Congratulations and Thanks to Billy Metcalf - Our ‘Founding President’

Congratulations and Thanks to Billy Metcalf - Our ‘Founding President’

​Facebook Post – May 2nd 2024:
https://www.facebook.com/richmondrailtrail/posts/pfbid0kimiffm8QdBaHCZeXwmbky6JfDvkhHtbJp5FPx31ATHn5bnWJLeei2BNMA6EEAvTl

From Terry J. Lewin (RVRT Inc. President - RVRT Supporters’ Group)

We held our (RVRT Inc.) RVRT Supporters’ Group AGM on Tuesday morning (April 30th 2024) at the Hunter Wetlands Centre. During that meeting, Billy Metcalf stepped down from his official role as President, after many years of dedicated and enthusiastic service.
 
At the AGM, we acknowledged and honoured Billy’s outstanding contribution by offering him Life Membership of the RVRT Supporters’ Group as well as conferring upon him the honorary title of ‘Founding President’.
 
Concurrently, we also collectively acknowledged all of the key contributors during the past 25 years (See below).
 
It is difficult to say precisely when the RVRT Supporter’s Group began, but the history goes something like the following:
 

• An informal group of cyclists got together in the late 1990’s to explore the possibility of transforming the former Richmond Vale Railway corridor (a private coal line that closed in 1987) into a cycleway.
• In April 1999 there was an Inquiry into Infrastructure – ‘Cycle & Cycle Tourism Opportunities in the Hunter’, followed by a September 2002 seminar in Cessnock about ‘Cycle Tourism in the Hunter’, and a 2005 ARUP Report on ‘Cycle Tourism in the Hunter Valley’.
• Thereafter, there were clearly several inter-related groups within the Hunter who were contributing ideas and energy – including: Local Councils, Newcastle Cycleways Movement (NCM), Local cycling groups (such as the Kurri Kurri Mongrels mountain bike group, of which Billy is a member), Rio Tinto (RTA), Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment (TFI), Donaldson Conservation Trust (DCT), and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
• For example, members of an NCM RVRT sub-committee were actively exploring the possible development of a trail, including David Atkinson, Lloyd Davies, and Peter Lee (the NCM President at that time).
• An inaugural RVRT Committee meeting was held at TFI on October 18th 2012, which was chaired by David Atkinson – with the need for a scoping/feasibility study identified as the main priority. [An initial feasibility study was subsequently completed by Mike Halliburton Associates in 2014].
• RVRT Inc. was registered as a Not-for-Profit Association (RVRT Inc.) in August 2015.
• Billy Metcalf was the ‘Founding President’ of the RVRT Supporters’ Group, and its sole President up until the recent AGM, at which Terry Lewin was elected President [with Leigh Gibbens as Vice-President, and Sam Reich as (re-elected) Secretary/Treasurer].

 
Billy Metcalf will continue to make an active contribution to the RVRT Supporters’ Group, and will remain as a Committee Member. Once again, Thanks and Well Done Billy!

Montage Image: Meryl Swanson, MP (Federal Member for Paterson) is pictured with Billy Metcalf, while the bottom photo shows David Atkinson and Billy Metcalf cycling through the concrete tunnel under Leneghans Drive and the M1 Pacific Motorway (formerly known as the F3).

Thanks to all of our RVRT supporters.
 
CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK WELCOME.

RVRT Inc. Contact Information:
WEBSITE:   https://www.richmondvalerailtrail.org.au/​      FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/richmondrailtrail/

President:  Terry Lewin
Email:  [email protected]
Telephone:  0404 439 616 (Terry)
 
Vice-President:  Leigh Gibbens
Email:  [email protected]
Telephone:  0433 570 920 (Leigh)

​Secretary & Treasurer:  Sam Reich
Email:  [email protected]
Telephone:  0418 402 644 (Sam)
 
Founding President:  Billy Metcalfe
Email:  [email protected]
Telephone:  0417 453 152 (Billy)