How Fast Can a Porsche Go?

By Trevor Hill

If you ever get the opportunity to participate in an Offsite event, I can thoroughly recommend you jump at the chance. I was fortunate to be asked by the “One Who Never Sleeps” (ie. Matt), to help at an OFF event in October last year. The OFF was appropriately called “To the Milky Way & Back” by the Porsche Owners Club of WA.

According to Matt, this event was supposed to be for a smallish group of Porsche owners and was to consist of a presentation night in New Norcia, then off to Paynes Find for the following evening and a viewing night under the stars. Well, that sounded quite a reasonable event, but it seemed that Porsche drivers like looking at the night sky, (and driving in the country), and the number of attendees tripled just before the event. So, what to do?

Matt, along with the Porsche Club, decided a Star Fleet convoy was the answer, and the “To the Milky Way & Back” event grew to two groups with over 12 Porsches or 24 club members that would take place over 3 days. Group 1 had Friday night at New Norcia and Saturday night at Paynes Find. Group 2 had Saturday night at New Norcia and Sunday night at Paynes Find.

I was assigned to the first fleet along with “Astronomy-101 Obi-Wan Kenobi” (aka Arthur Harvey). Over the weekend, Arthur became known as Astronomer 1, and I as Astronomer 2. For us, the whole event commenced on a Thursday evening when we picked up the “Mothership” from Budget Hire in Welshpool & proceeded to the Perth Observatory and loaded up the astronomical equipment required for the trip. Taking control of the mothership, I drove it to its’ overnight docking station at my place. The next day, “Astronomy-101 Obi-Wan Kenobi” joined me, and we set off for a trip to the monastery in the historic settlement known as New Norcia. Now if you have never been to New Norcia, I strongly suggest you take the 1.5-hour drive and check it out. There are great buildings with heaps of historical significance and superb dark skies.

The road to New Norcia is now so safe and easy to drive on, to say that time really flew by is probably an understatement, especially with someone as knowledgeable as Arthur as your co-pilot. We discussed all sorts of subjects along the way and found out that we had many other common interests, over and above our love of astronomy.

On arrival, we found that several of the flying Porsches had already landed at the main hall where the evenings presentations were to be held. We contacted the local managers of the monastery and were able to pick out a suitable place to set up our equipment for the Astro-based presentation. We were then guided to where our private accommodation for the night would be, which was in the Nun’s quarters… Now I’m not superstitious or religious, but there is something kind of different about sleeping in a convent, but later that night, it did not seem to bother me, as I had a great night’s sleep.

Having settled in, we walked back to the main hall, which was previously the Old New Norcia Hotel, where we were made very welcome by the Milky Way Porsche owners, who would be the members of our first mission. Our presentations went off without a hitch, as Arthur and I took our new travel friends on a journey to the edge of the universe and back, along with some anecdotes, facts and some show and tell stories as well.

Image Credit: Trevor Hill

To say that the Porsche Club knows how to organise events, is a bit of an understatement, as the next morning’s trip to Paynes Fin, consisted of a drive to Dalwallinu, and a longer scenic route for the Porsche Star Fleet. Even travelling at the legal speed limit our Starfleet Mothership, now under the command of Arthur, only just beat the Porsche drivers to Dalwallinu, where we all met up at The Old Convent Guest House for morning tea and a historical talk about the convent. We learned how the convent has been turned into a first-class guest house. After being supplied with our pre-arranged lunch boxes, we launched off for Paynes Find.

Arthur and I had already decided that there was no way we were going to beat the Porsches to Paynes Find, so we cruised along and noted how the countryside changed from farming land to open scrubland, then to the red dirt and sparser bushland of station country and mining leases. Paynes Find is just what you may expect: a roadhouse, which masquerades as a café, bar, and restaurant. The accommodation was unsurprisingly, dongas, but they were clean and comfortable.

That afternoon, many of the Porsche Clubbers went to see the historic gold battery and then a visit to PilRoc Retreat, the local wildlife hospital/sanctuary. Arthur & I stayed behind and set up one of our telescopes for solar viewing & a sneak peek at Venus in daylight!

That night’s viewing was to be held on the local airstrip, so we decided to do a drive to the site to check out a good viewing location. Well, what we did not realise, is that there are two airstrips in Paynes Find. The official airstrip, and a private strip belonging to PilRoc. After driving up and down the official airstrip in the Mothership, we returned to camp and were informed that the viewing would be on the private airstrip, which was definitely the safer option.

Following a hearty meal at the Paynes Find “Restaurant” we set up both of our scopes at the end of Runway 2. As dusk descended the club members, drove their various Porsches onto the airstrip and set themselves up around a campfire, just off the runway in a clearing in the bush. It was a clear night, and we were able to show off the wonders of Jupiter, Saturn, and features of our galaxy.

Dave Roche from the PilRoc Retreat had set up the bush venue for the night events, campfire, chairs, cold drinks, light refreshments, and solar lighting of the pathways, just like a scene out of “Survivor”. Unknown to us, this scene was to become extremely important on the following evening. Late that night, we finally made it back to our dongas for a good catchup sleep.

After breakfast on Sunday, Porsche Club, Star Fleet - Group 1, began leaving for the drive back to Perth and as we waited for Group 2 to arrive, we were able to carry out some operational adjustments to the CPC 1100, in readiness for another evening under the stars. We also looked forward to meeting the new Star Fleet members and getting the gossip about how their evening at New Norcia went with Matt.

As Porsches left and Porsches arrived, it seemed like Paynes Find was really WA’s Porsche Space Port for the weekend, I’m sure the locals and passing travellers must have wondered if they had stumbled into a vehicular time-warp.

With all Astronomy events, the weather is a big factor, and the light dusting of clouds in the afternoon sky soon became more like Fairy Floss with tantalising breaks between the floss, just to keep you interested. It became apparent that we would need a “Plan B”, but how do you do this in the bush, no power, no theatre, no nothing.

Not to be defeated, we took our dilemma to Dave of PilRoc. Dave rigged up a projector screen (an old roller blind) tied between two trees, the Commander of the Porsche Club, just happened to have a portable generator in his Porsche, (well I guess you just never know with a Porsche!).

So, in the middle of the bush, Arthur was able to wow everyone with stories of stars, motorbikes and trips around Europe, whilst I was able to provide some viewing opportunities when breaks in the clouds permitted.

The evening was so successful, and we had much positive feedback on how the whole day went. On reflection, I think Group 2 outperformed Group 1 in the refreshment consumption stakes. Sadly, there is always an end to great weekends, and this one was no different, we packed up on Monday, said our goodbyes to the Porsche Star Fleet, and made the trip back to the Observatory, driving into Perth’s grey skies and rain.

Astro-tourism is just starting to become a buzzword and if we take up the challenge, the POVG could be leaders in this field. So, if you ever get the chance to volunteer or attend any external event (OFF), put your name down and be part of a whole new experience of sharing the wonders of the night sky with anyone and everyone.

Image Credit: Matt Woods

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