Tucked away in a tiny NSW town, you’ll find an incredible museum.
LOCATED about halfway between Newcastle and Port Macquarie, just off Highway 1, you’ll find a remarkable collection self-titled the National Motorcycle Museum.
The modest frontage is doing a bit of a Tardis – small on the outside and a big surprise when you stroll inside and start to get to grips with the sheer scale of the exercise. Holy heck has it grown! We’re talking maybe eight times its original size.
“I come from Cootamundra,” says owner Brian Kelleher (pictured) “and am a motor mechanic by trade as you couldn’t get a motorcycle apprenticeship. Before I was 20, I was planning to have a motorcycle shop and then eventually a museum when I retired.”
Brian was the owner of The Stable motorcycle store in Canberra for many years. It was a high-profile destination, with a Yamaha franchise, in what used to be a strip of motorcycle shops in Lonsdale Street, Braddon, a couple of minutes from the heart of the central business district of Civic.
“As soon as I got into the bike shop, which was 1973, I started keeping anything that was unusual or affordable and it got put into a shed. We were there until around 2000. The museum opened with the bike shop in 1989 and then later into a separate building.
“We bought the block of land in Nabiac in 1986 and opened up here 2000.”
Back then the museum was much smaller. “I built the biggest building I could afford,” says Brian, “With the idea that people would lend us bikes if they knew we were here.” It’s expanded a lot since then.
What about the future? “I keep upgrading what I’ve got,” says Brian, “If I can find a better bike, I’ll sell off others.
“As for the distant future, both my boys are into motorbikes, but I don’t think they want to stand around and do this, unfortunately. I’ve had offers from people who’ve wanted to buy it, but I think the best scenario is to get a syndicate of people who run it as a trust so it doesn’t get sold off.”
