From our Old Bike Archives – Issue 63 – first published in 2016. Story: Peter Laverty • Photos: Gregory Heath In 1972, a South Australian entrepreneur decided to launch Australia into big-time motocross. It was an […]
Ballarat is the only Australian city to be listed on the International Historic Cities register. Everywhere you go in Ballarat (or Ballaart to be more correct – from the aboriginal Balla-arat meaning resting place), are […]
Story: Jim Scaysbrook • With assistance from: Jenny Martinez • Photographs: Ray Kelly, Wes Brown, Noel Cheney, Ross Martin and other private collections. Like its more famous counterpart in the Irish Sea, the Australian TT was […]
Story: Jim Scaysbrook • Photos: Alec Fisher, Michael Andrews, Greg Heath In the early post-WW2 years, the now-densely populated southern and western suburbs of Sydney were dotted with scrambles courses: Holdsworthy, Glenfield and the Southern Districts […]
Story: Jim Scaysbrook • Photographs Frank Shepherd, Bill Tricker, Charles Rice • Archival assistance: John Wicks Even though it closed almost fifty years ago, Mount Druitt is inevitably mentioned whenever a bunch of old timers get […]
Story: Jim Scaysbrook • Photos: Stan Shephard, Gary Reid, Ray Smith 9th December, 1957 was a grim day for motor sport in NSW. An amendment to the Metropolitan Traffic Act, 1900, and the Motor Traffic Act, […]
Story: Jim Scaysbrook • Photos: Frank Shepherd When Mount Druitt disappeared in November 1958, it left NSW with just one operational road racing circuit – the once-a-year bash at Bathurst at Easter. This had the effect […]
The world’s first and second motorcycle 24 hour races produced heroic performances, amazing endurance, and tragedy. Story: Jim Scaysbrook • Photos: Dennis Quinlan, Graeme Osborne, Todd Hamilton, OBA archives. Rugged and devoid of facilities it may […]
What was possibly Australia’s most spectacular scrambles circuit now lies beneath the waters of Sugarloaf Reservoir. Story: Jim Scaysbrook with assistance from Wes Brown and Paul Keam • Photos: Merv Whitelaw The shop run by John […]
As post-war public road closures for racing became more and more difficult, the search was on for suitable stretches of tarmac where motorcycles could be raced in anger. East of Melbourne, the bike brigade found […]
