In the Net in Narrabe.
[01:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:22:27] Speaker B: Sydney. And I must have been. I don't know, I think I was not. I was not legally able to be there.
[01:22:33] Speaker A: No. Never was. I.
It's always an interesting occasion when you go to events like that. And I was a bit. Little lock green. I was a bit of a door because, remember?
And it just opened my eyes to university girls.
[01:22:51] Speaker B: Australian. Australian music in that era. Absolutely brilliant. Brilliant.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[01:23:01] Speaker B: I'm old. You're old. But listening to that, listening to the stuff from the 80s and the range of stuff that we had there. Everything from the oils to the church to screaming jets and oh yeah, the sharps, the saints and as we said from you know it goes from Daddy Cool all the way up to Silver Chair.
[01:23:18] Speaker A: Oh yeah and.
[01:23:20] Speaker B: And there you go. There's your range.
[01:23:21] Speaker A: Well, Silver Chair. Well there's a, there's a story about Silver Chair that will come out.
I don't know we'll get actually when. When I'll probably get Ma on the phone and we'll talk about the time that silver chair bought XP Falcons because they couldn't drive high powered V8s to take their gear around.
So thanks Lawson. Once again thanks to the team at ipl, the guys behind the scenes recording the interview today which is probably yeah we went a little bit too far again but hey, it's talking talk with Darren Chanter. All we know is how to talk fast.
