The Woolshed Classic Motorcycle Rally returns in 2016 after unseasonal floods dampened the inaugural event in 2015.
The event at the historic Jondaryan Woolshed on Queensland’s picturesque Darling Downs will be held from April 20 to May 2 and bookings for trade and club stalls and camping are now open.
Organiser Mark Morrissey says the event will become the “must do” rally for every kind of motorbike enthusiast in the country.
Mark in the woolshed hallClub stalls are free and Mark, or one of his organising group, have offered to speak at your club meetings about the event to encourage riders to attend.
Displays are open to all makes and models of motorcycle from 1900 to 1985. Public entry is a gold coin donation with funds going to the Endeavour Foundation. Camping fees are $10 per person per day.
“So far I have had eight requests from groups I haven’t even heard from before,” he says.
All trade and merchant stalls will be given a free site for the first three years.
In May 2015, the inaugural event was hampered by a freak set of storms that swept across South East Queensland, forcing several motorcycle clubs to cancel their attendance.
Rally was almost isolated by floodwatersOrganisers expected at least 400 classic bikes to be displayed but fewer than 100 riders and pillions turned up, mostly BMW airhead members who came from as far as Tasmania.
It was a shame as the event has great potential to become a major attraction on the rally calendar with its interesting blend of displays, vintage motocross trials, flat tracking, bands, spit roasts and a big screen playing classic motorcycles movies, all in a magnificent venue at a central location with scenic riding routes to get there.
Marks says he wants to grow the rally into a “pageant rather than a rally”.
“Something along the lines of the Goowood Revival, but smaller just because of the audience available,” he says.
Moree riders braved cyclonic conditions to attend last year’s rallyThe venue has plenty of indoor areas for displays, a food hall, movie “theatre” and bands, being the biggest surviving historic woodshed in Australia.
The woolshed sits just off the Warrego Highway, 40km west of Toowoomba and 160km west of Brisbane. There are plenty of great riding roads around including the Bunya Mountains.
The historic complex stands on 64 hectares (160 acres) and can cater for enormous numbers of day visitors and thousands of campers.
The licensed Jondaryan Woolshed complex includes the historic woolshed, village, museum, cafe, food hall, arenas and paddocks. There are also public toilets and showers, disabled facilities and a large vehicle park.
The Woolshed has hosted large outdoor events for more than 30 years including the nine-day Australian Heritage Festival run from about 1974 until 2010 and attracting crowds of more than 20,000.