Harley Owners Group thrilled with welcoming Katanning community during State rally

The Harley Owners Group has thanked the Katanning community for its hospitality after a packed weekend of activities during its annual State rally.

Nearly 150 Harley-Davidson owners rode into town over the weekend for the rally which takes place every two years.

HOG Perth chapter director Greg Thomson said he could not praise the community highly enough for the welcoming the group was given.

“Most of us had never really stayed in Katanning,” he said.

“We’ve gone through or stopped for fuel or lunch, but no one had really taken the chance to look around the town.

“We had a small group that did a walking tour and got told a bit about the history by one of the locals that had lived there for more then 50 years.

“He entertained us with stories about how things had came to be and how the town had developed — we all found that very enlightening.”

Chapter members from all corners of the State as well as some interstate and international visitors started converging on Katanning on Thursday before the rally kicked into high gear at lunchtime on Saturday.

A highlight of the weekend was a show and shine held at the All Ages Playground on Sunday morning which gave locals a chance to look over the bikes and vote for their favourites.

“There was a fairly unanimous vote for the bike which was most popular with the public,” Mr Thomson said.

William “Willy” Wood’s blue Harley-Davidson Ultra Trike took out the people’s choice awards in the best paint and best overall categories.

From there, the group left on its “thunder run” via Austral Terrace and Clive Street before heading out onto the highway towards Broomehille Village.

Once the group returned, they held a series of events and games at Katanning Country Club which acted as their base for the weekend.

KCC chairman Ian Hanna described the weekend as “unbelievable and awesome.”

“The Harley Owners Group are very community-minded when they hold these rallies, they always try to have it in a different place with the idea being they can spend money in different communities,” he said.

“It was certainly a good weekend.”

It was the first big event hosted at the KCC since the completion of a recent clubhouse upgrade.

Mr Hanna said more than 50 people took on active roles as volunteers before and during the weekend to make sure things ran smoothly.

“We had people around the place, and because the HOGS organisers came down several times to meet with us, the planning was being checked on all away along,” he said.

“There were quite a few people who took days off work to be here to make sure it was all set up right, and then over the weekend we had people there ready to go and do things or rectify things if it was needed — but it pretty much ran like clockwork.”

Mr Thomson said he lost count of the number of locals who asked why the group chose Katanning for their rally.

“It was basically a town we hadn’t previously done a rally in,” he said.

“We’ve done all these other places and you start to consider whether you need to start revisiting ones you’ve gone to before or is there somewhere else that has enough of a population and accommodation.

“I think we really jagged it with the level of engagement we got from the local CRC encouraging businesses to get involved and with the guys from the country club who did a tremendous job as well.”