| Car Museums almost always have a centrepiece ....a vehicle that is not only special, but achieved a remarkable feat in its working life. The National Motor Museum, at Birdwood, outside Handorf in the Adelaide Hills, is no exception. Our motoring past is rich with achievements, thanks to our pioneering spirit.
Soon after the first cars hit our shores the adventurers were at it, trying to criss-cross the world's largest island, attempting to set record after record. This was pre World War 1, before the sinking of the Titanic. Record attempts were not all altruistic. Records were there to be set, but those who set them were invariably involved in the motor trade and records equated directly to car sales.
These were the days of dusty, rutted tracks, creek bed crossings and much of the time no tracks at all. The automobile was an anachronism, living in the horse and buggy era. So it was that in 1908 two men set out to take on the impossible: cross Australia from south to north, from Adelaide to Darwin, in a 25 hp Talbot. Harry Dutton and Murray Aunger made history with the Talbot, and while they are long gone, the Talbot lives on as a reminder of the golden era of motoring and motorised exploration.
The Talbot lives at the National Motoring Museum where it has been for the past 33 years after being acquired from the Dutton family. Talbot was originally a British company used to sell imported French Clement-Bayard cars from 1903. Charles Chetwyn-Talbot, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury, lent his money and his name, to the firm. From 1905 the company branded its imported cars Clement Talbot, and this name is on the radiator badge attached to the now historically significant Talbot, steered to fame by Dutton and Aunger.
Talbot assembled the French parts in a new factory in North Kensington and locally designed cars were produced between 1906 and 1910, with around 50 to 60 cars a month rolling out the factory door. On August 20, 1908 Dutton and Aunger drove into Darwin, making history as the first people to drive across the Australian continent. The epic journey took them 51 days, having left Adelaide on June 30.
It was a remarkable feat including desert crossings, creeks and rivers, and even a bushfire that threatened the expedition. There were no roads to follow, no bridges to cross. Just some of the harshest country on earth. There were doubters and detractors who said it could not be done. Their first attempt in 1907 ran into the dreaded top end wet season and their original car, known affectionately as Angelina, became bogged outside Tennant Creek and was left there for several months.
As the pair edged closer to Darwin the car created a storm with locals. Most had only heard of the self propelled machines. To see one in the flesh and actually moving was a sight to behold. In 1908 cars were uncommon, even in the capital cities, and car registration was still an imposition of the future. In July last year the Museum took the Talbot back across the continent to celebrate Dutton and Aungers crossing of 1908.
Photographs courtesy of SA Government and Birdwood Museum.
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