Oxley Highway Mountain Section (318 km)
Port Macquarie to Walcha · one way, about 318 km back to the start
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Why this ride
A one-way ride of 318 km, Port Macquarie to Walcha - roughly 4 h 17 in the saddle. The stops in between: Wauchope and Gingers Creek. The highest point is about 1,200 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Roadbook
- Port Macquarie
start
Port Macquarie began life as a prison. In 1821 the colonial government established a penal settlement at the mouth of the Hastings River for convicts who had committed further crimes, naming it after Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and the place later became a quiet farming and fishing community before it was reinvented as a holiday town. Today it is a lively coastal city of more than forty thousand, with surf beaches, a long breakwall covered in painted rocks and a pleasant foreshore walk.
The town's best-known resident is the koala, which has its own hospital here, open to visitors and caring for animals injured by cars, dogs and fire. The surrounding bushland still holds a wild population, and you will see road signs warning of them. A few kilometres south, Tacking Point lighthouse looks out over a wide sweep of ocean where humpback whales pass in winter, and the walk to it from the car park is short and easy.
This is where the Oxley Highway Mountain Section begins, and it is a good one. The road leaves the coast and climbs steadily into the Great Dividing Range, with a series of curves through rainforest and eucalypt, passing lookouts and the turn to Ellenborough Falls, one of the longest single-drop waterfalls in the southern hemisphere. Higher up, near Walcha, the landscape opens into tableland farms and cool air. The surface is generally well maintained, though trucks and caravans slow progress on weekends, and fog in the mountains is common in the morning. The highway is named after John Oxley, who explored this country in 1818 and found the Hastings River on his way down to the sea.
For fuel, Port Macquarie has everything, including several big stations on the highway, and the main street has cafés, bakeries and plenty of pubs. Services are sparse once you climb, so fill the tank before leaving. If the weather turns, you can retreat to the Glasshouse arts centre by the river, or watch the dolphins from the breakwall at sunrise.
- Wauchope
scenic
Wauchope sits on the Hastings River in the green country behind Port Macquarie on the New South Wales mid-north coast, a country town of six thousand with a main street of pubs and bakeries, and with a fuel station and a decent meal, so this works as a warm start or a quiet finish. The river flows past the edge of town, and the paddocks are rich dairy and timber land between the coast and the escarpment.
It earns a place on a motorcycle itinerary because the Oxley Highway starts here. Named for the surveyor John Oxley, who explored the area in 1818, the highway climbs west from the coast through rainforest and eucalypt forest onto the New England tablelands towards Walcha, and it has a reputation among Australian riders as one of the better roads in the state. The first stretch above Wauchope is the interesting one: tight and fast bends rising through tall forest, switchbacks in places, and a wet surface under the trees on a cool morning. Take it carefully, because the road has seen serious crashes, and the police are a regular presence, with speed limits that change often and are checked.
Timber shaped the town. In the nineteenth century the cedar-getters and later the loggers worked the hills above the Hastings, and the town grew around the sawmills and the river port; the old timber tradition is part of local memory. Tall brush box and blackbutt still stand in the national parks that line the highway, such as the Werrikimbe wilderness area that the road skirts higher up, and the birdlife is loud at dawn, with lyrebirds and whipbirds in the gullies.
Plan for the weather: summer brings humid heat and sudden thunderstorms, and the tableland above is much colder, so you may start in a T-shirt and finish in a jacket. Fog sits in the valleys in early autumn. Fuel is straightforward in town, but stations thin out after Wauchope on the highway, so top up before you climb. Mornings are best, before the weekend traffic.
- Gingers Creek
scenic
The Oxley Highway between Walcha and the coast is the sort of road that riders talk about with their eyes lit up, and the section around Gingers Creek is where the mountain part begins in earnest. The road leaves the high, open grazing country of the tableland and starts to descend in a series of tightening bends through forest, with sudden drops, blind crests and a surface that changes from fresh bitumen to patched and worn.
This is the escarpment country of the Hastings and Macleay catchments, where the tableland falls away toward the Pacific in a jumble of ridges and gullies. The forest is mostly eucalypt, with stringybark and blackbutt on the dry slopes and patches of rainforest in the damp gullies, where tree ferns and strangler figs create a different, shadier world. Higher up, the nights can be cold enough for frost, and fog is common in the mornings. At dusk the forest comes alive with wallabies and the occasional wombat, so slow down as the light fades.
What I can tell you with certainty is how the road behaves: it rewards a steady, smooth style, and it punishes anyone who treats it as a racetrack.
The long descent toward Wauchope and Port Macquarie is a classic. Bends come in rhythm, linked by short straights, with views of forested valleys opening on the outside of the turns. It is a road that needs care in the wet, when leaves and mud create slippery patches, and heavy trucks use it too, so be ready for a slow vehicle around a blind corner. Police patrol the area at busy times, and speed enforcement is not unknown.
Services are widely spaced. Walcha on the tableland and Wauchope on the coastal side are the main stops for fuel, food and repairs, and there is little in between, so carry enough range for the whole mountain section. Take water and a spare layer, and plan to ride it in daylight, preferably with a late-morning start so the frost has gone and the sun is high enough to light the road through the trees.
- Walcha
finish
Walcha sits on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales at about a thousand metres, high enough to have real winters, with frosts, a few snowfalls and a cool, clear air that smells of eucalyptus and woodsmoke. The town is small, with about two and a half thousand people, and it wears its sheep country history openly. Fine merino wool built the district, and for a century the big properties around Walcha shaped both the landscape and the social life. English elms and oaks planted in the streets turn gold and red in April, which is not a sight many people expect in Australia.
The town is a showcase of its own idiosyncrasies. Sculptures stand on the main street and elsewhere around the town, the result of a local habit of putting art in public places, and the old buildings along the road recall the days when the wool cheques arrived once a year. Just outside town, Apsley Falls drops into a gorge of dark rock, a short drive and a short walk from the road, and it is a good way to stretch a day.
The Oxley Highway is the reason riders know the name. West of Walcha it crosses the tableland in long open sweeps, with paddocks and granite outcrops, and east of town it begins to tip toward the coast, dropping off the Great Dividing Range in a long series of bends through dense forest and past waterfalls toward Port Macquarie. It is among the better motorcycle roads in the state, and on weekends you will meet other riders. The surface is generally good, though shaded corners stay damp, and logging trucks use the road as well. Watch for kangaroos and wombats at dusk, and for frost in winter mornings.
Walcha has fuel and basic services, but opening hours are those of a country town, so do not count on late-night supplies. The nearest larger centre is Tamworth to the west. Autumn is lovely, with clear days and cool nights, spring brings green paddocks and lambs, and summer can be hot at midday and stormy in the afternoon. Bring a warm layer even then, because the altitude makes the evenings cool.