Rally Australia

Rally Australia is an automobile rally event which was held in and around Perth, Western Australia from 1988 until 2006, when that state's tourism commission severed its collaboration with the event. The rally was part of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in 1988 and the World Rally Championship from 1989 to 2006. The event returned in 2009 to the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales in early September. The event is now held every second year, alternating with Rally New Zealand. For 2011 the event was relocated to Coffs Harbour.

The event has also been a round of the Australian Rally Championship although not consistently as the ARC technical regulations has been incompatible with the WRC in some years. Similarly the Western Australian Rally Championship has also been a part of Rally Australia during its Perth based history.

During the years when Rally New Zealand replaces Rally Australia on the WRC calendar, the rally is still run as an Australian Rally Championship round, titled Coffs Coast Rally.

The FIA World Rally Championship first came to Australia hosted in the state capital of Perth, Western Australia. Initially a super-special stage was run at Richmond Raceway near Fremantle with the service park at Langley Park on the Swan River. Competitors pushed as hard as they could on the world-famous jumps in the Bannister Forest, the super-special stage Langley Park and later the Gloucester Park Super Special stage.

It was praised for its unique road surface, consisting of tiny, smooth round stones that had the effect of driving on ball bearings. Rally Australia was voted "Rally of the Year" in 1995, 1999 and 2000 by the WRC teams.

The 2006 rally held on 26 to 29 October was the final one staged in Western Australia. It was cancelled by the holders of the rally contract, the Western Australia Tourism Commission after the then ruling Australian Labor Party decided to withdraw funding, despite widespread support for the event to continue in Perth. This move was considered a short sighted and poor one by the Australian Labor Party, as Rally Australia was the largest annual international event held in Perth.

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