Oxley Highway and New England Rides

The shape of the ride

The Oxley Highway earns its reputation by doing something most Australian roads do not: it climbs. Leaving the humid coastal plain at Wauchope, it gains height into the Great Dividing Range through gorge country and forest, then emerges onto the open tableland around Walcha.

That transition is the ride. It is not a long road compared with the Great Ocean Road or the Great Alpine Road, which is exactly why it is usually ridden as part of a longer loop rather than as a destination in itself: coast in, climb, tableland, and then either back down or north.

There is an obvious caution that belongs at the front of the article rather than at the end. The road is a working route in forested, fire-prone country, and conditions change with weather. Check the state's live traffic information and the national park alerts before committing to the climb.

From the coast: Wauchope and the climb

Wauchope is the last town with a full set of services before the climb, and the natural place to fill and eat before heading west. The road out of it is the beginning of the fun and, in the wet, the beginning of the caution.

This is rainforest edge country, mechanically similar to the ranges behind Cairns and the Illawarra escarpment: tight, shaded, wet under the canopy long after the rain has passed. The corners arrive faster than the average Australian highway bend and the surface holds moisture in exactly the places you want grip.

• Fill at Wauchope rather than relying on the top of the range.
• Expect wet road under canopy on the climb, whatever the forecast says.
• Ride the climb in the morning: afternoon storms in summer are common on this side of the range.
• Watch for logging and farm traffic on the lower sections, which are narrow and blind in places.

Walcha and Oxley Wild Rivers

The top of the range opens into grazing country around Walcha, and the town is the obvious base for the eastern part of New England. It is also close to Oxley Wild Rivers National Park, one of the larger parks on the NSW tableland and one that rewards a rider willing to leave the bitumen for a short distance.

The park is in the North Coast and Country NSW regions, is always open, and may close at times for poor weather or fire danger. Access to some of it is not casual: three areas inside the park — Halls Peak campground and picnic area, Riverside campground and picnic area, and Youdales Hut campground — require day-use vehicle permits, arranged through the park office.

That permit detail is the practical thing to know. A rider planning to camp inside the park rather than in town needs to sort it out before arriving, not on the evening.

• Oxley Wild Rivers is always open but can close for weather or fire danger.
• Day-use vehicle permits are required at Halls Peak, Riverside campground and picnic area, and Youdales Hut campground.
• Permits are arranged through the park office rather than at a gate.
• Some of the park's best country is on unsealed roads, so treat the surface as variable after rain.

North through New England

From Walcha the New England Highway runs north through Armidale, Uralla and Glen Innes towards Tenterfield, and the character changes from pass to tableland. This is open, fast, high country: cold in winter, green after rain, and with long sight lines that make a difference after the tight forest of the climb.

It is also the part of the route most riders underestimate. The New England is a genuine highland climate, and the temperature drop from the coast is not a small one; a summer ride can end in single digits by evening, and a winter crossing can include ice on the shaded sections at dawn.

Riding it as a route rather than a highway is the whole point. The old towns, the sheds, the split-rail fences and the paddocks are the reason to be there, and the highway is just the line through them.

The individual roads in this corner of the state, and how they connect, are set out in motorcycle rides in New South Wales.

• Uralla and Armidale: the natural overnight stops on the tableland, with fuel and food available.
• Glen Innes and Tenterfield: the northern end of the run, and the turn towards the coast or the border.
• Thunderbolts Way and the Waterfall Way: the two alternatives that make the region a network rather than a single road.
• Winter cold: the tableland runs well below coastal temperatures, and ice on shaded sections is a morning hazard.

Timing the run

The Oxley is a spring-to-autumn ride in the ordinary sense, with two caveats that matter more than the season label.

The first is fire. This is forested country with a real fire season, and the pass closes when it has to. The second is rain: the same forests that make the climb beautiful make the road slippery, and landslip is a genuine closure cause rather than a theoretical one.

The tableland north of Walcha is rideable year-round but is best in autumn and spring. Winter brings frost, ice and a wind that arrives from the west with nothing in the way to stop it.

Making it a loop rather than a there-and-back

The Oxley is best ridden as one side of a loop. The obvious pairing is the coast road north from Sydney or south from Brisbane on one leg, and the tableland on the other, with the Oxley as the link between them.

That turns a good road into a two- or three-day trip and puts the climb in the middle of the ride rather than at the end of a long approach. It also gives you a reason to ride Thunderbolts Way, which is the other great tableland road and the one most riders discover by accident on the way home.

The state guide covers the roads individually; this page is about the shape of the trip.

• Coast leg: the Pacific Highway or the old road through the towns, north or south depending on where you start.
• The climb: Wauchope to Walcha, ridden early and with the forecast checked.
• Tableland leg: north through Armidale and Glen Innes, or south towards Scone and the Hunter.
• The return: Thunderbolts Way or the coast, whichever you did not ride on the way in.

What to take

The Oxley rewards a rider who is prepared for two climates in one day. The coast side is humid and warm; the tableland is cold and exposed. That is a layering problem more than a packing problem.

A waterproof layer is not optional between October and April, and a warm mid-layer belongs in the bag on the tableland even in summer. The park permit paperwork, if you are camping inside Oxley Wild Rivers, belongs sorted before you leave town.

If you would rather be under a roof at the top of the range than in a swag, a campervan hired in Brisbane will follow the same route and stop in the same towns — a different way to see the same country, and a reasonable one if the weather turns.