Leg 6 – the course… 

This was a single day run, with four special stages. First up was ‘Woolibar’ over 44km of ordinary farm tracks, conducted east of Coolgardie, then a very fast stage of 58km to the south of the town. This followed a disused railway and parts of this stage (‘Railway’) had been badly washed out with heavy rains which affected the area prior to the event and had to be treated with caution, 25 washouts being advised in the road book.

The third special stage was ‘Ryans Find’ (41km), held between Coolgardie and Southern Cross, after a service break at Coolgardie. This was a smooth fast run north from the Great Eastern Highway to the Transcontinental Railway.

A long 440km transport via Koolyanobbing followed with a service break at Southern Cross, and then via York to the fourth and last stage of the leg, ‘Mundaring’, run over 30km in the surrounding forests. Before tackling this stage, the cars were washed down as a precaution against transferring the dieback tree disease, a common precaution for all rallies in the West Australian forests.

From Mundaring the field travelled across Perth to the Scarborough Beach parc ferme and overnight stop, the cars being parked adjacent to the magnificent beach.