Auto club pays a visit to Bowhill Engineering for annual patrons run

This story was contributed by Graham Edwards.

The Auto Collectors Cub of Murray Bridge (ACCMB) recently travelled to Bowhill for their long awaited annual patrons run.

On Wednesday March 19, 46 ACCMB members and guests travelled around 50 kilometres in 13 classic and seven modern vehicles to Bowhill Engineering.

Participants assembled at the ACCMB clubrooms for the usual signing of the run book, and to be given last minute instructions by the run organisers.

On this day that was ACCMB patron Graham Edwards and wife Maureen, his financial money collector for the occasion.

Graham proceeded to welcome all members, old and new, along with guests Rob, Kathy, Yvonne, Bruno, Colin and Peter.

He also outlined the route to be taken and distributed the quiz sheets to be answered throughout the day.

With all business aside, it was time to start the engines and depart to Bowhill, picking up more vehicles along the way.

As the convoy arrived in the Bowhill Engineering car park, participants made their way to the front office, where they were greeted and welcomed by HR Manager, Samantha Krollig.

Because of the large group attending, it was split into two tours of 23 to view the establishment.

Before the group moved out into the factory, Samantha outlined the early history of Bowill Engineering being a multigenerational, family owned and operated business, that has been giving Australian businesses the edge since the 1970s.

It started as a small rural machinery maintenance, repair and modification workshop run by Brendon and Avril Hawkes that built its reputation by putting its clients first and always saying yes, no matter what the challenge.

This approach was instilled into their two sons, Jeremy and Simon who continued to build the business into steel fabrication and construction in the early 1990s.

Today Bowhill Engineering continues to expand their business into the mining, water, defense and commercial projects from an impressive modern facility in Bowhill.

Following the explanation, Project Draughtsman Ethan Klemm joined the first group, before moving them out into the works area to view what buildings and projects were under construction.

One of the first projects viewed was the construction of a replacement rail bridge over the Light River, weighing in at around 80 tonne; a massive and amazing structure.

Then it was off to see what the ACCMB group really came to see, building B5 Fabrication Hall.

This building was enormous to say the least, being 23 metres (seven stories) high x 70m long x 20m wide, which also includes a 16m crane capable of lifting 100 tonnes.

The projects underway in this building were the new Kangaroo Island ferry ramps and once assembled would be 10m x 15m long ramps.

Wow, what a massive project and building, with ACCMB members and guests standing, looking and discussing in awe.

Then it was onto the industrial paint shop where patron Graham (you know the song, go to Graham Edwards - go to Graham Edwards) viewed this with interest.

Now with both ACCMB groups having completed the tour of the factory, it was time to move on down the road to the Bowhill community complex for tea/coffee.

This was followed by a scrumptious lunch of chicken, salads, cake and soft drink, all served to perfection by a magnificent group of community volunteers, where nothing was too much trouble.

During lunch, manager Samantha and draftsman Ethan showed some of the massive productions that they had manufactured in the little river town of Bowhill - truly a credit to the vision of the Hawkes family and its employees.

At the conclusion of the amazing presentation ACCMB patron Graham Edwards sincerely thanked Bowhill Engineering, staff and Bowhill community volunteers, before presenting a certificate of appreciation for the days event.

This was followed up by the ACCMB president, Brian Rainey, who expressed his sincere appreciation to Graham and Maureen for their organisation of the days outing.

Prior to everyone leaving for home, all patron run quiz sheets were collected with Graham reading out the answers to the quiz, where there were many oohs and ahs from members.

The winner of the Patron Run trophy will be announced at the ACCMB presentation dinner in June.

Another great day out for members and quests.