W123 50th Anniversary Celebration

Start
23 Jan 2026
6:00 PM
End
26 Jan 2026
9:00 AM
Location
Canberra ACT

Registration

Members

W123 50th Anniversary Celebration
Canberra, ACT
23-26 January 2026

Put this in your calendar

At a press conference held in January 1976 on a cold snowy day in Stuttgart, details were released of what was to become one of the defining models of the Mercedes-Benz passenger car range. Fast forward to the Australia Day Long weekend in January 2026 when the Mercedes-Benz club of the ACT in conjunction the other Australian Mercedes-Benz clubs and the W123 Australia Facebook group will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of this event in Canberra, the nation’s capital.

Below is all the information you need to attend this event. The organising committee have set up this event to cater for all budgets. This has been done in part by allowing attendees to choose which events they attend, where they stay and where they eat. The event is to run over 4 days and will be attended by W123 owners from around Australia.

Events:

Over the 4 days, there are 11 separate events from which attendees can choose as few or as many events as they like.
Each event has its own Trybooking page below, that attendees must use to register for the events in which they intend to participate.
On the Saturday and Sunday mornings, there will be a W123 related event. Each afternoon there will be some optional tours of some of Canberra’s attractions.
Each event is free to enter, but some do have costs associated with them on the day.
Full details of these costs are included in the description for the event on the Trybooking page.

Event schedule:

Friday 23rd January

6:00pm. Early arrivals welcome BBQ

Saturday 24th January

9:00 am. Swap meet.
10:00am. Scenic drive ending up at a Lanyon Homestead for a BYO picnic lunch.
2-5:00pm. Lanyon Homestead tour, or MOAD tour

Sunday 25th January

7:30am. Cars & Coffee, Silk Café in Fyshwick.
10:00am Show & Shine, Spanish Club Narrabundah.
2-4:00pm. Questacon tour, or Australian National Museum tour
6:00pm. Dinner at the Belconnen labour club

Monday 26th January

7:30am Farewell breakfast, hosted by the Queanbeyan Girl Guides

Coming from interstate:

Andrew White (secretary@mbcq.com.au, mobile 0417 196 310) will be coordinating the participation in the event by Members of the Mercedes-Benz Club Queensland. In the near future, Andrew will provide details of a suggested itinerary for Members of the MBCQ to travel to Canberra.
Members of the MBCNSW are planning on meeting on Friday, 23 January, at Oliver's in Pheasants Nest (Remembrance Driveway\Hume Highway South Bound) for a 12:30 pm sharp departure to drive with other attendees from there to Canberra.
Of course, attendees are most welcome to make their own way to Canberra, and to even stay a little longer and enjoy some of the other attractions in Canberra.

Where do we stay:

Keeping with our desire to make this event appeal to all budgets we are not suggesting everyone stay at the same location.
Canberra has a wide range of accommodation options ranging from Caravan parks to 5 star hotels.
The events are spread across Canberra, so a central location or possibly just South of the lake would be the better option.
Don’t forget that Queanbeyan is just over the border and also has many accommodation options.

Awards:

We will be handing out a number of awards that will be judged at the Show & Shine and handed out at the dinner. These awards will include:

Longest distance to attend event, checked using Google maps.
Longest ownership of your W123, bring the receipt from when you brought it or your oldest rego papers.
Highest odometer reading, self explanatory.
Hard luck award, an award nobody wants!
Crowd favourite standard
Crown favourite modified

Other points:

If you don’t own a W123 you are still welcome to come along. We will however only be displaying W123’s at Lanyon Homestead and at the Show & Shine.
If you have questions, you can use the “Contact Event Organiser” button on the Trybooking system.
You do not need an account with Trybooking to use it to book tickets.
You do not need to be a member of a Mercedes-Benz club or the W123 Australia Facebook group to attend.
Closer to the event, the organisers will start a WhatsApp group to contact everyone as a group.
There will be a photographer who will be taking pictures of the event, including a shot of everyone’s car in front of Parliament house. These pictures will be made available to everyone after the event.
We are in the process of designing a T-shirt for the event. The artwork for this will be given free of charge to attendees who will then be able to get Officeworks or a similar company to print it on whatever colour/size you want.