EVERY year for the past 30 years David Upton has played Santa for the people of Portland. He doesn’t arrive in town in the traditional way, wearing a jolly red suit or sitting in a sleigh drawn by reindeer, but rather, riding a Honda ST1300.
He tows a ‘Santa Claus’ trailer overflowing with gifts, hooked onto his own motorbike trailer and, following behind, 100 or so likeminded bikers bearing more surprises for the children of families here who might otherwise miss out each Christmas.
Understandably, if is bucketing down with rain not too many bikers join the ride, Mr Upton said. “But if we have beautiful sunshine we’ll end up with over 100 bikes. And with each bike having a pillion passenger, we can end up with a quite a few people.
“I think 130-something bikes was the biggest run we’ve had.”
The Santa Claus trailer has become quite a local tradition, Mr Upton said, with families lining the streets the first Saturday of each December for the past 30 years to watch the spectacle. For Portland kids, it heralds Christmas.
“That’s the magic part,” Mr Upton said. “Everybody lines up and the kids get all excited because we toot our horns and make a bit of noise and everybody's waving.”
After these Christmas motorbike angels deliver their goodies to the Salvation Army for distribution – toys and gifts for children up the age of 16 – “then we go down to the foreshore and people come down just to wander around the bikes … plus the markets are usually on at the same time, so there’s plenty happening.”
So, how did this eagerly-anticipated annual ride start?
“I’d done lots of toy runs in other places, like Melbourne and one in Canberra, I thought, why don't we do one down here?” Mr Upton said.
Initially starting out as quite a bit longer than the run it’s become, Mr Upton said they settled on the starting point being at Heywood, where the riders meet at the Heywood Deli and do a straight run from there to Portland, with no stops. With so many bikes on the road at one time, “we have to be careful to make sure there's nothing too dangerous on the way”.
The riders then regroup at the information site near the Shell service station in Portland before riding through the town to the drop-off point at the Salvation Army centre.
The Salvation Army really relies on this annual ride, Mr Upton said.
“Every bike that comes on the ride brings a toy with them and decorates their bikes. For visitors or locals who don't ride motorbikes, they can drop off toys at the start of the parade at the Heywood coffee shop, or leave them at the toy shop here,” Mr Upton explained. Those gifts that can’t be carried by the bikers or the Santa ‘sleigh’ are collected by the Salvation Army van, he said.
That Mr Upton is still organising this annual Christmas ride for the children of Portland 30 years after its inception probably comes as more of a surprise to him than anyone.
His similarities with Santa don’t stop at delivering toys at Christmas time, because, like Santa, he is no stranger to international travel and adventure (though he hasn’t had to slide down any chimneys … yet), having spent decades simply just going where the wind would take him before settling down here.
Like Mr Claus, he was born in the northern hemisphere (England, not the North Pole), has “lived all over the place”, and has been known to drop everything to help a friend in need, no matter where in the world they are or what it takes to get there. Like Santa in his sleigh, Mr Upton has also notched up several thousands of kilometres around the globe.
He’s been a lighthouse keeper, following in his father’s footsteps (keeper of Cape Nelson lighthouse at one time); rubbed shoulders (so to speak) with lions and tigers (oh, my) at Ashton’s Circus while employed there as promotions manager; “did theatre” in London, where he met Cliff Richard; sailed racing yachts around the South Pacific and around the world; raced a New Zealand yacht in the Sydney to Hobart quite by accident; got a job as a “powder monkey” in Gladstone when he was stone broke; ended up spending more than eight months in Samoa repairing a boat which he went there to sail but which turned out not to be seaworthy; and tried push-biking up the East Coast of America. And that’s just for starters.
“That bike ride got a bit crazy and we almost got killed as a couple of times, so we ended up skipping a bit but we still did about 1800 miles,” Mr Upton said.
He’s also covered just about every bit of Australia. “I’ve only got 200 kilometres of Australia left to do,” he said. “When I’ve done that I will have done every single road in Australia. And then if I do the Canning Stock route, I will have done every major Outback Road in Australia as well.
“When I look at my map of Australia now it’s all just red lines and places I have been.”
Except, of course, for that 200km. So that’s next on the list for this Sometime Santa. As long as he’s back in time for Toy Run 2024.
The 30th Heywood to Portland Toy Run starts at Heywood Deli on December 2 at 10.00 am (departing at 10.30) and regroups at the tourist information centre opposite the Shell Service Station for the ride through Portland at 11 am, finishing at the Portland Foreshore.
Gifts in the form of new toys, food and donations can be left at the Heywood Deli at 50 Edgar St, or Squiddlydids for Kids in Portland at 52 Percy St.
For further information contact David Upton on 03 5521 7419.
