Warren-Blackwood Heritage Rally - April 2026

Last year, in May 2025, Shelly and I attended the second Warren-Blackwood Heritage Rally in Bridgetown. It was a great experience so we decided to attend in 2026. This time I opted to take the Tatra down so in the month prior I had her serviced to make sure she was in a fit state for the journey.
https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2025/05/warren-blackwood-heritage-rally-may-2025.html

One of the things I was keen to resolve was to sort a problem with the clutch. When I was filming the segment for the RAC "In my Garage" there was a moment when the clutch pedal dropped to the floor and did not spring back. It was captured on the video and appears in the last five minutes of the segment. Anyway, I fixed the clutch pedal with a jury-rigged spring that kept tension on the pedal but I knew that was only a temporary repair. When the guys had the car on a hoist, they looked at the pedal box and found nothing wrong, so then checked the connection at the clutch end. There they found evidence of many old repairs and noted the clutch rod was badly bent. They straightened the rod and set it back in its correct position. I subsequently test drove the Tatra several times and noted the clutch was working properly and gears were shifting well.

And then..... one hour out of Fremantle - PING! The clutch pedal dropped to the floor and would not return to position. Fortunately we were in the process of changing gears through a round-about and were slipping into neutral. I could not change into any gear. We did manage to get a push from other drivers to get the car onto the road verge. RAC once again came to the rescue and had the car towed home. Don't leave home without it - https://rac.com.au/car-motoring/roadside-assistance

Fortunately we have other cars. We quickly transferred to Shelly's 1962 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and set off three hours later than planned.

Back on the road!!

We had originally planned to arrive in Bridgetown about 1pm, but with all the rigmarole, we arrived at 5pm. Just enough time to go for a drink and have some dinner with other club members.

Next morning we were up at the rendezvous by the Blackwood River at 8am. 

1926 Bentley Speed Six. Pretty impressive stuff

The Bentley was certainly the best car of the day - and fast. It quickly overtook the lead car and set a blistering pace.

Morris' and Mini's

Citroen DS

Holden Kingswood and Volvo 1800

Gavin and his Volvo

Jaguar E-Type

The countryside. We're trailing the Volvo 1800 at this point.



Bridgetown is surrounded by winding tree-lined roads. Excellent classic driving landscape


After a tour through the hills around Bridgetown and Nannup we gathered at Greystones, on the scarp overlooking Bridgetown for coffee and photos.

My friend Wayne's Volvo 1800 wagon.

It is a little nerve wracking to park in the back row as the hill slips away rather precipitously. Shelly let me park the car on my own.

A few Holdens

Holden 48-215 and EK

I didn't manage to identify this pre-war motorcycle.

The Bentley - rightly - had pride of place at the front

Bentley draws a lot of attention



The iconic Holden FJ

Greystones

Massey-Ferguson tractor

View from the porch at Greystones

The last two standing - a VW Type 3 ute and our Karmann Ghia.

A fun day out in the country

Sunrise from Greystones

We headed homeward about 12pm and visited Dardanup Heritage Park on the way. It is absolutely worth a visit, see here: https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2026/04/dardanup-heritage-park-2026.html

Dardanup Heritage Park 2026

Dardanup is a small town two hours drive south of Perth, just inland of the port city of Bunbury. Dardanup is famous for its bakery - well worth a visit - and the Dardanup Heritage Park. The heritage park was created by Gary Brookes, the owner of Brooks Transport, a national trucking company. As his wife Jill tells the story, Gary went to a vintage tractor auction and - despite having been told explicitly he could only buy one tractor - came back with a selection of International tractors. This would form the basis of what developed into a huge collection of agricultural machinery, tractors, trucks, steam engines, trains, militaria, printing presses and much more besides. Sadly Gary died before the part was completed. His wife opted to carry on the project.

I had long wanted to visit the park but it's only open two days a week - Wednesdays and Sundays - and we were never passing that way at the right time. Shelly and I attended a car rally in Bridgetown over the weekend of 18th - 19th April and with Dardanup being only an hour from Bridgetown, we were able swing by on the way home. We arrived at the park around 2pm. Man, I really under-estimated how big it is. There is no way you can see everything in two hours, but the volunteers were excellent and gave us a quick tour. https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2026/04/warren-blackwood-heritage-rally-april.html

1920 International truck. Gary had a passion for International trucks and tractors.

Farmall tractor

Very early International tractor

Two 1913 International trucks

A Furphy water cart of Shepparton from 1942. This is the origin of the term "furphies", coming from the chatter that goes on around the water car.

The Edwardian era Internationals

McCormick-Deering International tractors

International tractors

Unrestored engines in the yard

Tangye steam engines

Microlight

The military hall is manned by the Bunbury RSL

Missile in the military hall

First World War trench mortar

Australian built Universal Carrier

Drivers position

The Carrier was powered by a Ford V8 engine (built under license in Australia). After the Second World War Carriers were bought up by farmers who used them as tractors or removed their engines for their farm equipment.

We had just the week before watched this well-done video about the Australian Universal Carrier

German Leopard II tanks served in the Australian army, replacing British Chieftains.

Military generator

The famous Ferret armoured car.

Second World War sea mine

Military hats and helmets

Fordsons

Fordson tractors

Steam-roller. I haven't seen one of these since I was in primary school

Ransomes tractor. These little mini-tractors are basically powered by a single cylinder stationary engine mounted at the front. https://hughmanningtractormuseum.au/2023/04/19/ransomes-crawler-mg5-c-1953/

Bunbury tourist 'tram' - basically a re-bodied bus chassis. These used to take tourists around the sights of Bunbury.

Catepillar

Malcolm-Moore 8 ton steam roller

Massey Ferguson

Mixed vehicles.

A Hillman Imp in British policy livery

Jawa Californian

International truck

Dodge converted into a ute

1943 Jeep

An Australian built copy of the German legend - Kelly and Lewis (KL) Lanz Bulldog https://hughmanningtractormuseum.au/2023/04/19/kl-bulldog-crude-oil-c-1950/

Some cobbled together farm vehicle

Invalid carriage

Two invalid carriages

Cockshutt

Lightburn Rideabout. Lightburn Industries in South Australia is probably more infamous for the Zeta, a fibreglass bodied lightweight microcar from the 1960s. The Zeta was a disaster and rightly regarded as a lemon. However, Lightburn also made many other products, ranging from cement mixers, wheelbarrows, trailers and golf carts. The Rideabout was a designed as an electric powered factory 'run-about'.https://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com/2021/04/lightburn-zeta-australias-trabant.html

Case tractor

Brockway truck

WASP stationary motor

Dennis fire engine

Typesetting machine. There is a hall for typesetting and printing and the volunteer there gave us a demo of how these machines work. It's quite amazing and way more complex than you would think.

Excellent display of Bakelite radios and radiograms

These are all very cool. We did find a 1960s radio we recovered from my mother-in-law's estate.

Brooks Transport shed

Brooks Transport https://brookstransport.net.au/

Prospecting display

Ruston Proctor steam traction engine

Marshall and Co steam traction engine

Ex Army Chevrolet Blitz truck. These sturdy machines went on to long lives in civilian service. This one was a heavy tow-truck.

Steam engine for the saw mill 

Double piston steam engine. All the steam engines in the park were fully restored and functional when they were installed, but steam engines require constant maintenance and certification that they will not explode, and this costs a huge of amount of time and money. All the steam engines have now been converted to run on compressed air.

Compressed air at least means the machines can be operated on the spur of the moment and don't require four hours of preparation.

Your exact weight scales - notice it also tells you what you SHOULD weigh!

Another portable steam engine. Although you cannot see it in the photo, there is a hitch on the front axle that allows the engine to be hooked up to a horse or bullock dray or, later, a truck of tractor.

The volunteers very kindly ran the engine for us. We were the only people left in the park as they were about to close.

Steam crane

The restored workers cottages

These were really well laid out in 1940s style



Kitchen

Lawnmowers

Chevrolet Blitz

BMC Austin 7 ton truck

The double decker has seen better days

The Dardanup Heritage Park is a terrific industrial museum and worth visiting. It takes several hours to see it all. In 2 hours we were only able to view a few of the exhibition halls. The volunteers were excellent and extremely knowledgeable and helpful. We will definitely make to visit it properly next time.

Address is 416 Moore Road, Dardanup West Dardanup, Western Australia 6236, Australia

More info: https://visitwanderland.com.au/explore/south-west/dardanup-heritage-park


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