Bike Touring Through Heidelberg - 1954 Style

Hop on the old treadlie, adjust the bicycle clips, tuck the Shell Road map into a back pocket and head out to the dairy farms of Heidelberg.

Freisians (now called Holsteins), Jerseys and Gurnseys chewing their cud. Malvern Star & Super Elliott bikes made locally, flash imported BSAs and hideously heavy Schwinn Twin tandems.

What was the de rigour dress code in 1954? Tweed plus fours and a Peaky Blinders cap pulled cheekily down over one eye.

But not so low as to allow cinders from the briar pipe to catch the brim.

A Thermos, a slice of reviving sultana cake wrapped in greaseproof paper, with a mandatory linen napkin?

Off we go - Amoco, Golden Fleece, Standard Oil, Dutch Royal Shell on most corners.

Read all about it - no thought of catching the train out to Heidelberg, touring the nearby rural delights then catching a train home.

Instead enjoy the on-road inner industrial suburbs traffic (Morris Oxfords, Ford Prefects, Austins, Hillmans,  war surplus trucks et al). Valiants and Falcons have yet to debut. Dodge the potholes.

Congolese chrome stocks were being mined furiously to adorn Holden Specials and Ford Customlines.

With a bit of luck you might see Sid Patterson out training - do not try to keep up. Sid was a gun.

Things have not changed all that much - mainly the brand of the vehicles. All imported. No chrome. No dip switch on the floor. War time memories means no Mercedes or Japanese marques.

And the cows - well you have to take a V-line train a bit further afield. Maybe Gippsland or Warrnambool to see Buttercup in a paddock of improved pasture.

The Argus, 16.07.1954, Page 18

Ideal trip to near hills
HERE‘S another short, snappy, interesting tour not far out of Melbourne — this time into the Yarra hill country.
It's an interesting run up past Templestowe, back down through Doncaster and home through North Balwyn.
This is almost "another England," with rich dairying pasture land and green hills.
It's the perfect day trip on a bike — not too far (about 14 miles out and 18 home) — and not dull and flat.
From the city head up Nicholson st. (dodging the holes), branch along Queen's parade, and through the Clifton Hill gates out on to Heidelberg rd.
At Ivanhoe take Lower Heidelberg rd. — to the right. Through Heidelberg, swing east along Bulleen rd. towards Templestowe.
Just along here the Yarra sweeps in near the road — there are great picnic spots.
*
ABOUT a mile out of Templestowe is Blackburn rd. — just past an old quarry being worked by one man.
Turn right and head for Rigg's Corner — four miles south — and lunch.
On the way home follow the tramline in to Kew Junction. If you're not too tired by then here's a little breakaway to end the day.
Cut away from Kew Junction along Studley Park rd. to the Boulevard. Now you have a smooth, curving run all the way to the city.

Thank You to Nilss.

No mention of the delights of the perky little Eaglemont shopping strip.

Did one plan the journey according to telephone box access? Did one seek out public toilets, or rely on the motor garages with their conveniences for the travelling public - and forecourt full service? Did one try to avoid peak hour traffic?

Where oh where is Riggs Corner?

Dwell on the reference to the cycling terrain hereabouts not being "dull and flat".

There are some who believe the area is as flat as the maps they pore over out at Greensborough.