Planning a 4,200km road trip to the Bay to Birdwood
Over the past four years, a group of friends and I have done annual road trips in our classic cars. Most of them have been constructed around an event, taking back roads there and back. This year the event is the Bay to Birdwood. The Bay to Birdwood is probably the largest event for older cars in Australia. Given that insurance and regulations are killing off or shrinking such events, it seemed like a good thing to experience while we can.
The idea behind it is to take 1,500 cars older than 30 years old and drive them from the coast in Adelaide up to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood. The event is known for attracting many pre-war cars and is a little under 70km long.
Our trip will have 8 cars ranging from 1978 to 1994.
- 1978 280CE 123
- 1978 450SE 116
- 1982 500SL 107
- 1982 280SL 107
- 1985 280CE 123
- 1987 Chevrolet C4 Corvette
- 1988 300E 124
- 1994 E280T 124
Our past trips had always been made up of Mercedes-Benz cars. That wasn’t any particular requirement, it was more how it turned out since everyone in the group knows each other through the Mercedes-Benz club. However this year we have our first other marque – a C4 Corvette.
As usual we have the usual merchandise including magnets for the doors of our cars, and optional things like caps and shirts. This will be our second trip to South Australia. The first was to the Mercedes-Benz club National Rally back in 2022.
The Way There
Day 0
As usual, the actual start of our road trip is outside Sydney. It doesn’t work to battle Sydney traffic getting out, and everyone lives in different locations. Each participant will make their own way to Bathurst for an early start the next day. Since Victoria Pass is still closed, everyone will need to go through Lithgow. The distance for me is about 220km.
Day 1
Our trip starts in Bathurst and we’ll head out towards Grenfell, passing through the towns of Blayney, Carcoar and Cowra. We’ve done this route before and it is quite pleasant. At Grenfell, we will have breakfast and attend the Chrysler Museum.
After the museum, we’ll head to Narrandera via Temora for Lunch. At Narrandera we’ll explore the town before heading towards Griffith, where we’ll check out a local restoration shop, Resto Pros. We’ll cover around 472km.
Day 2
Day two takes us through southern NSW and various Riverina towns. Our first step is Jerilderie for breakfast. The next stop takes us to the town of Moulamein, on the river. We’ll refuel there, before heading to Balranald. At Balranald we’ll have some time to explore the town, including Balranald Southern Cross, a museum that has a full sized repical of Charles Kingsford-Smith’s aircraft.
After lunch we’ll head to our destination of Mildura. Total distance 554km.
Day 3
Day three takes us briefly into Victoria before we cross over into South Australia. We’ll roughly follow the Murray river, going through towns like Morgan and Renmark. After that we’ll drive south through the Adelaide hills through Kapunda and Hahndorf before our final destination of Strathalbyn. We will have covered 550km.
Day 4
Day four is the easiest day of our trip We spend the morning in Strathalbyn, checking out Collectable Classic Cars, a local car dealer and Gilberts Motor Museum. We’ll then head into Adelaide via Echunga and the Angas River Scenic Drive, staying near Glenelg. We only drive 62km.
The Return Home
Day 5
Day 5 is the actual Bay to Birdwood Event. As relatively modern cars, we’ll see the much older vehicles leave first, before doing the route. Then we drive with the rest of the cars to the National Motoring Museum to the finish festival, where we can see all the cars lined up and check out the museum.
After we leave mid afternoon, we’ll drive through the lower Murray area and include towns like Murray Bridge, Cowirra and Swan Reach. Our final destination is Loxton and we will have driven around 333km, including the event.
Day 6
Day six takes us through three states, passing into Victoria and losing 30 minutes due to the time zone change. We then head across to breakfast in Merbein.
After Merbein, we cross over into NSW before taking the Silver City highway north through Wentworth, before turning off into Pooncarie road, which was recently sealed in 2024. Pooncarie road generally follows the Darling river, through Pooncarie where we will stop for a break and then Menindee and the famous lakes.
After Menindee there it is inland to Broken Hill, where we will stop for the night. We may do a side trip to Mundi-Mundi lookout for the sunset, if the timing works and we feel like it. Total distance for the day is 582km, assuming we do the side trip.
Day 7
Day seven is the most remote driving of our trip. We’ll leave Broken Hill and head East on the Barrier Highway. We’ll drive through Wilcannia, stopping only for fuel.
Once we pass Wilcannia, we’ll turn off onto the Cobb highway, which was fully sealed in 2023. We’ll continue until we hit Booligal where we will have lunch at the pub.
After lunch, we’ll continue down the Cobb Highway until Hay, where we will stop to explore the town. The final leg takes us to Hillston where we will stay for the evening and enjoy a succulent chinese meal as usual on the last evening of the trip.
Given the remote areas on long straight roads, Day 7 is the longest distance we travel at 759km.
Day 8
On our last day we’ll leave Hillston and head back towards Sydney. Our first stop is Condobolin for breakfast and to get there we’ll pass the town of Lake Cargelligo.
Before we get to Condobolin, we’ll stop at the Utes in the paddock before having breakfast in the town.
We’ll then take a drive to Forbes and check out the town and refuel, before taking the roads through to Lake Lyell which will be the point we all go our separate ways. Day 8 will be 524km in the group, my my total distance is around 682.
