MNC 10th Anniversary Mystery Run
05 June 2023 / Words by John Hansen, Photos by Wayne Lang
Bright blue sunny skies over Olivers at the Port Macquarie Service Centre greeted twenty four MX-5 Club Members for the ‘Official 10 Year Anniversary Run’. Fourteen MX-5 cars representing models from the NA to the latest RFGT waited patiently for the start. The parent MX-5 Club recognised the importance of the event by providing special commemorative anniversary caps and also a subsidy towards lunch. The run leader Peter gave a short briefing on the day and we prepared to set off.
Tops were lowered and we set off along the Oxley Highway to the Mount Seaview Resort for morning tea. Due to the multiple exits from the service centre and the very heavy traffic, our group soon became separated from each other. However, at Wauchope with the aid of the two way radios order was established.
The Oxley Highway was badly damaged in bush fires and torrential rain over the past few years and is currently still undergoing considerable repair work. We encountered the first of a series of road-works traffic lights just out of Wauchope. The delay split the group again which was further exacerbated with another traffic light stop a few kilometres further on. The countryside along the Oxley Highway was very green and picturesque with rolling green countryside rising to high hills to our right. Some of the hills appeared to have had a mohawk style hair cut with their green tree lined tops featuring a swathe of cleared space between them! Lush green fields were certainly the colour of the day as the highway wound its way to Long Flat, providing long stretches of road to shake the cobwebs out of the cars; engines burbling along and wind in the hair, an enjoyable, quintessential MX-5 experience.
The highway passed through Ellenborough and the turn off to Yarras before starting the climb up the mountain to the Mount Seaview Resort. A long sweeping uphill corner with warnings about being beware of falling rocks led to yet another traffic light stop controlling a one lane section which heralded the turn off to the resort. This section of the road had fallen into the valley due to a landslip.
The entrance to the resort was down a long curved section, carved into the hillside and across a causeway over the Hastings River to the coffee shop. Radio and visual contact with the front runners had long been lost, due to the separation of the cars and the many sharp corners. A car count revealed that three cars were missing! Due to the lack of radio or mobile coverage it was decided that there was little point in trying to go back to the Oxley Highway and playing ‘catch up’ with the three cars due to the twisty terrain and the lack of turning spots. It was realised that the missing cars would probably be enjoying the ‘twisties’ before they turned around to find the rest of us. Consequently, we all settled down to enjoy scones and cream for morning tea as a sun shower passed through the valley. As we were enjoying morning tea and playing an never ending game of fetch with the resident dog, we saw Garry’s red NA swooping over the causeway.
The Mount Seaview Resort Manager gave a very interesting short talk about the general area and, in particular, the origins of the Oxley Highway. The original route over the mountain to the New England Tableland was a bullock track hacked out of the bush to enable bullock carts to bring wool down to the Hastings plains. This route followed the ridges instead of the current day road. With the development of the motor car in the early part of the 1900s it was found that the original bullock track grades were too steep for motor traffic of that time. A new road alignment was surveyed and in the 1920s the current road alignment over the mountain was constructed. For the adventurous, parts of the original bullock track can still be found in the bush; accessed by fire trail from the current highway and there are still remnants of original mining and logging operations that took place in the late 1880’s and early 1900’s. However, these are on serious four wheel drive tacks definitely not suitable for MX-5 cars!
After much talk and photograph taking it was time to retrace our, steps down the mountain. We were all very familiar with lunch location and it was suggested that in the event that the group became separated due to the road works that we make our own way down to meet up at the Rivermark Cafe for lunch.
The sun showers had finished and we left with tops down back down the mountain. As expected, the roadworks stop lights again broke up the running order allowing a leisurely drive to the Rivermark Cafe.
Lunch was quite a boisterous affair with good food and good-natured bantering with those who had missed the earlier turn off to morning tea; one car had even made it up to Gingers Creek before turning around and so had a very satisfying morning drive around the mountain instead of morning tea! During lunch, the club coordinators distributed the special edition 10th Anniversary caps provided by the MX-5 parent club to mark the occasion.
All in all, the day provided some good driving, interesting historical perspectives, excellent food and most important good fellowship from fellow club members; not to mention the subsidised lunch and new caps!
Thanks go to the club coordinators Peter and Keiran and run leader Peter for the organisation. Thanks also to Wayne and Shuna for the photographs which appear on the Mid North Coast MX-5 Club website administered by Wayne and of course to all who took part in the ‘Official 10 year Anniversary Run’.
Roll call: Dayna and Keiran, Peter and Wayne, Pam and Allen, Garry, Cathy and Wayne, Stephen, Sue and John, Rosemary and Ken, Sheila, Mick and Chris, Judith and John, Graham, Olaf and Shuna and Kevin.
Scribe
John Hansen
