Friday night social.

Orange Branch AGM 2012

Our Branch AGM will be held on Sunday 24th June 2012 at the Waratah’s Sports Club. Lunch is being catered for by the Club Bistro at $25.00 per head. The meal is to be roast lamb and pork with vegetables and six (6) Chinese dishes with fried rice and spring rolls, coffee and tea costs $2.00 at bar. Sweets will be served after the meeting. There will be a courtesy bus running and Karen will need to know who will use the bus and also arrange pickups of groups of 11 at suitable locations (Karen's phone no is 6362 8897). This is so the driver does not have to rush all over Orange as this is a service the Club is doing just for us. Members will need to be at club before 12.30pm as this is the time lunch will be served prior to meeting starting at 2pm. There will be another notice to go into June newsletter.

Click on the image above to view photos from the 2012 Mildura AGM.

Stephen Dearnley OAM     (Old number 1)

27/11/1922  -  11/2/2012

Stephen was born on the 27th of November 1922 in the little English village of Little Drayton, Shropshire, the eldest son of a vicar.

After a relatively normal childhood Stephen found himself in a British public school’s Officer’ Training Corps just as the Second World War became serious in 1940. Along with other senior cadets who were too young to join the army, Stephen was enrolled in the Local Defence Volunteers, an organisation that soon became the Home Guard. 

After obtaining employment in Manchester, Stephen served in the Home Guard through the blitz until he was able to volunteer for the Navy at the age of eighteen.

He joined the minesweeper HMS Fitzroy at the age of nineteen as an Ordinary Seaman and served on that ship until it was sunk six months later in May 1942. Stephen was soon judged to be officer material and, after three months training, was granted a commission in the RNVR as a midshipman.  After completing training Stephen elected to serve on submarines, which he did with distinction until 1946 when, as a First lieutenant, he finished up on the U class submarine HMS Universal. It was at this time that Stephen met a pretty WRAN, Jo, who was to become his wife in December 1945.

After being demobbed in June 1946 Stephen went to work with Collins, the book publishers. It was during this time that Stephen and Jo became the owners of an ex-US Army 500cc Indian Scout that they christened Dora. In 1947, Stephen and Jo decided that their prospects would be better overseas and set out for Australia in September of that year.

Arriving in Sydney, Stephen continued his career with Collins and, after finding kindred spirits in Royal Navy personnel who had chosen to take their demobilisation in Sydney, was introduced to what was to become a life-long interest after taking up with the Sydney branch of the Royal Navy Sailing Association.

In 1951, Stephen enrolled in the art school at East Sydney Tech to further his interest in painting and sculpture. By this time Stephen and Jo had brought their sons Martin and  Hugh and daughter Clemency into the world.

Stephen’s employment then took the family to Queensland to handle Collins affairs in Brisbane. In 1956 Stephen and Jo were able to return to Britain for a three-month visit and on their return settled back in Sydney.

They purchased a home in Northwood and its proximity to the water soon had Stephen looking around for a yacht. A new design in the UK magazine Yachting World soon had Stephen working to build his 3.4 metre Heron class yacht that was finally launched in 1958. Stephen was instrumental in founding the national Heron Association that by the mid ‘60s had become the largest single class in Australia.

Stephen remained heavily involved in sailing, later starting the Lazy E class association. His Lazy E craft took him to victory in the 1965 annual yacht race of the Imperial Service Club, much to the chagrin of owners of larger, more expensive vessels.

In 1959, the Dearnley family was increased with the arrival of Alexa, a bouncing baby girl. By this time Stephen was Sydney Sales manager for Collins and was actively involved in the Children’s Book Council. When Stephen finally retired from Collins in1978, he and Jo moved to Newport and the tranquil waters of Pittwater and also purchased a bushland retreat at Bucketty near the Hawkesbury River.

Stephen also had another great passion, motorcycling, and in 1983, after some correspondence with Peter Thoeming in Bike Magazine, he decided that there was a need to cater for older riders and set in motion the idea that was to become the Ulysses Club.

Since the inaugural meeting of five members at a Sydney Hotel in December 1983, the Ulysses Club has grown to a national body with over 30,000 members. Its stated aim is provide a social club for older people whose common interest is motorcycling.

With Stephen’s experience in setting up other bodies, he made sure that the aims and administration of the club were simple and that there were to be no state boundaries. It was obvious that the formation of the Ulysses Club filled an important need in the motorcycling community and the growth of the club has been phenomenal

Today the Ulysses Club is a respected member of the motorcycling community, is consulted by both state and federal governments and contributes to a range of charitable and community organisations. The Ulysses Club also sponsors a Motorcycle Apprentice of the Year award to encourage young people to involve themselves in the motorcycle trade.

As Stephen lost his companion of fifty-one years to arthritis in 1996, the Ulysses Club, through the Ulysses Club Arthritis Research Fund, directly funds researchers working in the arthritis area. In 2009 the club was funding one research student in Sydney and another in Melbourne as well as providing necessary equipment.

In 1999, Stephen was awarded the Order Of Australia medal for services to yachting and motorcycling and in 2002, at the age of 80 undertook a sixty-day, 16,000 k trip around Australia, raising $34,000 for arthritis research along the way.

The Ulysses Club has now spread worldwide with clubs in New Zealand, South Africa, Germany, Norway, England, Zimbabwe & Vietnam

A fitting legacy to a very special man who has given so much to his community.

If anyone would like to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, please contact Garry on (02) 6361 7506 or email him HERE.        (If emailing please include your full name and address.)

All mail to be directed to "The Secretary, Ulysses Club Inc. Orange Branch, C/- 111 Woodward Street, Orange. NSW. 2800."

Newsletter fees are $12 per year payable by the end of December.

Previous AGMs

2008 .... the twenty-fifth year of growing old disgracefully

Statistics as at the 30th November 2011    

There are approximately 27,553 financial members

Membership # 60326 was issued on the 30th November.

About the Ulysses Club

How it all began

The Ulysses Club for older motorcyclists, the largest organization of it's kind in Australia, is now a familiar part of this country's riding scene. The original suggestion for a club for over 50's motorcyclists was put forward in a letter by Stephen Dearnley published in the August 1983 issue of Bike Australia. This drew two significant responses: one from Rob Hill, a reader at Albion Park NSW, who suggested the present name and motto for the club: the other from Peter Thoeming, then the editor of Bike Australia who sketched the logo and offered support from his magazine if Stephen could get the club off the ground. This was done at an inaugural meeting in Sydney on 6th December, 1983 when the five people present approved a basic constitution and the Ulysses Club was duly formed.  From that tenuous beginning it has never looked back and the club now boasts a large and extensive network of members throughout Australia.  As at 14/4/07 there are 25,346 financial members.

The name comes from a poem of the same title by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It tells how the great Greek hero Ulysses, now middle-aged and securely in charge of his kingdom of Ithaca, is getting bored with things around him and longs to go adventuring again with his shipmates of old. It describes very well indeed the sort of person who still has enough spark to go on riding into middle and later years. Too long to quote here, you will find it in any good poetry anthology such as the Albatross Book of Verse.

How Do I join ?

Click here  and you will be taken to the membership application form.

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Last updated - Friday, 11 May 2012.

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