Wombat Pub Run

27 August 2022 / Words by Rod Nicholas. Photos by John Chapuis

Wombat is a dot on the map. It’s halfway between Cootamundra and Young but just off the Olympic Highway. It’s not far from Harden on the Burley Griffin Way, but it’s a little off that highway too.

Its population is somewhere between ‘a handful’ and ‘not very many’. There’s not much there except a pub (and an ‘antiques’ shop if that’s your thing).

Wombat is very easy to miss.

And yet it seems to be a popular destination, or at least the pub is.

A lunch trip to Wombat has become something of a staple on our events calendar, for the simple reason that it is a fun run. Some might suggest a drive of 400 kilometres is a bit extreme for lunch at a pub, but those who voice such an opinion probably don’t drive an MX-5.

Or a motorbike, as it also seems to attract quite a lot of bikers.

When we arrived at the pub, on a charmingly sunny and (vaguely) warm Wednesday there was a line-up of more than a dozen large motorbikes out front and a dozen or so men ‘of a certain age’ milling around the pub’s veranda. They had come for the ride, not the feed, but chose a different route from Canberra (it turns out that they were the group our convenor often rides with although he was not with then on the day).

We had met at Hume and made our way to the Cotter via Tharwa, and onwards to Uriarra Reserve for a quick stop. From there, it was a couple of our favourite roads – Mountain Creek and Wee Jasper – to Yass, Bowning and Harden. John, our intrepid leader, doesn’t like the easy way (aka the highway) so we had a couple of detours, narrow country lanes a little more suited to tractors than low sports cars. That’s not a complaint, but I don’t think the landholders see too many MX-5s buzzing excitedly down these roads. Harden to Wombat is a short zip through the country, and despite the plague of motorbikes at the pub, there was no shortage of parking spaces.

The highlight of the run, other than the scenery along the rise from Taemas Bridge where we cross the Murrumbidgee River (which was only really noticed by the one navigator we had on the trip – the drivers all sensibly keeping their eyes on the road) was the ‘big dipper’. We were heading towards Harden, scooting along Bouyeo Road and came to a crest, leading to a long steep drop down the hill, where it flattened off briefly and then dropped away again, steeper still, to a narrow bridge crossing a small stream. If the first drop was to be expected, more or less, the second most certainly wasn’t - the ‘big dipper’ is the dip that never ends!
The pub offered the usual fare, although the bike crew had apparently consumed all the wombat pies (pies from wombat or pies with wombat? We’ll never know.) The Wednesday special was hard to pass – rump steak, topped with bacon and fried eggs, with a half-ton of chips on the side and a schooner of your choice – all for $20. My navigator chose a T-bone that was almost bigger than the plate it was on! Pretty sure no one went home hungry.

After solving several of the ills of the world (other than figuring out what as in the wombat pies) we headed off home ‘our own way’. We chose to go back to Harden, then along the Cunningar Road to the Lachlan Valley Way, and hence to home, all a good stretch of road with very little traffic and few bone-jarring potholes.

The roads we travelled were still in good nick, notwithstanding the recent heavy rains, with a few exceptions that were mostly avoided. The group was a manageable seven cars and eight participants. The drive there (and back) was good fun. The feed was good value. The company, as always, was top notch.

Another good ’en.