Royal Enfield Club of Australia Carcoar Rally
24th– 25th April 2021
By Craig Katen
Carcoar is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia, in Blayney Shire. In 2016, the town had a population of 200 people. It is situated just off the Mid-Western Highway 258 km west of Sydney and 52 km south-west of Bathurst and is 720 m above sea level.
It was once one of the most important government centres in Western New South Wales.
It is located in a small green valley, with the township and buildings on both banks of the Belubula River. It is the third oldest settlement west of the Blue Mountains. Carcoar is a Gundungurra word meaning either frog or kookaburra.
The town has been classified by the National Trust due to the number of intact 19th-century buildings, with a significant amount of cultural materials relating to 19th century Australian life. Source – Wikipedia
Due to the recent weather event that closed the Bell’s Line of Road there was some uncertainty around which route we would take and where we would meet, however the road was re-opened with traffic control in place at the landslide near Berambing, so a meeting point of Kurrajong Village was decided upon.
We had invited Mike Floyd and he and some mates were going to come along which would have filled the Pub to capacity, unfortunately he and some of the other members could not make it, so attendance was reduced to only 11 consisting mainly of couples with the exception of Mark Adamson.
Peter Jackson, Mark Reynolds and I had arranged to ride together, all on our Enfield’s this time and our partners, Johanne, Jane and Jenny went together by car. John and Viv and Roger and Narelle came on their outfits. Jenny and I met at Mark and Jane’s place at Kurrajong Heights, where Peter and Johanne had stayed the night, so we could leave Jenny’s car there.
We were then to proceed to Kurrajong Village to meet the rest of the people for a coffee. However, when we went to leave, Peter’s battery was flat. Mark had only recently charged the battery for him so it should have been fine. So we had to push start him for the short ride to Kurrajong Village which isn’t long enough to fully charge the battery. This was a bad omen as on a previous ride where we met at Kurrajong my Triumph battery died. Luckily the café owner had a bike with the same size battery and we swapped them over so I could continue to Taralga. No such favours were required this time as when it was time to leave Peter’s bike started. It turned out that the heated grips were left on overnight and that had drained the battery.
Leaving Kurrajong we went up the Bell’s Line of Road and then most of us regrouped at the traffic control point near Mt Tomah where the road subsidence reduced traffic to one lane for a short section. The bikes were able to get to the front of the queue and then had a clear run at the winding road through Mt Tomah. I was in front on my Interceptor 650 and naturally was giving it some stick around the corners when I was furiously flashed by another bike. I grabbed the brakes to check my speed and sure enough a HWP car appeared coming towards me around the next bend ready to pounce. We then made our way along the ridge to Bell where we waited for the others and turned left across the Darling Causeway to Mt Victoria and down Victoria Pass towards Lithgow.
We stopped to refuel just before Lithgow, at the Shell at South Bowenfels where the turn off to Lake Lyle took us along Magpie Hollow Rd to the Four-Ways near Tarana. Travelling through Tarana we stopped at the O’Connell Pub for lunch.
We continued along scenic country roads thru places like The Lagoon, Perthville, Wimbledon and Newbridge arriving at Blayney where we then turned south for the short trip via the highway to Carcoar.
Arriving at the Royal Hotel at Carcoar we checked in and some people took a stroll around the town to look at the old buildings and other interesting things in the town like the Stoke Stable machinery museum and the old Railway Station.
We then gathered for some refreshments out the front of the pub until sunset forced us inside where we had a couple more whilst waiting to be seated for dinner. Meals were the usual pub fare and service was typical country hospitality.
The next morning we made breakfast in the Hotel’s kitchen and of course we got up to no good, rummaging through the place trying to find essentials like milk and butter to make coffee and toast.
After breakfast we checked out and since I didn’t move my bike into the shed overnight I had to deal with a slight frost by pushing my bike into the sun to melt it off whilst we waited for the others to come down.
As it was Anzac Day we walked over to the main road to watch the march.
We left Carcoar and headed to Blayney but nothing was open so we continued to Bathurst to find a café
After a coffee in Bathurst we hit the highway and travelled through Lithgow and back along the Bell’s Line of Road to Kurrajong Heights.
It was a great weekend away being able to experience some of the countries remaining heritage by visiting these old towns.
Thanks to Peter Jackson for organising it, Mark Reynolds for planning the route and leading the ride, and to Narelle and Jenny for the photography.