World Champion John Platt-Betts set the Australian record over five miles at the Sydney Association Cricket Ground in 1897. Photo: Eddie Barron.
With hundreds of cyclists descending on the Riverina for the iconic Gears and Beers festival this weekend, we’re winding back the clock to the 1890s when Wagga first “caught the cycling craze”.
Banjo Patterson’s iconic poem about Mulga Bill’s fateful downhill ride from the heights of Eaglehawk to the depths of Dead Man’s Creek was published in 1896 and perfectly captured the spirit of the times.
While the horse was still king, a host of mechanical contraptions had begun to arrive and curious Aussies were turning an eye towards these shining new machines.
Steam engines had transformed transport, farming and industry and Australia’s first steam-powered car – The Phaeton – was about to take its first drive but, for the average pedestrian, it was the bicycle that presented a chance to own a set of wheels.
The first human-powered vehicles to appear in Australia in the 1860s were the bone-shaking velelocipedes, which had a large front wheel with fixed cranks and pedals attached to its axle. The penny-farthing became moderately popular with its giant front wheel allowing for greater speed but, with its high saddle and difficulty slowing down and breaking, it was not for the feint of heart!
The craze kicked into a new gear in the 1880s with the development of the safety bicycle with its chain-driven rear wheel and equal-sized front wheel and air-filled rubber tyres.
In the same year that Mulga Bill was relegating his bicycle to the bottom of the creek, towns across the state were launching local branches of the ‘League of New South Wales Wheelmen’.
Wagga held its inaugural race meeting in August 1896 and the following year it was proposed that world-champion pace rider John Platt-Betts should be sponsored to travel to the region to give cycling demonstrations.
The decision to hold an athletic event in the sweltering December heat was questioned but, never the less, the English champion arrived in Wagga just before Christmas to show the locals how it was done.
Platt-Betts had broken the Australian record over five miles in November and large crowds flocked to Wagga’s cricket ground to see him overcome all challengers with what The Daily Advertiser called “utmost ease and at a speed which was misleading owing to the quiet way he rattled along”.
Platt-Betts was famous for his muscular physique and the Wagga reporter was duly impressed.
“His astonishing performances are explained by the surprising development of the muscles of his lower limbs, which appear capable of unlimited amount of work,” the correspondent mused.
Platt-Betts’ best time over a mile on the day was two minutes and five seconds, well off the world record time of one minute 35 and his own Australian record of one minute 48.
“The performance was watched with keen interest and at the finish the rider was loudly applauded,” the Advertiser concluded.
The cycling craze continued to catch on with tracks and velodromes appearing across southern NSW and large numbers of locals embracing pedal power to travel around town.
In 1903, Wagga city council was obliged to update its bicycle by-laws to include the strict provision that “no person shall ride a machine within the borough unless an efficient bell or alarm or brake is fixed on some convenient part thereof”.
There were also regulations on “sharp-speedy turning”, riding on the footpath, keeping hold of the handlebars and attaching a lamp at night.
With tongue-in-cheek, The Wagga Wagga Express suggested that the local ‘wheelers’ would not be impressed.
“It is readily to be observed that those cyclists who love to ride a machine as free from encumbrances as possible will not regard the new regulation with favour,” it warned.
“Moreover, he must observe the ordinary rules of the road, and the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not, provides that offending cyclists may be fined up to £5 or be cast into the lion’s den.”
