The club was formed to promote the enjoyment of owning and driving all types of Italian marques and to share that passion with others. It is primarily a social club rather than a sporting car club. We aim to have an event once a month. This may be one the club has organized or an invitation from another car club.

CIAO was formed by members of a single marque car club. Like all these clubs in a non-metropolitan area participation at events was restricted and it was felt that a combined club would have greater potential. With more people comes greater variety and size of events.

The new club was called Combined Italian Auto Organization or CIAO for short. This is an Italian greeting on arrival or departure, depending on your direction of travel at the time.

After our draft constitution was adopted at a general meeting of initial members a committee was elected which registered the club with Fair Trading (giving us incorporation status) and created banking accounts. A web site was developed and the domain name www.ciao.org.au was registered. We currently have over 50 financial members who own a wide variety of Italian cars and bikes. Our club is a social one with display days such as Euro day at Lambton Park and Gartlemanns wine, Catherine Vale wines,we also have
picnic and wine tasing runs also restaurant outings.
CIAO also uses the RTA conditional registration scheme.

We encourage our members to retain their link with their original car club because that is where they will get specific information about their particular cars. Membership of CIAO gives them the opportunities to enjoy the company of like minded people and to meet others with the same or similar models.