“Two years of planning, bookings, organising, and chasing people, and we have arrived at the Monaro Nationals for the 50th anniversary of the Monaro,” says Terry Johnson, president of the hosting Monaro & GM Club of Tasmania.

Held every two years since 1998, this will be the first time the Monaro Nationals have been in Tasmania.

“We have Monaro fans [coming] from all over Australia - NT, WA, QLD, NSW, VIC, SA - and from New Zealand too,” Terry adds.

The main events for the public that you should be interested in seeing will be held in Launceston on Saturday December 1.

They are displaying all the vehicles with a Show & Shine in Windsor Park (map here) during the day until 4pm, and then again from 5.30pm for the Launceston Street Party. Launceston City Council and Cityprom are closing four major streets of the CBD so that the Monaros can take the centre stage.

“There are so many Monaro-based models out there for people to restore or modify that it will never be boring at a Monaro show,” Terry says.

Read the full 2018 Monaro Nationals official program online

For the entrants, the fun continues for two more days.

“Sunday is for the adrenaline chasers with our two-stage driving event; both on track – speed limited – and a motorkhana to take place thanks to Performance Driving Australia,” the club says. The venue for this will be Symmons Plains Raceway. After that, on Sunday night their presentation dinner will be held at Albert Hall.

For a final bit of fun for the entrants, Monday December 3 will include a farewell cruise that is also going to incorporate a cryptic rally, as they make their way to a barbeque lunch and Grand Champion presentation.

Have a read of the program (link above), where we interview their guest speaker Phil Brock as well as the owner of a 50 year old Monaro who is driving it from the Northern Territory for the event, we cover the history of the Monaro as well as the history of the Monaro Nationals, plus we have a story about the cultural significance of the Monaro throughout the past 50 years. There’s even a Launceston region travel guide to give visitors to this part of the world a reason to stay a while longer.