Chance to check out motoring history

On August 4, 1925, Nevill Westwood and Greg Davies made history when they set off from Perth to become the first to drive a car around Australia.

Aged in their early 20s, Westwood, a 1.8m adventurous Seventh Day Adventist missionary, and missionary student Greg Davies, squeezed into the small 1923 Citroen 5CV car and headed north.

Five months later they returned to Perth from across the Nullarbor Plain.

Now as part of a national tour celebrating the amazing journey, a 100-year-old replica of the same vehicle will be on display on Monday, March 3, from 6pm at Kanwal Seventh-day Adventist Church carpark on the corner of Minnamurra and Wallarah Rds, Gorokan.  

After the viewing there will be a short talk about the car known as Bubsie and its journey, with refreshments to follow.

There will be further talks on the purpose of the journey and the impact it had on the outback on March 5 at 7pm and March 8 at 10.45am at the same location.

With Davies as the co-driver, Westwood’s aim was to visit numerous isolated communities in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The journey was a great feat considering the difficult conditions Westwood and Davies would have encountered driving more than 17,220km around the continent when roads were poorly made, scarce or non-existent, and few facilities existed to offer mechanical support.

Buoyed by the journey, and the people and places they encountered, the pair continued on to Queensland and NSW, with Davies leaving the trip in Albury, while Westwood drove on through South Australia and home.

He returned to Perth after 148 days of driving on December 30, keeping Bubsie until his death in 1969, when the car passed to his son Ron.

“It’s hard to believe a 5hp car was driven around Australia,” Kanwal Seventh-day Adventist Church representative Bob Stratford said.

“From Perth they headed to Broome and on to Darwin with only the overland bullock route to follow.

“What an amazing feat.”

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