Tributes flow for motorhome pioneer
Motorhome owners remember fondly CMCA founder, Don Whitworth, who died this weekHundreds of motorhome owners, family and friends are expected to attend the funeral of Don Whitworth OAM, the founder of Australia’s largest RV club.
Tributes have been flowing in for the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia’s (CMCA) founder and ‘no.01’ member, after he died earlier this week after a long illness aged 85.
After travelling thousands of kilometres throughout Australia in a Volkswagen campervan with their three children and later touring Europe and USA in larger RVs, Don and his wife Erica set up the Club in Tweed Heads, NSW in 1986, with the first ‘branch office’ operating out of the back of their van.
The Club celebrated its first Anniversary Rally at Swansea on Lake Macquarie in NSW in 1987 and by the following year, membership had reached the 1000 mark.
The club was incorporated in 1988 and today is the largest and most influential RV club in Australia, with close to 70,000 members (and around 30,000 motorhomes) and 96 chapters Australia-wide.
Described by CMCA chairman Garry Lee as “a very quiet, humble and unassuming person”, Whitworth was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2012 for service to the community.
Reflecting at the time how popular the motorhoming lifestyle had become since he started the club, he said: "It's funny. Back then anyone investing in a $2000 campervan was considered eccentric, to say the least.
"Now it's so popular and many people have literally taken their house on the road. There's so much to see in Australia.”
A number of heartfelt tributes have been posted on the CMCA’s Facebook page, include this one from Karen Griffin:
“Don and Erica changed the lives of tens of thousands of Australians when they formed CMCA nearly 30 years ago. Never in their wildest dreams did they envisage what CMCA would become today. Thank you Don, you were an amazing man and will be sorely missed.”
The CMCA has also set up a memorial site including a number of photos at forevermissed.com
The funeral is being held today (March 13) at Melaleuca Station Memorial Gardens Crematorium in Tweed Valley Way, Chinderah, NSW, at 4pm.
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