Scrambling on Kangaroo Island

I had sold my treasured KSS and bought the ex Tuck & Diener work hack when my life changed and I moved to Kangaroo island. After a few years and five kids the scramble bug bit again, mostly due to the presence of an old mate, Dean Bone. I had been instrumental in Don Dixon's move to KI at that time and 'Boney' followed shortly afterwards.

There were almost no motorcycles on KI at that time. My wife and I shared the three-wheeler and a Bantam for a while, but that gave way to a wrecked Chevy and two Vespa motor scooters. Apart from that I can only recall a Royal Enfield, a BSA and a Mac Velo, which I later bought for $4 and retain today re-engined with a Mk2 KSS and a Velorex side car attached.
So I called my long time mate Jim Thurmer and seduced him into shipping a load of his stagnant motorcycle stock to KI at bargain prices. These bikes were given a royal welcome at the Kingscote wharf when they were unloaded, and within minutes they had new owners.

Thus we had the means of forming the Kangaroo Island Motorcycle Club. As I recall the bikes ranged in price from 3 pounds 10 shillings, up to 8 or 10 pounds for an immaculate Mk2 Cammy Velo, the frame of this bike eventually became my MSS road racer here in Victoria, and is now back in South Australia once more, but hardly recognisable – but I did run my hand over it for old time's sake at Phillip Island some time ago.

Once we had bikes, a section of beach front out from Kingscote was soon transformed into a track. Not long afterwards the Jimmy Thurmer Scramble Championships were organised. Jim supplying elaborate sashes and making the trip to the Island for the inaugural event. These were the days of 'Soapy' Burford and 'Mudgey' and others whose names I can't remember. A sailing ketch transported the overseas bikes to the Island, and there followed a weekend of fun that quite a few would remember to this day. The visitors were bundled back on the plane for the trip back on Monday morning – some of them a bit worse for wear! Jim had hopes of creating a road circuit on Kangaroo Island, but alas this was not to be.

We had numerous wrangles with the local council and the club slowly died. Some of the members taking up golf. Brian Wadsworth had immigrated from the Morwell (Victoria) MCC and soon married a local girl. He and Dean Bone remain there to this day.

These then are my recollections of the 50s when the wonderful machines of today could not possibly have been imagined. But for us it was a few years of fun after the privations of war. Nothing will ever dim the memory of those times.