New Motor Heritage Foundation

At Loose Fillings we have been interested to hear that the following has been announced this week:

‘The Australian Motor Heritage Foundation is in the final stages of negotiations with the Australian Racing Drivers Club for long-term occupancy of secure premises at Sydney Motor Sport Park, initially being the whole of the separate building that comprised the original offices of the ARDC, then transferring to a tenancy within the intended new development in the Brabham Drive complex.

‘Also, we have been informed that the ARDC is in negotiation with a number of Australian universities and tertiary institutions, about four in all, which are combining to propose the construction and operation of a campus at SMSP where automotive and aeronautical engineering will be taught. We understand that the AMHF will be encouraged to co-operate with the institutions at that campus to enhance the special educational resources available at SMSP’.

The AMHF has recently been constituted as a not-for-profit company with six directors to provide a permanent home for Sydney enthusiast Hugh King’s remarkable collection of motoring books. We understand ‘Motor’ includes two and three-wheeled vehicles which is as it should be, of course.

The foundation’s directors say ‘…it is not a ‘library’, nor is it a ‘museum’ …instead, this Foundation is to serve the community … with a needed educational resource of national significance, situated at the demographic centre of our largest city, just like is set up successfully in the USA, in parts of Europe and in Japan.’

It was news to Loose Fillings that there was to be a major redevelopment at what we still prefer to call ‘Eastern Creek’. It seems only yesterday, but it’s nearly thirty years, since the editor was watching Bob Barnard and a back-hoe marking out the circuit on the ground around the rather misnamed ‘corporate hill’.

A Google search shows us that in March 2017 Glenn Matthews, ARDC’s CEO, wrote to the Greater Sydney Commission in connection with its West Central Draft District Plan as follows:

‘A new and broader vision is being shaped for the Sydney Motorsport Park precinct that we believe will be of high interest to the Greater Sydney Commission and its strategy to attract smart jobs to Western Sydney and agglomerate industry expertise with research and education opportunities.

‘… We are convinced this broader vision will bring significant social and economic impact through developing talented students in the region, growing smart jobs in innovative globally relevant industry in and around the motorsport precinct, and being an even more significant player in regions visitor economy.’

It was almost exactly in these terms that Greiner government officials were talking when the Eastern Creek circuit was first mooted; hopefully this time it will happen.

The ARDC is proposing a motorsport institute for research and development, a ‘race academy’, circuit lighting, dual pit lanes and an ‘innovation and research hub’, with most of the development being at the end of Brabham Drive around where the grandstand now is (see below).

The relevance of all this to Loose Fillings is that this new venture might well provide a permanent home for the also remarkable Graham Howard Collection of maybe 100,000 papers and photographs which is owned by Loose Fillings’ Garry Simkin and Terry Wright.

We look forward to hearing more, no doubt sometime before next year’s New South Wales election, and we’ll keep you posted on any developments relevant to the Graham Howard Collection.