Francis Birtles

Birtles Oldsmobile 30 used for the Darwin to Adelaide overland speed record trip 1908

Francis Birtles was an Australian adventurer who set many long distance cycling and driving records including becoming in 1927, the first man to drive a car from England to Australia. Birtles had set a speed record driving from Darwin to Melbourne the previous year.

He served in the Boer War, and later was a mounted police officer in the Transvaal. On his return to Australia, he cycled round Australia twice and by 1912 had crossed the country seven times. He was the first person to cross Australia from west to east on a bicycle and in 1912 he became the first person to make a west to east crossing from Fremantle to Sydney by car.

As a publicity stunt, Birtles was commissioned by Barlow Motors, the Melbourne agent for the Bean cars to drive a a modified Bean 14 car from Darwin to Melbourne. With his co-driver Alec Barlow they left Darwin at 4am on October 23 1926 and completed the 5440 km (3380 miles) journey in eight days and 13 hours, a record. The car was dubbed the Sundowner by Birtles.

Following this success, Birtles was asked to make an attempt at becoming the first person to drive from England to Australia. He departed from Australia House in London on October 19 1927 farewelled by a crowd of wellwishers including the 1927 Miss Australia. His epic eight month journey carried him through Europe, Egypt, Persia (now Iran), India, Burma (now Myanmar) and Malaya (now Malaysia), arriving in Australia in Darwin.

The record breaking Bean 14.

On arrival in Darwin his car was siezed by customs officials demanding import duty until direct intervention by the Prime Minister Stanley Bruce averted the situation. He continued south via Brisbane and Sydney to the official finishing point of the journey at the Geeneral Post Office on Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. He was promptly asked to moved on by a policeman for obstructing traffic.

The journey was not repeated until 1955.

Birtles had completed more than 70 transcontinental crossings by mid 1927 and with some of these journeys detailed in his book Battlefronts of Outback (1955).

In 1929, the car was presented the Australian Government on condition that it be placed in the national museum. As there was no such museum at the time the car disappeared for many years before recovered in the 1960's and placed into the National Historical Collection in the National Museum in Canberra in 1980.

References

• http://www.nma.gov.au/collections/slideshow_1_6.html
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• National Museum of Australia on preservation