History Notes - from horse to motor

History Notes

by Julie Williams

One of the significant aspects of modern life in country Australia is transportation – how we get from place to place. Most of us don’t remember the days when travel was predominantly by foot or horse, and how different that must have been!  The transition was somewhat challenging. One of our family stories is of some of my great uncles returning from a cricket match at Gulf Creek with Les Spencer at the wheel of his new T-Model Ford, which bolted down the hill towards Forest Creek.  “Whoa girl, whoa!!” he shouted.  But to no avail.  She didn’t “whoa”, so they went tumbling into the creek.  I gather not much damage was done, because the T-Modal Ford outlived them all and was used as a farm vehicle at the property “Romani” well after Uncle Les’s time. I’ve also heard a rumour that Uncle Les preferred to drive at night by moonlight rather than use the car lights!

Does anyone have any accounts of how people retrieved their horses or buggies after they went to town to collect their new-fangled automobiles for the first time?  Also, what do we know about when and who sold the first cars in Barraba?  Kel Crowley remembers his grandfather William Crowley having a Rugby car that he thought he bought in about 1926, possibly from someone in Barraba.

My father Stan Williams owned and loved his Rover 75 – a powerful vehicle dating from the early 1950s without much clearance and which was designed more for speed and comfort than for dodging rocks and potholes and precarious creek crossings on the tracks into the property “Shalimar”.  His Uncle Wilfred Crowley owned Rover 90s – I say plural because my recollection is that he upgraded his Rover 90 at least once.  And according to my dad, he wrote a new car off when he was driving it home from the showroom, so he went back and bought another identical one!  My grandfather Gordon Williams took great pride in his Nash car which I think dated from the early 1950s.  His brother Guy Williams had an almost identical vehicle, but I recollect it was green whereas Gordon’s was blue.  Even as a child, it seemed to me that Keith and Betty Simpson’s FJ Holden was a more practical family car for being out in the sticks like we were.  (The Simpsons worked for Gordon and our family socialised with them often.  If it hadn’t been for their daughters Merelyn and Janette my circle of childhood friends would’ve been almost non-existent.)  I contacted Janette recently and she clarified that her parents bought the FJ Holden new in 1955.  Prior to that they had a Ford Prefect and Janette recollects the family driving to Port Macquarie in that car.  The FJ moved to Sydney with the family when Keith retired in 1964 and Betty keep using it into the 1970s.

There are many more tales of transport, but they will have to wait for another time.  In the meantime, the Nandewar Historical Society wishes everyone a safe and happy festive season and thanks you for your support throughout the year.