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.

Why did I do it? Firstly was I was in Australia at the time and wanted to see more of the country .There had been people tour 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 traveling 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 3 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 3 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 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.

Still I 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 he Aussie winter and 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 road were good and conditions were not bad.

Before I got to Queensland I had 2 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. Iit was great when I woke up as the sun was warm so I got on the bike and 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 know 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 traveled together for another 2 days and split up as I wanted to go to Shute Harbour. It was a place that impressed me on my previous trip.

I eventually met Steve and Kim again in Tully where I also got 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 abit 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.

I was in Cairns North Queensland and I wanted to tackle my first piece of dirt road so I asked people what the road was like to Cooktown and what they thought of the road and was told it was OK.

The thing I have found out is every body sees things differently and what is OK with one it is not so good for others. I had made up my mind and Cooktown was on the cards for me to go. All the conditions were Ok as the rainy season was just over.

I was happy to go ahead with it but was a little unsure how the Norton would handle it. As I got further north I could see the roads had been washed away by the amount of rain that had fallen. There were large channels beside the road and in some instances across the road, it was a bit hard to find a way over them but by doing it slowly and carefully I did it. I could see the advantages of a 4 x 4 under these conditions.

About 10 miles from Cooktown there was a sign typical of the Aussie sense of humour it said ‘Historic Motor Inn 10 Bloody miles to go’ that more or less said everything as it was a long hard haul.

I rolled into Cooktown pitched the tent and went over to the pub. They were really nice people there and they asked where I came from and what I was doing.

They told me there was some sort of sing song or something at the pub and I could come over but I told them that my gear was mucky and I did not have much else to change into. They said ‘No worries just knock the dust off you will be alright’.

I stayed in Cooktown for a couple of days and the winds were strong during the time I was there. I spent some time looking around the sites as it was a gold mining area and there were a lot of Chinese people there in the early days. There is still a tree marked where Captain Cook was said to have tied off his ship the Endeavour, also a museum with a logbook which was written in his handwriting.

It was now time to leave Cooktown and travel back on the dirt road again.

The Norton was still in fairly good running order at this time but not taking all the changes that the wind had made into consideration I hit what the Aussies call Bulldust which is dust or dirt that fills up potholes and when you hit them the front wheel drops into it. This is what happened to me and the result was that I got thrown off. I did some damage to my shoulder and also bent the handlebars although when you are in pain the bent bars were helpful as bent more towards me.

I had to give myself a short break to get my shoulder back to normal again and after I got back to Cairns I assessed the damage to the bike. Well the fairing screen had broken so that had to go and the next thing I found was there were 2 spokes broken in the rear wheel. I tried to get some spare spokes but none were available so I carried on and thought I would eventually get some There was a new rear tyre needed as 7500 miles was average for a rear tyre and the exhaust needed a bit of a weld as there were signs of cracks where it bolted to the mountings.

I sat down and looked at my map- where was I going to head for next? I thought ‘ah Darwin that is my next port of call’.

Well I took a look at the Norton and although it had these small problems I considered all the facts and felt if I kept checking them it would be OK.

I set off down the coast again and got to Townsville, where I branched off west towards the Northern Territory. The roads were quite straight and I hadn’t been on this road long before I noticed that the vegetation had changed from green to yellow and looked quite dry.

I thought the roads were a bit better than the coast roads as they did not seem to be as broken up and over the next few days I rode across to the main north to south road, and then went north up to Darwin. About 200 miles south of Darwin is Katherine and Katherine Gorge which is a real sight to see. If anybody goes that way do stop and see it.

It was less than 2 years since Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin (Christmas 1974) I was working in South Australia at the time. I thought how well Darwin had recovered and looked quite good and I camped there for 2 or 3 nights.

The sunsets were really something-it was nice to sit on the beach and see the sun go down over the sea.

It was now early September and very hot up there-the thing that I remember most was when the sun rose it was to hot to lay around in the tent and I had to get up.

I decided to make my way south and intended to see Alice Springs and go out to Ayers Rock. That was my next target.

The bike seemed Ok at this time but I had to keep check on it as I knew things had started to deteriorate-there were still only 2 spokes broken at this stage.

I headed south on a concrete road which I should think was the best type of road for the heat that was playing on it-bitumen would have melted I am sure about that.

I was not too far down the road when I had another puncture. I had so many on this trip it seemed part of my days work to repair one.

The road was straight and there was a lot of nothing between petrol pumps. I got back down to the Three Ways Road where I first came on from leaving Townsville. I liked that part of the trip and would not have missed it, this is the Australia I like.

Moving further south I came to the Devils Marbles which are very large round boulders laying around some on top of each other-the name is quite good as they looked like monstrous marbles, thrown around by nature.

Alice Springs…. a magic name a place you imagine to be quite special. It is the most central part of Australia and that is why I thought it very special. The town itself was not that different to others to look at but I felt different about it-maybe it was the time of the year, as when I saw the place the Todd River no longer existed as it had dried up. Aboriginals camped on the river bed which, I was told was a very dangerous thing for them to do as when the rain hit the high land it rushes down and fills the river bed again with out much warning.

It was around 200 miles from Alice to Ayers Rock and I set off one morning intending to get there by the end of that day, but I did not really know what was ahead of me.

The south bound road itself was ok and looked ok when I turned off in the direction of Ayres Rock but there was only about 50 metres of bitumen. After that I could see that the road conditions looked quite horrendous. There were cars coming back from the Rock, so I stopped a couple of them and asked what the conditions were like further on. I was told it was like it is here and in some cases worse.

The most positive thing that was said was do it and go there because it is a sight worth seeing. Well it took me about another 2 minutes to decide I was going to do it.

Looking back now I would not have changed my decision though it was one of hardest tasks I could have put myself and the bike through but if I had not have done it I would not have known what I am capable of doing.

From the main road there were 152 miles ahead of me. Riding was so dangerous due to the corrugations, deep holes and deep sand and I had to keep my speed down to 15 to 20 miles per hour. That night I arrived at Curtain Springs about 50 miles from the Rock. I pitched the tent and crashed out after quite a tiring ride.

I got up the next day to continue the rest of the trip and as I got closer to the Rock it seemed the sand got deeper and riding got a bit harder. I was at this time beginning to think I may not be able to ride much further as the conditions were very hard.

However, I got to the Rangers post and signed myself in, and then pitched the tent. The next thing was to ride right around the Rock, and this made me realize how big it was.

I picked up a t-shirt and oddments at the shop, and a bit to eat and had a couple of beers which were well deserved and that helped to wash down a lot of the roads dust.

Suitably refreshed and with a little Dutch courage I decided to climb the Rock. As I was going up I met people coming down, who advised me not to continue, as it was very windy. However I continued, as I considered this a opportunity not to be missed. The distance from the bottom to the cairn at the top is 1 mile and 7 feet. It is all well marked and I signed the book before coming down. I now hit a problem-I was wearing motorcycle riding boots, which made it hard to go down such a steep slope forwards-so I descended backwards, holding on to the chain handrail….

The next morning when I got up was a bit damp with a lot of dew around, and I saw the Rock looking silver in colour, I had heard about the rock changing colour and never expected to see it.

It was time to hit the road again and make my way back. When I was riding I found myself constantly using my senses and waiting for something to happen. I was on the road for about 11/2 hours when I smelt oil burning. I stopped to look and found that the oil feed pipe at the top of the head had worn on the coil and was squirting oil onto the exhaust.

I stopped and waited, and eventually somebody pulled up. He exclaimed ‘Ah! You’re the fellow who was coming down the Rock backwards!’ I said yes… he then asked what was the problem. I told him what had happened and he said ‘just your luck for traveling on your own’ and then drove off. I thought why stop if you were going to give a comment like that. The next person who stopped was towing a caravan and had NSW plates on. He asked what had happened and when I told him he said ‘let us have a look under the bonnet. What about the washer pipe? That looks about the right size’. He cut a piece off for me and would not take anything for it-what a great person he was.

I carried on for quite a way and then the oil leak started again. I saw a young fellow with a ute and saw he had some wire on board and asked him for a small piece. He kindly gave me some and I stripped the plastic sheath off and used it to tighten the oil pipe-that got me right through the rest of the trip and was still on the bike when it returned to the UK.

I continued the rest of the day and it was dark by the time I got off the dirt road. I stopped at the Roadhouse at Kulgera right on the border of the Northern Territory and South Australia, where I pitched my tent.

I had to stay at Kulgera 2 or 3 days as the rains had caused the roads to become impassable. I spent those few days in the roadhouse which was quite small talking to people who were also waiting for the rains to stop so they could also make tracks again.

Reports came through that the roads were drying up and should be OK to start making progress south. I set off the next day and there were large vehicles still on the side of the road some looked to be stuck and waiting for help.

Although it was a 300 mile trip to Coober Pedy it was no where near as hard as the Ayers Rock Road. At various places the graders were out levelling off the road which made quite a difference to the riding conditions. All in all I thought the trip that day was not bad and I found a place to pitch the tent and crash for the night.

Coober Pedy is a very interesting place-people live in dwellings under the ground to keep out of the heat. This was an opal mining town so I thought I would go into one of the shops and I got talking to one of the shop owners who took me into the back to show me how the opals were cut-how they used the lower grade opal called (potch) to back off the finely cut opal so to make the colours show much better. Also they spit on the rock and rub it which will help to show the colours on rock that had not been cut-the people I met were very friendly and gave time to tourists who were interested in their work.

The next day the conditions were really taking their toll on the Norton-the front mudguard had sheared all its rivets and I had broken 2 more spokes in the rear wheel. meanwhile the exhaust had broken its welds, the mudguard had to become part of my luggage and I had to tie the exhaust on with the end of the rope I used for my luggage. I had to live with all these problems and hope that everything would hold out for 2 more days till I got to Adelaide where I could get some spokes and repairs done.

I arrived late that night at Kingoonya and booked into a Motel but I could not get anything to eat so I had to go without. I took off early the next day, got through the rest of the dirt road and picked up something to eat.

I never really worried about the bike and its condition because it made more of an adventure that way. All I was interested in was to keep those wheels turning and the condition of the bike was a secondary thing.

When I got to Adelaide my first job was to get some work done on the bike-what a state it was in! The engine was covered in red sand so I got it steam cleaned and the next job was to get the exhaust welded up. It had to be brazed in the end.

I tried to get some spokes but none were available.

I managed to get some work labouring on a pipeline in Crystal Brook for a short time, just to get a little money to continue. While I was there I removed the rear wheel and moved spokes around the wheel so not to have broken ones all in the same place.

It was getting towards the end of the year and I thought I would like to get over to Perth. I was lucky at this time as the road over the Nullabor Plain had just been bitumised making it a fairly easy ride. As I rode along I could see signs of where the old dirt road had run, parallel to the new one. I did not think the Norton could have stood any more dirt roads for a time.

My ride across the Ayers highway was quite unusual as I had to go through a plague of locusts-they swarmed everywhere.

I stopped at a fuel station at Penong and it was funny because after a woman got out of her car she lifted the bonnet and shook a grid she had fitted to the grill near the radiator. A big heap of dead locusts fell out on to the ground.

After I had filled up, I rode on across the Nullarbor Plain to Norseman, Then up to Kalgoorlie, before turning off towards Perth. As I traveled I caught sight of small bushfires and decided to stop and photograph one, but by the time I got out my camera the fire had moved on, co I missed it!

By this stage, the Norton was showing signs of very bad wear and tear and it was now that I had my third brush with the law. An officer pulled me over and asked a few questions regarding the bike, as he could see that it was in a bit of a state. I explained what I had been doing over the past months and he was quite interested, but told me to get the bike fixed up as soon as I reached Perth.

I had been on the road for several months and had done as much traveling as I could, as many of the spares and parts the Norton needed were not available in Australia. There was therefore only one way forward, which was to return to the UK and bring the bike back as well.

I continued on to Perth and made my way towards the container depot-within half a mile of the docks the poor old Norton gave up and came to a stop. I got off and pushed it the remaining distance. Taking into consideration the little maintenance it had received and the conditions and terrain it had encountered I thought it had done really well…even then I didn’t realize what damage had been done to the internal parts of the engine and other moving parts.

I got the Norton put onto a container ship to be transported back to the UK, and I booked myself onto a plane.

I flew into Amsterdam and had to wait all day to get my connecting flight to Norwich. It was quite funny-snow had caused problems at Norwich and although we reached and flew over the city, we could not land and had to return to Amsterdam. The hotel was paid for so I did not really mind. It was quite a nice Hotel.

It was early January when I arrived back in Norwich and I then waited for the bike to turn up, doing various jobs until I could get something permanent. The Norton was brought up by courier van in March-it was good to see the old thing again-but I had no idea then how much work would be involved to get it roadworthy and I never guessed that we would travel round Australia together on another trip.

Norton in Australia continued >

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