Unique race day at Evandale


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Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Evandale
February 23rd 2014
Published: February 23rd 2014
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About a half hour drive south of Launceston is the very tidy little village of Evandale.

This little village is lush with magnificent trees, stately buildings and 1069 locals. So why is the main street jammed with cars? No one at the Church for a fancy wedding, but the community park is packed and the roads around the town centre closed off for the annual Penny Farthing Races.

This is a great day out which we fluked to visit.

The locals dress up in costume (rules require a new costume each year), vintage cars, traction engines, food and music, and of course the main event being the races.

I don't recall seeing anyone ride a penny farthing previously, yet alone attend a race meeting featuring these. The races are graded by experience, and on this occasion there was quite a large contingent of novice riders, some would only be early teenagers.

There are three kinds of races - slalom, sprint and circuit. Then to add variation, there is a run a lap/ride a lap type race. As you can see in the pictures, some of the riders were more fit and trim than the others, and this really showed in the run/ride events.

There is also a run/ride a normal bike then a third leg is a wheelbarrow race. We were on the wrong side of the track to see the end of this race, won by a boy scout team.

Competitors come from all around Australia, a big team from Qld, plenty of locals and a sole Kiwi rider. He was subject to some light banter such as he rides his penny farthing to round up the sheep. However, winners are grinners and he took home two or more gold medals.

In the circuit races, no gender division, but sprints were segregated.

Now, several riders crashed just getting started, and it is also obvious that it is easy to go over the handle bars, though we didn't see anyone do that, but one had the rear wheel airborne before adjusting his balance.

There was a great selection of vintage cars to look at between races. The program was pretty action packed so we missed a couple of races while we went walk about.

Along the way we chatted to some very smartly dressed locals in costume, and had interaction with some local animals as well.

Around the town were various buskers and musicians. One of the singing groups we had met previously in a park in WA.

A great day out and in line with our policy of parting with minimal cash - just $10.00 each to get in.

Food - nearly forgot to mention food. For lunch I had a stroganoff baked potato. This is potato country, and these very tasty spuds were very nice.


Additional photos below
Photos: 33, Displayed: 23


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Novice riderNovice rider
Novice rider

Built his own bike and this was its first time out. Got a fourth place in one of his events.
Happy to smile to the camersHappy to smile to the camers
Happy to smile to the camers

her brothers avoided us!


23rd February 2014

Interesting as usual
Made interesting viewing and reading of your last two blogs waiting for the next episode

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