The Cars

Over the last couple of days we've hung out with steam trains, sailed on paddle steamers, watched all manner of steam engines do their thing, and spectated at a vintage tractor pull. So it made sense that we should keep the theme going with a visit to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood.

Back before the NMM, we had the Blumberg flour mill ( because Birdwood used to be Blumberg) which was built in 1988 and abandoned in the 1940's.

In 1964 the building was purchased by motoring enthusiasts Jack Kaines and Len Vigar to house their collections. They opened the Museum to the public, with curios, collectables, objets d’art, and an aircraft competing for space alongside the motoring collection. After a brief sojourn under the guardianship of private shareholders the South Australian Government bought the Museum in 1976 to prevent the collection from being dispersed.  Since 1982 the Museum has been the responsibility of the History SA and n December 1998 the new pavilion was opened with a focus on Australian Motoring History. Which is a long way of saying that going to the National Motor Museum involves looking at a lot of cars.

The first car I saw was entirely built of Lego.  Even for a non-car person like myself, this was mildly interesting.

Now my interest in cars revolves primarily around where they can take me, but I had to admit that the NMM kept me thoroughly entertained for a good four hours with not a glazed eye in sight.  

There were one-of-a-kind cars,

Built by the creative Mr Ohlmeyer in 1904, the jigger had a pivoting steering wheel and controls with the intent that when the vehicle was in danger of being bogged Mr O could jump out and jog along beside it.  This is the only jigger ever built.  One questions the practicality of running along beside the car in the (presumably) boggy conditions and whether this limitation prevented the jigger from capturing the public imagination.

Another one-off South Australian invention: a steam-powered car built by Mr David Shearer in the late 1800s and used primarily for joy-rides for the public, whose imagination was once again not captured.

Speaking of capturing the public imagination, here we have 407, one of the two cars which Harry Dutton and Murray Aunger drove from Adelaide to Port Darwin, arriving in August 1908 and becoming the first people to complete this trip by car.  Mind you, that was their second go: the first time they tried in the wet (and hot) season, leaving a car bogged near Tennant Creek.  They picked it up on the second go-round, being quoted in the Northern Territory Times and Gazette as saying "...the old car became the home of numberless wasps, spiders, centipedes and other feminine nightmares..." I take exception to this: I suspect they produced more than a few "feminine" squeals and shudders themselves as they cleaned the creepy crawlies out of the old car and carried on to Port Darwin.

And while we were on Australian history I was gratified to find Tom Kruse's  mail truck preserved for posterity in the NMM, the air conditioned pavilion being a far cry from its working life delivering mail up and down the Birdsville Track for thirty years.

We found the last Holden ever produced in Australia (in South Australia, of course).

It was very red.

There was a whole section of concept cars which were never produced commercially.

"This is my kind of car!" he said.  When it was conceptualised it had a TV screen for navigation.  This was before GPS, so I'm not sure how that worked in practicality.

Roger even got to revisit his childhood.

"I haven't improved over the years: I drive these things as bad now as I did when I was 12!"

Oh well, try this one then.

There were acrylic cars, racing cars, and big blue battleships from the days when nobody cared about the possibility of pulverising pedestrian.

Hippie cars, car assembly lines, and even Elvis made a cameo appearance.

There were buses from Adelaides's past;

cars that people built themselves, all square corners because they didn't have the facility to bend metal;

the Gogo car, immortalised in the Yellow Pages TV advertisement (remember that?);

cars made of stone;

This one's not going anywhere soon. The car, that is.  Roger's coming home with me.

and finally there was a shed full of cars just waiting patiently for their turn at restoration.

They weren't lonely: they had plenty of birds to keep them company.  No doubt there were a couple of feminine nightmares in there too.

Having reached saturation point of cars, we headed home to Mount Barker Caravan Park, where we were brought back to earth by the recalcitrant plumbing in our cabin.  Let's just say that it was a good thing that our cabin keys also gave us access to the ablutions block and a very nice plumber came to visit us later in the week.  

Okay, just one more photo before I go.  We popped out for lunch, the NMM being conveniently placed in the main shopping street of Birdwood.  We couldn't get away from cars though: the two old fellas at the neighbouring table entertained us with loud lamentations about the temerity of SaPol and their pesky regulations relating to car clearance and modifications.

Lunch table views: the old Blumberg Mill aka admin block of the National Motor Museum.