Leg 3 – The Course… 

This was another one day run, with a tight schedule. It started with a 122-kilometre drive along the Hume Freeway to the Puckapunyal Army Training Range, near Seymour, for the 43km ‘Puckapunyal’ stage (SS10) which included a spectacular climb of Mount Puckapunyal itself. The stage was run by the Melbourne University Car Club.

Then followed a 183-kilometre transport with a service at Heathcote, and through Bendigo to the SS11 ‘Bendigo’ stage of 41km, starting near Moliagul where the world’s largest (66kg) gold nugget, the Welcome Stranger, was discovered. The Bendigo Car Club ran the stage.

An interesting 18-kilometre stage, SS12 ‘Wedderburn’, was conducted on mainly shire roads, followed by a service break at Wycheproof. Then onto ‘Sealake’ for a completely different stage (SS13) that was to have been held but it was cancelled prior to its conduct due to inclement weather experienced earlier in the week. This would have been an almost 50-kilometre half lap of the Lake Tyrrell, a salt lake just north of Sealake. The Sealake Off Road Club was to have run the stage.

A 175-kilometre transport section followed, with a refuel/service break in Murray Bridge, and then onto the fast 37km ‘Mannum’ stage (SS14) held on shire roads; this stage combined two stages that were regularly used in the South Australian round of the Australian Rally Championship. The Rallysport Club of South Australia ran this stage.

Then a run through the fringes of the Barossa Valley to the service area and parc ferme at the Victoria Park racecourse in Adelaide, the scene which was the last Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix held in Adelaide for the last time in 1995.