Coleraine Recce Trip

 

Start of the Hamilton - Coleraine bike path near Hamilton

Chris outside the Holding Pen Cafe

Potential as a hill climb circuit! This is Racecourse Road, Coleraine

Mcconochie St Coleraine, decorated houses,

very wide with some potential for bike racing. The information centre is in the background.

and home to the pedal car races in October - I think these are the gridlines from last year.

Pedal Car sign

Op shop signs. The "closed" bit applied to yesterday's heat - it was open today, Hooray!

Football oval and surrounding asphalt track. There is a rise of about 6m as the track passes through the grandstand area.

The scoreboard is quite big!

Asphalt path runs through the grandstands

A few of the club buildings

Cavendish Road

Along the Cavendish Road.

Hi

Last November, my girlfriend and I took a Cup Day long weekend trip to Coleraine, a town in Western Victoria where my Mum lived when growing up, and where I visited my aunt and grandmother when I was growing up.  Sometime after that trip I decided it might be a good idea to hold an OzHPV event in the town, and ran it past a few people on the OzHPV committee before considering it seriously. Part of the motivation for considering Coleraine was that the town already has its own pedal car race, so knows (a little bit) about human powered vehicles. 

This trip comes during a spell of very hot weather for Victoria. Where I live in Melbourne it was 43 yesterday, but in Coleraine it was 45,  and poor old Ouyen had a new state record high of 48! My girlfriend and I had done some work repairing fences for blazeaid about a week ago, and on the way up this morning I passed through the area of the Streatham fire . Because of Blazeaid, the sight of rolled up, burnt fencing wire was very familiar. Fires are devastating for farmers who have a hard enough time of it anyway.

In Coleraine, I rode around looking at a few potential sites for an OzHPV race plus some old and new sights, and of course visited the excellent op shop and book shop. 

The football ground looked pretty good for an event. It is only accessible by dead end roads, and there is a continuous asphalt track (potential race circuit ) surrounding the oval. The football /netball club has a different oval to the cricket club, so the football oval has a summer quiet season when its used only for training. 

 Later, I met Chris, an organiser of the Coleraine Pedal Car event. Of recent times, there have been few groups that make their own pedal cars, and most cars are purchased from Trisled, then rented to teams. Chris himself has kept several older pedal cars, and picks one each year for his family (wife, daughter, grandchildren, he is the mechanic) team. The races take place around the old railway station (now the information centre), and a traffic management crew is employed to keep motorists away. The races are held on a Saturday so that everyone gets Sunday off. Chris recommended I speak to Ashleigh about hiring the footy / netball club's oval and premises, and told me where to find him. He was there in his office, which was great. The Football / Netball club proudly announced that their team did the most laps at last year's pedal car race, and also raised the most funds for charity.

After checking into a hotel, I rested then rode out along the Cavendish Road. A good day, and thank goodness not as hot as the day before! 

Gritjurk Country Fire Authority shed, about 10 k from Coleraine

A selfie, I balanced the camera on my tool kit box to take this.

Some roos (kangaroos) and sheep. The roos are hard to spot till you see their distinctive bounding.

 

Lots of scenery like this.

Leaning trike and Coleraine from the Arboretum on the hill.

The next day I woke up and there was a smoky sky - and I had left my phone in the bar of the hotel which was locked! Rather than wait around for some staff to arrive, I rode out again, this time going a bit further along the Cavendish Road. When I got back to the Hotel, the staff were on site and I rounded up my phone. Then I packed up and left, driving on the (slightly) circuitous route through Cavendish (not Hamilton) to Dunkeld. This was a good option, the roads were quiet and picturesque and the Cavendish cafe and general store was doing a roaring trade and served good tea and sandwiches!

Regards Steve Nurse 

Update Feb 3

OzHPV have now applied to the Coleraine football netball club for the hire of their clubrroms and oval in late 2026. Await a reply to see if its all go!

Regards Steve Nurse