BUSH billycarts are back in Harrow after a break of several years with the Labour Day long weekend scheduled for laughs, cheers and thrills rolling down the hill into town.

National Bush Billycart Association president, Mick Treloar, was very glad to get the event off the ground after it seemed both lockdowns and the cost of insurance had permanently seized the wheels or run it off the road - so to speak.

A smaller ‘test’ event was run in late October last year and once the word spread, it appeared to be the catalyst for a line of other similar events in other places - and apparently the liability cover was financially viable again.

“All of a sudden, all the billycart races started again,” Mick said.

“Everyone else started to get insurance again, so it’s like they switched that off.”

Mick said he was grateful for the help of a new association secretary, Adam Cunard, who sorted out the necessary paperwork that for years “everyone else sort of threw their hands in the air, and said, ‘that’s it – we tried, we tried, we tried’.”

“He’s an absolute genius that man and he helped us with the insurance with a really in-depth risk assessment … and we’re up and going again,” Mick said.

Mick said they started advertising the iconic event back in November, and the response so far has been very encouraging.

“In the past we’ve had them come from WA and all over Australia,” he said.

“We had a bloke who was coming down (for the October event) who couldn’t get through the floods and he was through from Wollongong - so he’ll be coming.

“We’ve had them from Queensland in the past. I think we’ve got a bloke coming out from Tassie as well, they’re big on the carts in Tassie - and plenty from Melbourne, Portland, Warrnambool - we’ll probably get about eight billycarts out of Portland.

“They come from everywhere except for Harrow!”

The race has been going since “locals had a derby in 84” and quickly gathered momentum to become the National Championships in 1985 and an incorporated not-for-profit organisation in 1987.

$5000 will still be up for grabs for the first driver to get down the hill in under a minute, originally compliments of Geoff Handbury and now offered by his son, Paul - back then the times were about 12 seconds too slow, but that margin has been steadily eroded.

“The closest was actually my uncle, (who) quite a few years back got within half a second,” Mick said.

He admitted the more-recent slower times were possibly impacted by the track needing resealing, but the carts still reach an exciting speed, making for a decent spectacle.

The $5000 was only available to the 250 kilogram and 150kg categories, although Mick said the likelihood of getting down the hill under a minute in the latter class was slim - “the more weight you’ve got, the faster you go”.

Also available will be a junior category for ages eight to 16.

The Harrow National Bush Billycart Championships 2023 will be held on Saturday, March 11 and Sunday, March 12 with more information available by emailing harrownbba2022@gmail.com or on the Facebook page.