2023 Singleton Tour
Video: Lauren Newman
The recently completed Singleton Tour showed once again that if you combine a good handful of veteran cars, or a handful of good veteran cars with some pretty good roads and some sensational
weather conditions it makes for a great weekend.
By the time we departed Nulkaba on the Friday morning it was after morning school drop off time, so there wasn’t too much traffic about as we made our way along Vincent Street, the main street of Cessnock towards Kitchener and Quorrobolong. From there we headed through Ellalong, Paxton and Millfield to Wollombi for lunch. Unfortunately, not far from the start Henry and Andy began to experience some fairly severe wheel wobbles in the Renault, so decided quite wisely to call it a day. Henry got a lift back to the start where he retrieved the tow vehicle, and they caught up with us later in the day.
Slacks Park in Wollombi was the designated lunch stop, which proved to be quite delightful in the midday sun. Some of the group had prepared a picnic lunch whilst some others sampled the local delights – all of which looked pretty good.
From Wollombi we headed north through Paynes Crossing towards Broke. Along the way, Rod and had an unplanned stop in the Ford. By the time we arrived, the crews of the Vauxhall and Rambler had already stopped to assist so we continued to the afternoon stop at Stewart McTaggart Park in Broke. The park is just across the road from the servo/general store where most of us went to buy an ice cream for afternoon tea.
From Broke we continued to Singleton through Mt Thorley, which was all quite enjoyable until we struck the afternoon peak traffic period which is largely due to mine workers heading through town combined with school zones. Bring on the Singleton Bypass which is supposed to be opened by the end of 2026!
Saturday morning was quite cool and a few of the cars were a bit reluctant to start at first, but thankfully everyone got sorted and was ready once it was time to leave. It was only a relatively short drive to our morning tea stop at the very aptly named Mount Pleasant Public School where we enjoyed a leisurely stop in the morning sun.
We left first to find a spot to take some photo’s of the cars. About a kilometre up the road we found what appeared to be a fairly recently constructed ford over the Goorangoola Creek. With some water running over the ford and a convenient place to park this seemed like a good location.
Once the cars had all passed, we continued to the Lake Liddell Recreation Area for our lunch stop. The day’s directions had us heading back to Singleton using a stretch of the New England Highway, as one of the preferred routes was closed due to damage caused by last year’s floods. Given how enjoyable the morning run was, I think most of the group decided to return the same way. It was just as enjoyable heading in the opposite direction.
Sunday morning was quite cool again, but with a bit of coaxing all the cars started. The drive back to Branxton where the tour finished, took us through some very nice farming country with locality names such as Obanvale, Wattle Ponds, Clydesdale, Big Ridge, Roughit and Glendon.
Our farewell morning tea was shared at Miller Park, Branxton before the group began to disperse. Another great weekend of veteran motoring that was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended. Hopefully Henry will soon have the Renault headed in the right direction and Rod will get the T firing on all four again.
