This week long rally celebrated 75 years of the Sporting Car Club of SA with its Veteran Car Section. This began the veteran vehicle movement in Australia in 1934.

Before wine became a major commodity Naracoorte and the surrounding districts were sheep country. Mustering took place with the assistance of cut down motor cars known as buckboards. Naracoorte is known for its world heritage conservation park and has 26 large caves containing complete fossils which are 500,000 years old. The wine industry had been established in this area for some time, and this region is now known as the Limestone Coast wine region. Despite the coast now being around 100kms away, this area was once part of an ancient ocean and the recession of this ocean has left a bed of limestone.

Getting ready for this rally was frantic. My dad and Tom spent many hours trying to get my 1916 Morgan to run properly. Despite long and hard efforts it became too difficult to get it ready and running properly on time so at 10pm on Thursday night Tom announced plan B to be put into action. It was all right for Tom, but we didn’t really have a plan B. I guess it made sense to take my 1913 Rover. So we quickly dusted it down, changed the advance/retard cable that was worn, and checked the tyres.

Early next morning we loaded the 1913 Royal Enfield for Uncle Ian to ride, my 1913 Rover and 1906 Minerva and dads 1915 Rover. Uncle Ian and Aunty Jenny were towing the Humberette for Daniel and Jenny to enjoy. Daniel still on ‘L’ plates was looking forward to this week away and had arranged a week’s annual leave from his apprenticeship 12 months ago.

On the road, we were in Ararat by lunchtime to put the dogs in ‘storage’ as Bevars would say, and then we were on our way to Naracoorte. Within a few kms of Naracoorte we caught up to our friends Cliff and Noela who were staying with us for the week. With no cabins or motel accommodation available a year ago we managed to book into a B&B which was big enough to comfortably accommodate all 8 of us. Luckily for Daniel there was a good sized laundry with washing machine so he could have clean socks and jocks after coming straight to Naracoorte from his week in Swan Hill at trade school.

Saturday morning, and the sun was out and we all awoke refreshed after a good nights sleep. We had breaky and headed off to the swap, a stones throw away. Walking over we met fellow enthusiast and could see the old vehicles entering the town. We all seemed to have a successful swap, especially Daniel who purchased a genuine Toyota power take off winch for his Landcruiser, Jenny who got a nice wool blanket for the Humberette, I got a book on the history of Morgans and Merralyn managed an old iron gate, a bag trolley, a tin tub and bucket, old suitcases and Bevars even found a Gladstone bag for himself and one for Merralyn.

Later that day we unloaded bikes and the Humberette and fuelled them up. The Royal Enfield looked smart with its newly painted tank, however it was most upsetting to see it leak like a sieve when we fuelled it up. On closer inspection it looked like the painter had cleaned up the front seam too much and when we peeled off the paint that had blistered I could almost put a finger nail in the seam! Thanks to a tin of soup that we empted and cut up and some soldering irons on the BBQ and the handy work of Cliff, it was soon repaired and able to be ridden.

Sunday was only ‘check in’ day in the afternoon, so we all jumped in Ian and Jenny’s van as it could seat all of us, and we headed to Robe. Dad and I were last in Robe in Sept on the Adelaide to Melbourne rally, and the Rover expired as I entered Robe, so all we saw of Robe was the caravan park where we pulled the engine apart to discover a broken crank pin.

Robe was bigger than I thought and had some lovely old buildings. We had morning tea in the main street then walked down further and discovered a magic shop that did quilting. Noela, Jenny and Merralyn marveled at what was on display and even I was getting interested in what one could achieve with scraps of material.

From here we drove a few kms out of town and stopped at the tiger moth joy flight hanger. Ian went up first, then Daniel who was game enough to do 2 loop the loop and then I went up. We flew over the Robe township and then flew out over the water, just magic. Despite not feeling too comfortable with heights I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would recommend anyone to give it a go.

Back on the ground we headed to Penola for a picnic lunch, and then it was back to Naracoorte to collect our rally packs. When entering we were asked to submit a picture and a few words about our vehicles, and a lot of entrants had done so, and all this was complied and presented in a colored, glossy booklet which was in each rally pack, a nice keepsake of the rally. We were also given a china cup with the rally logo on it which we had to carry to each morning tea and lunch stop.

From here we headed off to the Town Hall for the official rally opening, As I always say, it was great to catch up with friends from all over the country, and learn what they have been up to since I had seen them last.

Monday – Day 1 – Bool Lagoon & Wrattonbully – Langkoop Run. (150kms)

The longest day for the week, and it turned out that it was approx 70kms to our first stop which was the bird Museum, then 4kms to morning tea, then it was only 2kms to lunch, then another 70kms to home! There was a shorter route offered, but this included a dirt road and as 150km didn’t seem too far, we went on the long route.

At the Bourne Bird Museum, I met Jack Bourne who was a passionate collector with many stories to tell. Jack had a room filled with about 250 birds that he has stuffed. When I asked him what he put in them he showed me, polystyrene, and then he handed me a bird he had almost finished and it was very light. Jack also said that many of the birds were from road kill or had flown into power lines, and some were given to him by bird lovers and vets.

From here we rode a short distance to morning tea at Bool Lagoon. As our notes said, usually at this time of the year the lagoon would be covered by thousands of birds, but not now, due to the drought. Stopping in the car park, all I could see was very long queue leading back from the urn, and with my rally cup in our back up van, (in fear of breaking it on the bike) and with someone announcing that they were ready for us at the lunch stop back 2km on the main road, I decided to forgo morning tea and head for lunch at the Bool Lagoon CFS.

Fed and watered we watched Bevars pull apart his Royal Enfield to sort out a compression problem. Bevars discovered a flapper valve screw had come undone and luckily he wasn’t going very fast when it got caught up. It was recovered and put back where it cam from, ensuring it wouldn’t happen again. Bevars had also brought his 1914 Royal Enfield which had had lent to Jim Swanton. Unfortunately Jim had experienced some weird electrical problem with his car on his way over to S.A. and his replacement car didn’t have a tow ball so he wasn’t able to bring his bikes over. Lucky for Jim he could ride on the rally and I’m sure he was pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Royal Enfield.

From lunch we travelled through green pastures (which was an unusual sight for us), to Wrattonbully and into Victoria near Langkoop before returning to Naracoorte.

Tuesday – Day 2 – Naracoorte Caves Run (80kms)

Being the shortest run for the week I decided to ride the Minerva. Leaving early I got to see a lot of vehicles as they passed me in/on their more capable machines. It was 40km to morning tea which was at the Kybybolite oval where we were visited by students from the Frances Primary School. It’s always good to see such young faces with big smiles as they are privileged to a ride in a veteran vehicle around the oval.

From here it was onto the Naracoorte Caves National Park for lunch. Not wanting to come across too harsh, but it was a bit disappointing that such a venue seemed to struggle with our lunch given that it was all pre ordered and paid for, and was $37.50 a bit steep for 3 ‘Gourmet Baguettes’ which were soft hot dog type rolls light on filling?

With pre paid guided tours of either the Victorian Fossil Cave or the Alexandra Cave, we were allocated a time and enjoyed the sites below.

After riding back to Naracoorte, on a magic little narrow road, Noela, mum and I got in the car and drove to Straun House, which was built between 1873 and 1875. This elegant building was once a stylish homestead and is now an agricultural research centre.

That night there was a lights procession evening run which we decided not to participate in as we had no lights, but for those in cars who participated it was a night to remember. Naracoorte people turned out to watch and chart and in the background the pipe band played.

Back on the Rover (even though the Minerva performed faultlessly the day before), we travelled along the highway as the planned route was gravel and had suffered from recent heavy rain and was abandoned. Mindful of the trucks and other highway traffic we regrouped for lunch at the Poplars winery. A most capably catered lunch with hot and cold food and even brandy snaps for desert.

We met up with Ian, Jenny and Daniel who had spent the morning changing the magneto over on the Humberette. They reported a big improvement and were all smiles. With the improved performance, a new problem developed. They had fitted a modern type car fuel filter, which seemed to be getting air locked some how. This was replaced by a gravity feed filter form the local small engine man, which solved the fuel problem.

Leaving our bikes at the Poplars we drove thru Penola and along 8kms on the Millicent road to Yallum Park Homestead. We were privileged to a tour by a gentleman in his 90’s who showed us thru his house on his gofer. He was grateful for a ride in a T Model which really made his day. Yallum Park is said to be the best preserved Victorian House in Australia in its original condition. The magnificent two story homestead was built for John Riddoch in 1878-1880. Original William Morris wallpapers, gasoliers, acid-etched and stained glass windows, Italian marble mantlepieces, gold leaf, antique furniture and a number of extremely old pieces of glass, porcelain, silver and brass are some of the features, not forgetting the 18 servant bells – that still work.

All decorations date from 1879 and the garden was established in 1880 with trees from all over of the world. It was purchased by the Clifford family in 1914 and the homestead is still retained as a private farmhouse.

From here mum drove dad and I back to our bikes and we rode home, looking over our shoulders at the looming black clouds. Mum, Cliff and Noela revisited Penola and found Petticoat lane and walked around some very old houses and discovered the National trust Herb Garden.

Day 4 – Lucindale Run (130kms)

We rode to Lochaber for morning tea and then to the Lucindale School Oval where there were children walking around with clip boards and activity sheets with pre prepared questions for our visit. Noela, who was a school teacher, and made comment on some of the children’s spelling and was helping a young boy spell some of the car names, but when he asked her for a car starting with ‘H’ he really did struggle when she replied Hispano Suiza!

From here lunch was a few kms up the road at the Lucindale Country Club, then it was back to the Lucindale Museum, in what was once the railway station.

An amazing array of old wares, books and memorabilia. On our ride back, some of us got caught in a shower, but it didn’t seem to last too long. We really had been lucky with the weather.

That night we had our evening meal at the Historic Vehicle Club. The club had cleared their large display of stationary engines to set up tables to cater for what looked like most of the rally entrants. A big thank you went to the Historic Vehicle Club who did an excellent job in catering of all of us.

An uneventful ride to Apsley for morning tea, where some of us caught up with Antique Club member Robert Binns who had decide to join in for a day riding his 1912 Triumph. From here we rode to Edenhope for lunch. When returning back to Naracoorte we loaded up bikes and got ready for the final evening dinner at the town hall. While listening to the many thankyou’s we were treated to a slide show of photos from the rally. As they were complied from rally entrants there was a terrific mix of photos, well done to Tony and Sheena Beaven and Peter and Iris Mullins who I believe put them all together.

Overall a great rally, which I was pleased to be part of and it was a very beautiful part of South Australia to have a week long rally.

1905 Pope Tribune car                         1905 Rover car

1906 Lewis Minerva m/c                      1910 FN m/c

1911 Precision Big 4 m/c                      1912 Kirmer m/c

1913 Hupmobile car                             1913 Rudge m/c

1913 Bradbury m/c                              1913 Villiers Strand m/c

1913 Humberette Cyclecar                   1913 Humberette Cyclecar

1913 Royal Enfield m/c                         1913 Rover m/c

1914 Precision m/c                               1915 B.S.A. m/c

1914 Perry Vale m/c                             1914 Douglas m/c

1914 Royal Enfield m/c                         1915 Ariel m/c

1915 Rover m/c                                    1918 Indian m/c

1918 Royal Enfield m/c