Cars, Stars, and Rock'n'Roll
29 March 2022 / Story: Dewi Brewitt, Bill Short; Photos: Anda Clayton, Dewi Brewitt, Rose Smith
South Coast Chapter
Cars, Stars and Rock'n’Roll
Day One - 11 March 2022
After two weeks of rain and flood, the weather finally eased giving us a dry run to Forbes. We started at 8 am on the BTU road, Nowra Hill with four cars from the South Coast Chapter. From there we headed towards Goulburn via Nerriga, dodging huge potholes along the way and encountering a stretch of dirt road which served to identify the four cars from the South Coast Chapter for the whole weekend as they had mud all over them.
Morning tea was at the Roses Café in Goulburn where we met up with the members from the Illawarra, Canberra and Sydney Chapters, enlarging our convoy from 4 cars to 15.
From Goulburn, we headed to Boorowa where we had lunch. From Boorowa, we stopped at Eugowra, which is famous for its murals on the infamous Escort Rock gold robbery in 1862, for photo opportunities.
From there, it was only a short hop to Forbes and our accommodation at the Plainsman Motel for the next couple of nights. We had happy hour at the motel’s conference room where we got to know everyone who had come along for the run. Dinner was at Club Forbes where everyone had a nice meal and a chat before retiring to our motel rooms for the night and looking forward to what the next couple of days would bring.
Neil & Dewi Brewitt
Day Two– Saturday, March 12.
Here it is, its morning and the sun did what it usually does in Forbes. It rose! Apparently, that is the main activity in Forbes at daybreak.
Soon after a small trickle of rough looking characters appeared in the car park of the motel and made their way out the main gate. They came back later in dribs and drabs. Ah! These poor souls went in search of breakfast.
After a lull in car park activities, there was a crush of MX-5’s which would have done a mob of go-carts proud. All trying to go through a small motel exit to be on the street and off to McFeeter’s Motor Museum. Some of the cars were greeted by Bill McFeeter who was directing the tail enders to their parking. Parked and out of the car. Locked Goldilocks who promptly objected to Bill McFeeter’s close proximity and set off her burglar alarm. Fixed that problem and into the museum to view an impressive display of cars, mannequins dressed in period costume and a good selection of diecast models.
There has been lots written about the museum tour on Facebook so I will not go into further details regarding the cars and the tour other than to say that Rose acquired a very interesting hat during the tour. Pity that they could not sustain the café as they would have done good business from us.
At the conclusion of the tour the Illawarra Chapter component of the tour split from the South Coast Chapter’s tour component and left for Parkes. The South Coast mob headed back into town to Albion Park, opposite Forbes Post Office, to view Gillie and Marc's sculptures of Pyramid and "I welcome you with love" which represents the powerful sense of belonging and the beauty of freedom that sculptor Ayad Alqaragholli has experienced in Australia.
Goldilocks objected to being left again and activated her burglar alarm to complain.
A quick walk around the local shops followed by lunch and then off along the Sculpture Down the Lachlan public art trail which stretches from Forbes to Condobolin along the Lachlan Valley Way. There were six large-scale works to view. The Goanna, Bird in Hand and Heart of Country sculptures were very impressive. The Heart of Country sculpture stood proudly, at six metres tall, gazing across the landscape as generations of Wiradjuri people have. Some impressive driving with hoods down over short corrugated dirt roads to assess the sculptures.
After viewing the Heart of Country sculpture, three cars returned to base and three went on to a big dusty carpark just outside the town of Condobolin to view a number of Utes that have been painted and placed in the paddock.
We all met with the mob who took the Parkes excursion in the motel common room for pre-dinner drinks and nibbles in the afternoon.
For dinner on Saturday, we had the choice of the Club from Friday night, Chinese at the Sports club or Thai at a restaurant. Italian was no longer an option because a shop next to the restaurant had recently burnt down and forced the restaurant to close.
I was part of the group taking the Chinese option. A noisy “walking bus” formed up and took us to the Sports Club. Long wait of 2 1/2 hours to get served. Not all that went to the Sports Club lasted the wait and instead opted for either pizza or MacDonald’s. The food, when it arrived, was very fresh and great. Those that stuck it out had an excellent social time whilst waiting for our food.
The noisy “walking bus” returned to the motel at about 10:45pm.
Day Three – Sunday, March 13.
This is the part of the trip where everyone goes their own way as not all of the South Coast participants were going directly home.
Two couples that were going directly home were Brian & Anda and Jan & Bill. Up early as they were travelling together to be greeted by, well not much really as there was not a lot of activity amongst the trippers. Goodbyes to those who were up and off they were at 8:00 am to commence our journey home taking a different scenic route to the one that we came into Forbes through regions of beef cattle, grain cropping and orchards. The actual journey home took us along very scenic cruising roads through Grenfell, Young and Harden where we stopped for the obligatory morning tea.
It was interesting to note that the beef cattle in some locations were being bred in three different shades:
- Dark Brown – which is apparently best for well-done steaks,
- Light Brown – apparently best for medium steaks, and,
- Off white for rare steak which I understand tastes like chicken.
Marvellous what the farmers can do these days.
My and Jan’s highlight of the trip home was a caravan being reversed into another car in the car park of the South Goulburn Bakery stop. Our thanks go to the very thoughtful driver of the reversing caravan as it took five Police cars to sort out the mess and removed a couple of Highway Patrol cars from the Motorway.
Our thanks also go to Bob Downing and Senia Gaunson for organising the trip which appears to have been a great success going by the social media posts.
Bill Short
