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84 | AUSTRALIAN ROAD RIDER

DESTINATION TAMWORTH

While you’re there you can also visit

the accompanying country music wax

museum with 26 wax fi gures, a sporting

museum with the biggest collection of

Sir Donald Bradman memorabilia in

Australia, grab a coff ee or ice-cream in

the cafe and get a new belt buckle or

Akubra in the gi shop.

Craig Dunstan, manager of

Destination Tamworth, says the city gets

more than one million visitors a year,

mainly motorists passing through. “It’s a

natural waypoint,” he says. “These days

we’re seeing a lot more riders on touring

bikes bigger than 1100cc.”

The biggest a raction in town for

riders is undoubtedly the Powerhouse

Motorcycle Museum right next door to

the Powerhouse Quality Hotel, where

many a weary rider has dusted off his

boots. It was established 13 years ago and

is staff ed every day except Christmas

by volunteers who can tell you all the

background stories on the bikes.

It’s a great collection of about 50 rare

and signifi cant bikes from the 1950s to

the ‘90s so you’ll probably fi nd your fi rst

bike, your favourite bike and your dream

bike. The rarest and most expensive on

display is the limited-edition gold-series

MV Agusta F4, bought for $125,000 and

now worth about $300,000, followed by

a rare green-frame Ducati worth almost

$100,000. Local motorcycle restorer

Stefan Hodgson is constantly working on

the collection so you will see new bikes

every time you drop in.

The museum is open seven days, from

9am to 5pm, but motorcycle clubs can

request later hours. It only costs $8 ($6

pensioner, $4 child and $16 family) and

they give you a free cuppa.

WHERE TO RIDE

If you base yourself in Tamworth, there

are some terrifi c short rides around the

region that take you to quaint country

towns with their own a ractions. The

roads get more entertaining towards

the mountains that ring the city to the

north and east.

The shortest ride is up to the lookout

on Endeavour Drive. Be careful of

joggers and walkers ge ing their daily

r Sadly, this is not an indoor fl attrack r Bloke’s soap for, well, blokes

■ A quiet moment, unlike the

days of the HOG rally!

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