This, like all the stories of the Repco Round Australia, was written by me back in 1979 and is presented largely unchanged.
The car had neared completion by early July and it was time for our first outing in it. The aim was to run in the engine as well as having a fairly long drive with the three of us in the car. The trip to Stawell by Geoff and myself would also allow us some time to discuss maps and the route with Noel. I picked up Geoff in Ballarat on my way to Stawell where we lunched with Noel and his wife. Early on Saturday afternoon we went down to the workshop to inspect proceedings. We had hoped to leave mid-afternoon but there were still quite a few things to be done to the car. The back seta needed to be fitted and they were playing around with the rear end, shockers and exhaust. We helped a bit then returned to Noel's agreeing to meet at Wes' place for dinner at six o'clock ready to leave. I rang good friend Perry Kilsby (helped on the Derricks, Riverland and Ready Plan Rallies) who lives near Mount Gambier to say we may call in later that night and he informed me they would be out until about 10.30 but to let ourselves in and make ourselves a drink.
We fronted to Wes' at six and were fed a chicken while watching the footy. It was almost seven o'clock when we departed. Wes drove with me passengering, as we headed along the highway to Horsham. While we were taking it easy, the ca felt tight and the engine eager to get going. After 67 km we turned south towards Hamilton on the Henty Highway. We stopped in Hamilton, almost 200 km from Stawell, at about 9.15. Wes got in the back. me in the driver's seat and Geoff beside me. I drove the 100 km along the somewhat twisty Glenelg Highway. I took the wrong turn to Perry's place and ended up doing a loop around the Strathdownie swap before choosing the correct road. It was by now raining heavily so we rushed into the house when we arrived, put on the kettle and sat by the heater watching the football. Perry rang soon after to say they were just leaving Mount Gambier.
A little later the rain had stopped so I took the opportunity to take the car out on their deserted road to set the lights up properly. We used two long range Oscars and two normal ones plus a pair of H4 inserts. The performance once they were finely adjusted was excellent. After setting up the lights I tested the handbrake on the wet bitumen and it worked superbly!
The Kilsbys soon arrived home and we had another drink and a chat about the likely route north out of Mount Gambier. We departed soon after midnight heading southwards to Dartmoor to join the Princes Highway, Geoff having a drive now with me in the back. The majority of this road is gravel and leads to the Highway at Munumbar from where it is about 25 km down the highway to a turnoff into the Mount Deception Forest where we intended to drive some of the roads likely to be used in the Heywood Special Stage. In fact where we entered on Heath Road was the finish control of the special stage in the event. We stopped here and Wes swapped with Geoff who would read the map.
The Mount Deception Forest (now the Cobbooboonee National Park) is indeed deceptive. The roads are very fast and somewhat cresty, but there are some sharp bends. In particular, Heath Road as a 90 degree right hander 2 kilometres from the highway. I'm not quite sure how we got around it but we did! From that point, I was convinced of two things. First, Wes could get himself out of trouble very well and could handle the care very well in doing so. Second, Wes goes too fast over crests!
Wes drove quite quickly for about 20 kilometres. It handled superbly, and the engine, although only 350 km old, was eager to get on with it. I swapped into the driver's seat then and found the car equally enjoyable. The forest was in nice condition, fairly wet without being slushy. We did a further 20 km before I exited out to the east midway between Portland and Heywood. It was now after 2 am and I continued to drive. Geoff had been in the back while I drove so was pleased to be out of the forest. We headed eastward to the Princes Highway. The others began to doze off as I covered about 90 km to near Tower Hill between Port Fairy and Warrnambool, then feeling a bit sleepy, stopped to let Geoff have a drive. We had intended to follow the Great Ocean Road but we doubted that we could get fuel so we headed for Ballarat where we knew we could. Geoff drove all the way through Warrnambool, Mortlake, Lismore and Rokewood to Ballarat, 190 km in all. It was about 5 am as we pulled into the Shell Servo in Ballarat, which was in its usual perishingly cold state. The car refuelled and we visited Geoff's place for coffee, then set off again, Wes driving.
It came light as we headed up the Sunraysia Highway towards Avoca. I slept some more in the back seat but took over from Wes at Avoca after 70 km. I took a final leg of 80 km back to Stawell where we arrived at 7 am, exactly 12 hours after we had departed. We had done about 835 km. The route is plotted here. Geoff and I returned to Noel's to flake out on the floor for a while. We called around to see Wes to discuss a few ideas for the car and arrangements for the next two weekend before I drove back to Ballarat for lunch and home to Melbourne early in the afternoon.
Two weeks later was only two weeks to the start of the event and time to have a serious practice run. The car was virtually complete and we would take it away in "ready to start" form. We also intended to have a look at some of the areas in north-west Victoria that we expected would be used between Bordertown and Renmark. Noel had already spent a bit of time up there with Peter and Matt testing the Commodore, so we were going to discuss the likely route with Noel before departing from Stawell. As we had done the fortnight earlier, I picked up Geoff on my way to Stawell on the Saturday morning and we were at Noel's for lunch. We planned to leave in the late afternoon and do a loop through Pinnaroo and the Sunset Country. We would return using some roads that we were sure would not be used but I knew they would be a good test for us and the car.
We discussed with Noel the various sections of the border track which he had looked at between Bordertown and Renmark. We had already decided as a result of some remarks made by Stewart McLeod many months earlier that the route would go as close as practicable to the Viv/SA border all the way from Mount Gambier to Renmark. I was already very familiar with the section from Mount Gambier to the Langkoop Road, part of which we had used in the 1976 Derrick. North of their we believed that the border track was non-existent until Frances. This was accurate as the actual route did use the border track, or something close to it, all the way from the Glenelg Highway to the Langkoop Road. After that it transported inside SA through Frances to Bordertown. Noel had surveyed a nice piece of road northwards from Frances inside Victoria but he felt it was a bit too fiddly for them to use, and he was correct. North of Bordertown the options seemed limited. The "main" Yanac-Murrayville Road which crosses the Big Desert seemed like the only viable choice and it was well to the east of the border. Noel had survey a number of roads running from Bordertown to Yanac but most were straight and uncompetitive. A few tracks remained to be explored, which we would do. Noel had described the Yanac Road as the hairiest thing he can remember - fast and full of yumpy crests. So we would take a look for ourselves, as well as the likely access back west towards Pinnaroo. Our judgement on the actual route was spot on, except that they cancelled the Big Desert stage on the night due to wet weather. North of Pinnaroo was where we were really interested in having a good look. Noel had looked at the border track all the way from the Ouyen Highway to the Bottons Bore Road from where you must go into Victoria as the border simply does not exist to the north. There are some nasty sandhills on that 30 km of the border tack including one where Peter, Noel and Matt had become bogged and burned out the clutch on text Commodore! There are some alternatives here that we wanted to check out in case of needing to escape around bogged car in the actual event. The track up through Bellbird Bore goes through a nasty area of sand dunes north of the Rock Holes, and we wanted to check it out. The remainder west to the border near Meribah and then north to the Stuart Highway was fairly plain sailing. The actual route was pretty much as we had guessed except that they diverted to the east near the start of the stage to avoid a bad stretch of sand dunes.
After discussion with Noel about the route we headed to the dealership where they were still playing with the car. We were about to leave at four o'clock when a tyre went flat and there were no spare wintertreads so we put a pair of aquajets on the front - good fun! We set off then, Wes driving, up the Western Highway through Horsham, to Nhill, a total of 143 km before Geoff had a drive. There was light drizzle and it was just dark as we headed up the Yanac Road out of Nhill. We decided to leave the main road before Yanac and explore a particularly likely looking access track back onto the Yanac Road from the west. This meant going one block to the west then heading north o a gravel road. Just after crossing the "main" east-west road we came to a big gate which we proceeded through and the track became narrow, sandy and generally good fun. Goeff pressed on for a couple of kilometres to another gate where we nearly got bogged in the sand. After that the track was decidedly sandy, then after two more kilometres we came to a mapped junction where we were intending to head to the east back to the Yanac Road. It looked very sandy and overgrown so we got out to have a look. It was a crystal clear night now. The track was there OK so I got into the driver's seat and went about a kilometre down it before deciding it was just too overgrown for them to use. We retraced our steps back through the gates and across the gravel east-west road to join the Yanac Road. I've plotted the route of all this here.
Part way along this road there was a rattle in the back so we stopped to investigate. A shock-absorber bolt had come loose (or was never tightened) - no dramas and quickly fixed. I continued to drive and we soon joined the Yanac Road exactly where the planned start control would have been located if the stage had have run. The road was just nicely damp and we moved along quite quickly. It was really fast for 20 km then there are more crests and undulating country with some of the most unpredictable crests I have ever encountered. After about 30 km Wes made noises from the back that he was due for a ride so we swapped and he drove for the remaining 25 km to just south of Murrayville. I was a nervous wreck by the end - I told Wes there and then that I wouldn't go over crests that fast! Wes drove the 25 km into Pinnaroo along fairly good sand based roads. In fact the actual route continued up the last 5 km of the border road to a finish control at the highway. The stage probably would have been cleanable unless the road was very muddy, which it would have been, but they cancelled it anyway.
We headed for the BP Pinnaroo for coffee and toasted sandwiches. It was about 9 pm when we left and because Geoff had been feeling a bit sick in the back, I agreed to swap places (in the event Geoff rarely sat in the back). Wes had refuelled but apparently had not filled it right up (we should have had enough for about 600 km). We headed up the border track to the north, with Wes driving. It is a good road for about 5 km, which is where they ended up putting the start control. After that it becomes a narrow sandy track which undulates over dunes. After 1.4 km we cross the first major gravel road and we noted that we could use it in the event to avoid some of the sand (we did). Further north the track becomes even more sandy, then we came to a fence. The gate was way over on the left then we had to do a full U-turn to get back to the original track. There is an easement that heads east here and to another north-south road and that is where the actual route went. We continued up the border track over 5.5 km of very sandy easement with some very sharp dunes. This is where the Commodore had become stuck but our Celica never looked like getting bogged, but we suspect that the event may not come this way, and we were right. Nevertheless, we noted a number of accesses onto the track from both the east and the west before reaching what we thought was the main Buttons Bore Road. We turned right but it didn't seem like the main road and after 2 km we popped out a gate onto the main road. That made sense, we turned left and found the border and the correct gate. That was where they put the passage control on the event.
We then followed what was to be the actual route all the way through Bellbird Bore and Millewa South Bore to the crossroads where the event turned left to head back to the border near Meribah. Some of the dunes through here were quite bad but were no problem to us. But here was an incredible difference between then and two weeks later after many cars (well actually, only about 20) had been over the track. It was in here that we got stuck behind Warmbold during the event. Anyway, at the crossroad swapped drivers as we planned to travel east on this 50 km of track that takes you right into the middle of the Sunset Country. While I had used this in the Ready Plan Rally the previous year, I think I had only ever driven it once or twice and certainly in the opposite direction. It seemed very slow and overgrown previously but I punted along quite quickly although still only averaging less than 60 km/h. Geoff wasn't feeling too well so Wes was in the back. Then I got a puncture on an unseen mallee root. The tyre was soon changed and we continued. When we reached the other end I could barely believe it, as it had been so much quicker than I could remember from the previous year. By this stage it was about midnight and we stopped so Geoff could have a drive. Wes suddenly realised that we were going to run low on fuel so we'd better take it a bit easy from now on.
I navigated Geoff southwards to Birthday Tank where we turned right. The tracks in the Sunset Country seemed in excellent condition and would have made a lovely loop for the Repco. In fact at that time we had not fully discounted that possibility. Somewhere a bit before Sunset Tank we beared left and I wasn't entirely sure which road we were on but I worked out we were heading more south-east and therefore had to be on the track to Underbool Tank. I had only ever used this road once before when surveying for the 1977 Riverland Rally but we could not get through the sand and had to turn back. No such problem this time as the track had been recently graded and looked completely different. I did recall that the road splits with one part going a cross a salt lake (not recommended) and the other part skirting the late to the south. I was considering all this when Geoff eased off as we headed into a depression and the road seemed to disappear ahead. I yelled to stop for this was the salt lake and it looked dangerously wet. I got out and checked on foot and it was very soft. We reversed out and picked up the (then) hard to see bypass track. It confirmed that we were on the Underbool Tank track, which I planned to follow the main graded track out to the small "wheat siding" town of Linga. It's still a long way until we emerge from the Sunset Country, then we passed the sheds and yards of the farm that leases much of the country, then onto a good gravel shire road. We reached the Ouyen Highway about 1.30 am and headed eastwards for home.
Finding fuel would be a problem at this time of night so we chose the shortest route back to Stawell via Patchewollock, Hopetoun, Warracknabeal and Rupanyup. Geoff continued to drive and at Underbool, 10 km from Linga, we turned right onto the fast gravel road to Patchewollock. I soon went to sleep and so did Wes. It was 53 km to Patchewollock but after only 25 km we popped out onto a major highway. I awoke, as did Wes, wondering what the hell was going on. We examined the signposts and a quick reference to the map showed that we had looped back to the Ouyen Highway having not beared to the right about 15 km out of Underbool. With the fuel situation as it was we decided to head for Ouyen after all, figuring on getting fuel there on the main Sunraysia Highway. I drove the 38 km to Ouyen but there was no-one open, so we headed south. I got pretty tired after 70 km around Lascelles where we had to turn right onto the Henty Highway so I handed over to Wes, got in the back and fell instantly asleep.
I next awoke when we were doing a U-turn on the highway a but north of Beulah. Wes informed us that a mate of his owned a property here and he was on holidays in Queensland so we could "borrow" some fuel without disturbing them. We drove into the yard of this farm and found the overhead fuel tank together with a large and extremely viscous cattle dog that was barking loudly. Wes spent a couple of minutes talking nicely to the dog out of his barely opened window but the animal just stood its ground, barking and showing its well sharpened teeth. It really did look bloody dangerous. Next Wes threw it some biscuits which it gobbled down and resumed its vigil of barking and snarling. I recall Geoff's comment: "I think you would be most unwise to get out of the car at all, Wes". We eventually gave up and drove on.
I next woke up in Warracknabeal where Wes had parked outside the Post Office. Wes went to make a call whilst Geoff informed me we were virtually right out of fuel so Wes was going to ring up his mate who owns the local Toyota dealership. It was 3.30 am. We headed to the dealership and this amazingly chirpy guy came along about 10 minutes later and opened up the place. We soon had our fuel and set off for Stawell, exactly 100 km away. We were home at 5 am and went and slept on Noel's floor until 10 am before returning to discuss some more things about the car and arrangements for the next two weeks. Geoff and I headed back to Ballarat for lunch, and me on to Melbourne.
So ended an interesting practice trip. We had done 887 km in the car. We had learned about sand, Wes and his crests, how to avoid salt lakes and how to get fuel at 3.30 in the morning. We had failed to learn how to tame cattle dogs though. Basically we had learned about the car and each other and were far more prepared for the event that we would otherwise have been.
