Norton In Australia
Created | Updated Apr 6, 2006
I think the first thing that people wonder is why did he do it, but then people often say I wish I had done something like that.
Beginnings and Bananas
Why did I do it? Firstly, I was in Australia at the time and wanted to see more of the country. There had been people who toured Australia in and on various means of transport and I thought a motorcycle would be the cheapest way.
During 1974 I had already done some travelling with a friend throughout the eastern states with a VW Kombivan and that was the start of wanting to see more of Australia. I had to return to the UK mid 1975 due to illness in the family and, just before I left for the UK, there was an article in the Aussie bike magazine, Two Wheels, that said 'bring a motorcycle into Australia TAX FREE' - that got my thoughts going.
This was a decision to make when I arrived in the UK. I set out to find out if any local motorcycle dealers in Norwich would organise Personal Export for me and I soon found someone. I had a choice of three bikes - a Triumph Trident or a Norton Commando Mk 2a or Mk3. I would have always liked a Norton as it suited my needs. Having the choice of three made it hard as I knew I wanted something simple to work on.
Norton was in financial problems and they had an offer on with £75 off if bought in August 1975. I decided to get the Norton Mk3 Electric Start Interstate as the list price was £1161 with the £75 plus the VAT off I got the bike for a straight £1000 - what an excellent deal! I ran the Norton in over the next 3 months in the UK and put about 2600 miles on it before shipping it to Australia.
I returned to Sydney in January 1976 and found some work as I had to wait around 3 months before the Norton arrived. I still had not made any plans as to what I was going to do with the Norton at this stage. The only changes to the bike were to fit a Bikini fairing and panniers.
I thought that what I would do would be to go over the tracks I had already gone as I knew what to expect. I thought I would go north to Queensland and once that was decided I waited for the wet season to get over and I set off early in June - the very beginning of the Aussie winter and I knew it would be warmer up there.
When I set off the bike was still fairly new with around 4500 miles on the clock. It was easy riding in New South Wales as roads were good and conditions were not bad. Before I got to Queensland I had two encounters with the law. The first was speeding in a place called Maitland and, after riding through the night, I put my head down, laid beside the bike and went to sleep. It was great when I woke up as the sun was warm so I got on the bike but, about 100 yards up the road, was pulled over by the law. The officer really tore me off a strip as it is
not done in Australia - caravan parks are where you should rest. I told him I was sorry but I knew that if I had not stopped I would have fallen off as I was very sleepy!
That evening I pulled into a caravan park at a place called Maryborough and found from leaving Sydney 12 noon the previous day to 5 pm the next day I had clocked just over 800 miles. I felt by now I was getting used to the bike again and the warmer weather made riding more pleasant. I pulled out of the caravan park the next morning thinking I had better get the fine paid.
The weather was quite warm and the sun was bright which made me feel good. The first post office I came upon was at Childers - a wooden construction but really nice. I paid the fine and the next thing I noticed was the hotel with batwing doors which looked inviting so I thought I would check out the local beer. That was quite good too!
My objective was now to make my way up the Queensland coast. I had only been on the road for a short while when a Triumph Trident passed me and the rider waved. He had a passenger on the back and a large Pink Panther tied to his luggage rack. We seemed to stay together for some time and we stopped at Miriam Vale where we introduced ourselves. The rider was Steve and his pillion was Kim and they told me they were going north for the sugarcane season. We travelled together for another two days and then split up as I wanted to go to Shute Harbour - it was a place that had impressed me on my previous trip. I eventually met Steve and Kim again in Tully where I also got to work on bananas and sugarcane for a short while.
The panniers were not as good as I thought they would be as they kept coming loose, so I decided to throw them away and get a kit bag and tie my gear onto the rack which worked much better. The Norton was going OK, but the Queensland roads were the main problem at this time and I should have remembered this from the past trip that I had made. Due to the weather being rainy the bitumen cracked and there were a lot of potholes in the road. Not taking this into account I hit a few of them a bit hard and every time I did it I got a puncture in the front tyre - this happened quite a lot - I just kept repairing and replacing tubes it did
not worry me.
It was now about August - the bike had only about 6500 miles on the clock and looked about the same as it did when it left Sydney, but things were now about to change...
