SORRENTO Rotary Club is staging the inaugural Point Nepean Heritage Motor Show on Sunday 30 October after its COVID-related cancellation in 2021.
Historic Point Nepean quarantine station will provide a backdrop for the display of 200 of the state’s most significant heritage motor cars and motorcycles.
Music and refreshments will be available at the event which is expected to attract more than 1500 people from across the state.
Rotary club president Brian Stacey said the motor aimed to promote Sorrento and raise the profile of the region.
Held over the cup weekend, it will be a starting point to the club’s strategic direction of developing a ‘festive Sorrento spirit’ over future holiday seasons.
The show, followed by the January 2023 art show – opening with a black-tie event – is envisioned to evolve into a Sorrento street festival.
Stacey said that despite the affluent image of the peninsula, most localities – including Sorrento – had its share of hardship.
With the southern peninsula being the sixth largest rough sleeping area in Victoria, shelter, personal hygiene, clothing and food supply were “of daily concern” to many.
Money from the heritage motor show will support Southern Peninsula Community Support, an organisation that offers support to people in crisis providing food and material aid, support with certain expenses, information, referral and practical assistance.
“Confronted with the sobering reality of these facts, Sorrento Rotary Club decided to channel the profits of the motor show towards sponsoring SPCS,” Stacey said.
He praised the generosity of business sponsors that had made the event possible.
“Over and beyond the relevance of the financial contributions – without which the project would not succeed – this is an initiative that is bringing the community together, solidifying and strengthening the invisible ties of the spirit of Sorrento,” he said.
More than 67 car clubs have been invited, and highlights on show will include a 1926 bus, Ferret scout car, vintage fire engine and gull-wing Mercedes.
The event will be open to the public from 10am to 2pm.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 11 October 2022
