The Board held its sixth Board Meeting for 2022 on Tuesday 25 October 2022.
Recent highlights
October has been a busy and exciting month for us!
Transport Heritage Expo
The Board congratulated everyone involved in the very successful return of Transport Heritage Expo over the October long weekend. This was our first Expo in over three years and reached a new record of just short of 11,000 ticketed customers, plus more than 8,500 customers taking a vintage bus ride.
It was an absolute delight to see so many others come out at Central Station and other key vantage points to take in the vibrant atmosphere and enjoy so many wonderful examples of our transport heritage coming to life.
Transport Heritage Expo truly is our showcase annual event and one which we should all be very proud of indeed.
The Board’s thanks and congratulations also go to all the volunteers and staff from our heritage transport sector and other partners in making this magnificent event happen.
To see the highlights, go to: 11,000 Sydneysiders enjoy Transport Heritage Expo (thnsw.com.au)
Celebrating 60 years
THNSW marked the organisation’s 60 years with a special Newcastle Flyer with Locomotive 3801 on Sunday 16 October 2022, as well as a commemorative edition of Roundhouse. All those who attended enjoyed what was a great day out, celebrating and reminiscing with a large number of our Foundation Members and Life Members together over a special lunch at Hamilton.
A 10-minute video documenting the organisation’s history is also being produced. Stay tuned for further details!
Transport Heritage NSW Forum & 2022 Transport Heritage Grants Awards
We held our first sector development day in three years and Transport Heritage NSW Forum on 22 October. The day was attended by many of our heritage transport sector colleagues and included the announcement of this year’s Transport Heritage Grants Program for 2022 that afternoon, with the Minister for Transport, The Hon. David Elliott MP.
I was delighted to meet many of you, as well as speak and answer some of your questions at this event.
The Board congratulated all of the groups awarded grants for their projects, as well as those other groups and projects who had applied but were unfortunately unsuccessful this year. The annual Transport Heritage Grants Program is an important part of supporting our heritage transport each year.
To see more on this year’s Transport Heritage Grant Program recipients and their projects, go to: 2022 Transport Heritage Grants Program recipients announced (thnsw.com.au)
Annual General Meeting (AGM 2022) preparations
By now all members eligible to vote will have received their Notice if AGM 2022 which will be held in the evening of Saturday 26 November 2022 at the Powerhouse Ultimo and will be an in-person AGM only.
Members are asked to RSVP if they are planning to attend the AGM, although you will still be able to attend the AGM on the day even if you haven’t RSVP’d.
Election of two Elected Directors - the ballot is now open and will close at 5:00pm (AEDT) on Thursday 24 November 2022. Details of the candidates and how vote are included with your Notice of AGM. Members who wish to cast their ballot are reminded to do so before the closing time.
Life Membership - we have one nomination for Life Membership this year. Life Membership is the highest honour that THNSW can bestow upon an individual Member for their exceptional, unique and/or distinguished service to the organisation. Details of the nominee and how to vote are also included with your Notice of AGM and members who wish to vote online ahead of the meeting are also reminded to do so before the closing time on 5:00pm (AEDT) on Thursday 24 November 2022.
I look forward to meeting many of you at the AGM in November.
Major projects updates
The Board received an update from the CEO on the latest progress of our two major projects.
Heritage Hub – the building works to refurbish and upgrade of the Tank Annex which will be used for long-term storage of heritage rolling stock items are underway and proceeding to plan.
The Board and I are looking forward to seeing the successful delivery of the Tank Annex refurbishment to meet our future collection storage needs by April next year.
Loop Line Upgrade Project – THNSW has now received confirmation from Transport for NSW as to the more extensive environmental submission and approval process that TfNSW will require before we can commence the re-sleepering and other physical construction works.
The first step is a Biodiversity and Ecology Assessment which is now underway, the results of which will set out the subsequent next steps required to meet the TfNSW requirements.
In the meantime, the architects are progressing the concept plans for the proposed works to the station precincts at Picton Avenue, Thirlmere, Buxton, Hill Top and Colo Vale, and we will share those in due course.
In closing, I again want to thank and congratulate everyone involved in our October events and for the work you do to keep bringing our transport heritage to life.
Keep up the great work and I am sure I will see many of you at our AGM 2022 on 26 November.
The Hon. Nathan Rees
Chair