History

The Silverwater Street and Custom Motorcycle Show began in 1995 in the back of the old Silverwater Speedboat Club. For a few years it ran in the cramped car park at the rear of the premises. As the show grew it became necessary to find a bigger venue and the adjacent park seemed the ideal place providing grass and some shade from the summer heat. More importantly it provided a large area for the show’s expansion.

And expand it did, from a first up attendance of around 300 and over thirty competition bikes to recently record crowd of 2,500 and over 9o competition bikes. Silverwater has had a habit of attracting celebrity riders and politicians to this family friendly event. Sandy Harbutt, star and director of the Aussie biker movie ‘Stone’ came to the first Silverwater in 1995 along with the famous motorcycle from the Yahoo Serious film ‘Reckless Kelly’. Others to attend the car park in the early years was Channel Seven’s Mike Whitney, Channel Nine’s Darrell Eastlake and Australian 125cc winner Gary McCoy.

Others to attend on the more comfortable grass arena were former NSW Transport Minister Bruce Baird and recent Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, who was one of those rare individuals who had both a passion for politics and motorcycles, having started his riding career at the age of 17.

Others to ride to Silverwater included WSFM’s morning crew of Jonesy and Amanda, who arrived on Jonesy’s bike to do some interviews for their Monday morning show.Apparently they were comparing the crowds at the Silverwater Show and a Barry Manilow Concert. To Amanda’s surprise the the bikers were actually nicer to her. Jonesy wasn’t surprised!