Australian National Motor Museum:
Road Testing the New Look National Motor Museum with Keith Conlon

A new $5 million pavilion at the National Motor Museum at Birdwood has certainly added horsepower to its claims to be the top of the line nostalgia tour through the century of the car.......a century in which it radically affected our cities and lives.

The new hanger-like museum building is off the road behind the historic stone flour mill in the pretty hills town of Birdwood. The mill is a solid relic of the steam age, and inside the entrance of the new building is a local icon of the petrol-engine age.

The Regent Garage sat for more than 60 years on Anzac Highway before it was demolished - carefully - and stored. It came from the USA in prefabricated form in 1928, and its new billboard proclaimed you could "watch you car rise in the air" on its new fangled hydraulic hoist. Its back, with its traditional canna flower garden, at Birdwood.

Trying to portray the enormity of an Australian road train on TV is not easy, and so the Museum Director kindly cranked up a small postie's motorbike for me to motor along its three-trailer-length while I described its outback Central Australian Origins. Alice Springs legend Kurt Johansen pioneered the coupling device that allowed a massive ex-army tank transporter prime-mover to pull three trailers that would stay in line at high speed on our cattle routes. Only in Australia can you see such massive and daunting road trains, and recently they were given permission to come into northern Adelaide depots. South Australia has a strong car making tradition. Adelaide is a little Detroit. And if you're in a school group, you're likely to add to the National Motor Museum's claim to be a car manufacturer too. Students from Birdwood Primary School became assembly line workers to give Postcards a demonstration.

You've heard of Henry Ford's great line, "You can have any colour you like - as long as it's black". He was talking about his T-model Ford, of course, and for a while that was true as his revolutionary production technique - the moving assembly line - saw the new cars spray painted with a fire hose! Visitors to this classroom miniaturised plant learn, however, that the South Australian T-Model factory always gave customers a range of colours. After a batch of cardboard Fords has come off the line here, the students, who have pressed and stamped, assembled and assessed each car, have an understanding of car plants that can only be gained by working in one.

The search for an Australian car is cleverly interpreted in the new wing at Birdwood. "The Journey Begins" exhibition starts with hand wrought steam carriage's. It includes the stage-coach-like "Shearer", for instance, which is being tizzied up for its 100th Anniversary run down the main street of Mannum, the old paddle steamer town on the Murray River. There's a one off rustic wonder next to it. The "Ohlmeyer" was made in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, complete with an articulated, "bendy" steering wheel which allowed the driver to hop out and still steer while walking the jalopy through a boggy stretch of track.

The 1948 Holden sits in pride of place. On its launce, it was so embraced by the public that there was a two year wait for "Australia's Own Car". By the 1960's, all kinds of models were on the road, and car ownership become almost universal. A flower power Austin A30 at the museum reminds us that teenagers could now afford 'wheels'. I took a spin in the picturesque rural background at Birdwood in a classy car of the era, the Chrysler Royal.

A short trip through the gum trees evoked all those Sunday drives of old........except mine were in the backseat of my Dad's Morris 8/40, the forerunner of the legendary Morris Minor. In another way, it was a reminder of how the car has been one of the biggest influences on the way we live today. That's the story behind the show at the Motor Museum. It also has a collection of super-cars including a sleek Lamborghini once owned by London model and film star, Twiggy. And motorbike enthusiasts have a shed full to keep them off the street.

About 1/3 of it's visitors are from interstate and overseas, but, with school holidays nigh, the National Motor Museum staff are in top gear for a local onslaught. The museum is open seven days 9am to 5pm except Christmas Day. For more info you can call the museum on (08) 8568 5006 or email info@postcards.sa.com.au

For more classic bikes you might also like to check out the The Motor Cycle and Heritage Museum.