Rambler Model G Roadster 1904 - www.mister-cars/com

For the past couple of years the annual Gold Coast Antique Fair – a Rotary-run Gold Coast institution held at Conrad Jupiters Hotel and Casino – has added an extra dimension to the fair with the holding of a car show. Old cars – old stuff, together, that makes sense. This year's show, held during the Australia Day weekend, featured more than 30 classic cars, and the undoubted star of the display was the RACQ's own Belle of the Ball, a 1904 Rambler Model G Roadster.

So how does the RACQ come to own a rare and magnificent machine from the earliest days of the horseless carriage? A car built four years before the first Model T Ford, a car built 10 years prior to the outbreak of WW1 and subsequent Gallipoli tragedy, a car built seven years before the Titanic plummeted to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Also how did Federal Government intervention keep this historic car in Australia?

That is a long and fascinating tale. Rambler was a brand name used by Thomas B. Jeffery Company between 1900 and 1914 and then by Nash between 1950 -54 and lastly by Nash successor, American Motors Corporation from 1954 – 69. The first Jeffery-built Rambler rolled off the production line in 1902 and in that year 1500 were built. Believe it or not that made the Rambler one of the most popular cars in the US and the Jeffery company were second only to Oldsmobile as the US's largest car manufacturer. So a 1904 Rambler is today not only a rarity but a unique connection to the earliest days of the US auto industry.

It is also a direct link to the formative days of the RACQ, which was launched in 1905 in Brisbane as the ACQ – Automobile Club of Queensland – to cater for the needs of motorists in the Australian state that is bigger than Texas. The RACQ has recorded the car's history, so it's probably best to let the RACQ tell that side of the story.

The 7 horsepower, single-cylinder fire-engine red Rambler was built in 1904 by Thomas B. Jeffery Motor Co., of Kenosha, Wisconsin and purchased by Brisbane medical practitioner, Dr Charles Marks, who was to become one of 19 foundation members of the Automobile Club of Queensland. Soon after it's inaugural meeting at the Brisbane School of Arts in Ann Street, the Club staged it's first organised `run', the Rambler being one of a convoy that set out from Brisbane to Sandgate on 17 June 1905.

Possibly because of Dr Mark's need to reach his surgery on the lofty heights of Wickham Terrace, the Rambler is reputed to have been the first motor vehicle to successfully ascend the steep Edward Street hill. Dr Marks used the Rambler to commute to his surgery for about eight years before it was retired to his Samford property following his purchase of an Argyll.

For almost half a century the pioneering motor vehicle `rusticated' at Samford, until 1957 when the late Arthur Partington swapped a Model T Ford brass radiator for information from a fellow veteran car enthusiast that enabled him to track it down. As was a common fate for vehicles of that era in rural areas, the redundant Rambler had been put to work powering milking machines and its remains were scattered about the property.

Mr Partington sold the collected remains to his good friend, the late Wal Anderson, for restoration – on the understanding he had first option to buy the completed vehicle. After a decade of painstaking work by Wal, Arthur and Arthur's son Doug, the Rambler was back on Queensland roads in 1969 and took part in an international veteran car rally from Sydney to Melbourne the following year.

Under Doug Partington's ownership from the mid-1970s, the historic motor vehicle helped the RACQ mark it's 75^th anniversary in 1980 with a re-enactment through Brisbane's city streets of the Club's first run – although the modern one-way traffic system prevented an ascent of Edward Street. In 1986, Doug achieved an ambition he had harboured ever since seeing the film Genevieve, when, with the assistance of QANTAS and RACQ, he drove the car in the famous London to Brighton Run.

The Rambler rolled out again for the RACQ's 90^th anniversary in 1995, this time taking pride of place in the RACQ Motoring of Yesteryear celebrations. With Doug Partington's move interstate and subsequent reluctant sale of the vehicle, the Club effectively lost track of the Rambler for several years. Had it not been for a telephone call from the Federal Government's National Cultural Heritage Committee in May 2000, the RACQ – and Australia – would have almost certainly have seen the last of a vehicle that is rare not only in this country but throughout the world.

The vehicle had been sold to a British-based collector. However, on the advice of an expert panel as to the Rambler's historical value, the committee indicated it would halt the export licence application process if the RACQ were prepared to negotiate a purchase of the vehicle.

There was little hesitation in coming to a decision that RACQ should finally own and retain this priceless link with it's foundation, not the least to be the centrepiece of the Club's centenary in 2005. After confirming the car's authenticity and negotiations with a Sydney agent the Rambler was in the RACQ `fold' within a few months and underwent minor restoration work to bring it up to the condition is now enjoys.

This remarkable car, which features chain-driven rear wheels, is now the flagship of a small fleet of fully-operational motor vehicles with direct historical links to the RACQ.