As if getting to Armidale wasn’t challenge enough, the New England Antique Machinery Club has organised two runs up the Devils Pinch to Black Mountain Roadhouse (altitude 1,330m) as a prelude to the weekend vintage truck and machinery show.

Arthur and Ivy Navin opened the Devils Pinch Service Station, as it was then known, in July 1957. Two years later, they opened the adjacent Seven Dwarfs Motel, complete with a named dwarf for each room. In the early 1960s the roadhouse was known for its welcoming and homely atmosphere and, epitomising these times are the photographs from the Shirley Browne Collection. Shirley worked at the roadhouse and appears in the photos with the Navin’s daughter, Janet. The Navins sold the business in 1973 and, after a run of owners, Janet and her husband, Theo Spann, bought back into the business in 1984 and operated it until their retirement in 2006. The new owner of the enterprise is hosting the reception of the run to the roadhouse, and is just beginning to learn some of its trucking history.

The run to Black Mountain has presented an amazing opportunity to relive th