Driven

Summer holidays are upon us and many will be taking to the roads. No doubt many will complain about the state of the roads, particularly the Bruce Highway that snakes along the Queensland coast from Brisbane to Cairns, but what was that journey like in the 1930s? Fortunately we have an account of just such a journey. Two men and their wives set out to drive from Sydney to Cairns in a car towing a trailer full of camping gear. The book that resulted from this adventure was Blue coast caravan by Frank Dalby Davison and Brooke Nicholls, published in 1935.Frank Dalby Davison was in his late 30s when they set off. He had already seen quite a lot of the world, having moved the the USA at 16 with his family and served with the British cavalry in WWI. He spent four tough years farming in southern Queensland with his wife and young family before being driven by drought to retreat to his father's real estate business in Sydney. Frank had several novels to his credit, one of which, Man-shy, the story of a wild red heifer, had won the Australian Literature Society Medal. Frank did most of the writing work on the book.Dr. E. Brooke Davison had trained as a dentist and did original work in dental anatomy but gave up dentistry for natural history writing. He was a pioneering wildlife cinematographer and two of his films, The Living Heart of Australia and Great Barrier Coral Reef were shown commercially in 1923. Davison, refered to as 'The Doctor' in the book, was a director of the Melbourne Zoo and a founder of the Gould League of Victoria. He was in his late fifties at the time of the trip and died only a few years afterwards, in 1937. Frank's wife, Kay and Brooke's wife, Barbara play only supporting roles in the book and we don't know what they thought about the adventure.We will skip over the initial chapters covering the journey through New South Wales towards the Queensland border including an accident caused by a broken trailer axle and delays due to flooding. Sadly for those car enthusiasts who might wish details of the vehicle employed for this adventure, the authors have given us no information at all and there are no illustrations. We join the adventurers as they reach the Queensland border.Skirting the hill we came to Tweed Heads. Tweed Heads is, we believe, considered a beauty spot. It may have been ; but humanity has settled there - and that is hard on any place of beauty. There is a scattering of houses whose individual ugliness is relieved - or intensified, according to how one views the matter - by scraps of wooden lace and similar attempts at the adornment of their facades. No doubt there is much natural beauty yet remaining in the vicinity, but to appreciate it the observer would need to occupy a position free from the evidence of human presence.The crossing of the border is effected by passing through a gateway in a wire fence. We were impressed by the unimpressiveness of our entry in Queensland. We hadn't expected to pass under a series of lofty arches, but a few slack wires and an open gate seemed rather trivial. Why have them? Why have anything? One of us suggested that the purpose of the fence and gate was to keep Queensland cattle-ticks out of New South Wales ; but the rest could not imagine an enterprising tick being held up by a wire fence. At any rate, we gave a hopeful cheer as the car rolled over the bumps between the gate-posts - a proceeding that caused the gate-keeper to eye us askance.Coolangatta is a wide and wind-ridden town just across the border. It offers no attraction to the traveller and none, as far as we could see, to the permanent resident. It is a watering-place. At first sight the visitor gets the impression that the houses are all two-storied. This is owing to the Queensland custom of building dwellings on stumps six or seven feet high.It was curious to notice that a political division such as the state border should mark the bounds of a custom in house construction. Approaching the border from the New South Wales side we had not seen half a dozen houses built on tall stumps, but as soon as the boundary was passed, it became the exception to see a house built close to the ground.The season of our passing was in the last days of May, and people in the town were returning from the beach wearing large straw sun-hats and carrying brightly-coloured beach towels.You might think that their assessment sounds a bit harsh, but it is typical of their descriptions of towns and houses. They reserve their admiration for the unspoilt natural environment and disparage nearly all the works of man. There are few towns that escape a scathing assessment. The travellers stayed for a week in Brisbane, at Kangaroo Point.Brisbane proper is a pocket-edition city. Nothing has been left out. It is not abridged, nor, we suspect, from what we observed is it expurgated. In the height of its buildings, the congestion of its foot-paths, its briskness, self-absorption, and sophistication, it is every inch a city. But its inches are not many. Whether you take a conveyance or walk, you are continually surprising yourself by coming to the end of it.Brisbane generally gets a good report, particularly the trees adorning the city, but we skip most of that and get back on the open road.Queensland's roads are dreadful. This is not a complaint, merely a statement of fact. The northern State is large and sparsely populated. If the condition of her highways is good enough for her own haulage requirements she is under no obligation to put down concrete for the pleasure of southern motorists.She doesn't! Brisbane puts a tar macadam highway under the wheels of the north-bound traveller for about thirty miles and then abruptly leaves him to his own devices. From then onward the main coast road is not much more that a bush track in bad condition ; in many places it is a bush track. At long distances apart horse-drawn scrapers are met with, and, at equally long distances, groups of three of four men working with picks and shovels. But the miles are many and the workers are few. The man in ancient legend, whose task it was to push a boulder up a hill as often as it rolled down, had little to do compared with the road repair gangs of Queensland.On the slopes, the metal, if there is any, is loose and scored by wash-outs. On the level stretches the road is made of stiff mud rutted axle-deep. The ruts are water-logged, and if a vehicle has recently preceded the traveller the sides of the ruts will be coated with slush as slippery as butter. The cautious driver creeps along in second gear, straddling the ruts and praying for his differential case should the car side-slip. The depressions between the hills are pitted with water-filled holes, many of which are shaped exactly to fit a car wheel as high as the hub. In front of these the driver comes to a dead stop, then lowers the car into them. In many places ruts and water-holes exist together, making avoidance by steering an impossibility. Here the driver crawls along at about two miles per hour, his car lurching and rolling like a ship in a storm. Care for the trailer, if there is one, is out of the question ; at best, hopes for its survival may be entertained.Back-seat passengers are shaken about in a manner that may be good for their health but does not make for their comfort. Although Frank and the Doctor drove with all possible care, Barbara and Kay were not without bruises before the first day's run was over. About seven miles per hour was our average speed. Where we could travel as fast as fifteen miles an hour the drivers blew out their cheeks and revelled in a sense of speed. Occasionally they were able to reach twenty miles , but at that pace they felt as if they were indulging in reckless excess. Our travellers struggle on over the dreadful roads until they get to Landsborough. From here they plan to venture up the Blackall Ranges where they have an invitation to visit a farm on the road to Maleny.The road up the range was worth the struggle at cost to reach it. Good in itself, its scenic outlook was exceptional. We rose to something approaching two thousand feet, passing from hill to hill along narrow saddlebacks where the road, no wider than a bullock-wagon track, had just room to pass, with steep declivities on either side. To the left we could see far over the low country through which we had come ; and the glasshouse Mountains distinct in the distance. Even far away they lent a character to the land they dominated. Something about that far view stirred the feelings in a way not readily understood, like the notes of a barbaric chant.The travelling party have an enjoyable stay at the farm of High Tor and appear to find a kindred spirit in its owner Mr Lawrence.It was interesting to listen to the discourse of one who, clearly, regarded himself not only as the owner, in law, of certain lands, but also as the custodian, in trust, of its beauty. He subscribed to the view that our home must be made habitable. He spoke regretfully of the ruthless slaughter that had been done with the axe. He spoke of developing the latent part of the new beauty that had been revealed - at least within the area given him to control. He talked of the preservation of the last remaining patch of tropic jungle on that part of the range ; and of his efforts to obtain sanctuary for the last of the native birds, who had sought refuge in it.There are extensive and enthusiastic descriptions of our adventurers' explorations of the rainforest at High Tor but eventually they set off again and come to Maleny.Maleny, where we stopped for petrol, interested us. It made no pretensions to being more than a hardy frontier town. Its main street wandered crookedly up a hill and its bare buildings wandered crokedly beside it. There were no trees, no foot-paths, and, as far as we could see, no building alignment. Yet Maleny rather fascinated us. The blood of commerce flowed richly in its veins. Its stores were jammed full of goods, and each establishment, in its hearty way, pretended by means of a false front, to be a two-story structure. Maleny was too happily busy with the cash-register to bother what it looked like. We were reminded of stories of places where men are men.From Maleny our travellers descended from the ranges into the Mary Valley.About us stood brown hill-sides dotted with eucalypts, above them rose the ranges, olive green near at hand, blue in the distance. On the slopes the cattle were feeding knee-deep in the tall grasses, their heads down to the green picking that grew close to the earth. The homesteads were wide apart. There was just the metallic gleam of a roof here and there among the hills. along the winding river grew white gum, brush apple and she-oak. It was our own familiar land and we took a deep breath of it.The brown of it seemed to rest the eyes. We learned again, as we followed our road through the land's soft folds, what we had learned before, that green is not the only sign and symbol of beauty. With eyes newly opened we saw the beauty of browns and yellows. There was infinite variety of tone : paddocks where the brown lay over beneath the breeze and disclosed a silvery sheen ; squares of yellow that had along their upper surface a tinge of purple given by the ripening seed-heads. Green, when it was seen, was a fine dark carpet underlying the protective top growth ; or in hard-grazed paddock and standing crop it had a richer value by reason of the softer colours that flanked it.There is little that can be told of the Mary valley, its features are so simple. There are only the ranges, the brown hills, the gums by the roadside, split-rail fences, a homestead or two, and the river, rearranging their groupings as we advanced toward them. Hour after hour, at a comfortable pace, we moved into that picture, and hour after hour it changed before our eyes. Always there were the same components ; always the picture was different.The travellers made their way to Maryborough and from there by boat to spend several weeks on Fraser Island. On their return to Maryborough they decided to abandon the idea of travelling all the way to Cairns by car. The roads were bad and there were still 800 miles to travel so they went by train. The adventure continued in and around Cairns and on the Great Barrier Reef but we will leave them here with the abandoned car and trailer.Simon Miller – Library Technician, State Library of Queensland

State Library is pleased to announce the addition of a rare book to the John Oxley Library collection: List of Motor owners in Queensland.

In the earliest decades of the 20th century car parking was simply a matter of leaving your car where you happened to stop. Rarely in the years before the First World War would you have found more than a few cars parked together. Vintage cars parked outside Firhall, in Wickham Terrace, ca. 1906, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 199241 Half a dozen cars parked in front of the North Gregory Hotel, Winton, ca, 1907, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 50438 Cars aligned in a street outside the Criminal Investigation Bureau for the General Strike in Brisbane, 1912, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: 10113-0001-0008By the middle of the 1920s car parking had become a serious problem in Brisbane, at least. Lord Mayor, William Jolly, addressed the problem at a dinner of the Motor Traders' Association reported in the Brisbane Courier in 1925."I feel sure that in Brisbane in the very near future we shall have to take some action with a view to finding some better system of parking motor cars," said Alderman W. A. Jolly (Mayor of Greater Brisbane) at the ninth annual dinner of the Motor Traders' Association of Queensland held at Finney's Roof Garden last night. Alderman Jolly … said that the rapid development of the motor trade in Brisbane had handed over to the city of Brisbane the great problem of the parking of motor cars. Every big city in the world was faced with that problem. He felt sure that in Brisbane in the very near future they would have to take some action with a view to finding some better system of parking motor cars. To-day their main streets were reduced to half their width owing to the lack of a parking system. Every large building that went up in the thickly populated parts of the city made matters worse. An important phase of the provision of car parking would be the selection of sites. They would have to be careful to see that such sites were properly situated. R.A.C.Q. parking lot in Fortitude Valley during the Brisbane Exhibition, ca. 1927, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 65343Even in the smaller towns popular events like the Goomeri Show could attract a large collection of cars requiring parking. Carpark at the Goomeri Showground, ca. 1927, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 149725By the 1930s formal parking arrangements were instituted in many towns as cars became more common. The state's car parks began to take on a different look as hard topped 1930s vehicles replaced the 1920s soft top models. The expansion of the motor industry was highlighted in this report from Ayr in The Northern Miner, July 30, 1932.The value of the sugar districts to the motor car Industry was abundantly demonstrated here during show week. The Traffic Inspector, Mr. J. O'Connor Informs me that on Saturday night, while the different entertainments in town were in progress he made a count of the cars parked in a limited area around the centre blocks and counted no less than 479. Queen Street, Ayr 1936, Burdekin Library, Image number: bur00078 Callide Street, Biloela on a busy day in November, 1936, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 41454 Outlook over the carpark on top of Castle Hill, Townsville, ca. 1936, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 204556Various methods of parking were tried in Queensland towns in the 30s and 40s, some more successfully than others. This letter published in the Western Star and Roma Advertiser on May 16 1941 compares the parallel parking system in Roma unfavourably with other systems.Sir,—As a visitor to your town, I have been surprised to note the action taken by the authorities with reference to the street parking of cars. That some control not only over the parking but also of the running of cars is called for goes without saying, but the method of parking which has been instituted is possibly the worst possible form that could have been instituted in a. town the size of Roma. To successfully park a car parallel to the footpath in a confined space, when other cars occupy the spaces immediately at the front and rear, calls for the driving of an expert, and is quite beyond the capacity of the ordinary driver, as also is the matter of getting the car out again without loss of duco either to one's own car or of that of the other fellow. Centre parking looking somewhat stretched on Callide Street, Biloela in 1949, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 118718 Looking more effective on a wider Bourbong Street, Bundaberg, ca. 1951, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: TR1867-0001-0034Towards the end of the 1950s a new development began in Brisbane which would transform shopping and parking for Queenslanders. The rise of the shopping mall began with the construction of a new shopping centre in Chermside. The new development is described in some detail in The Cumberland Argus (Parramatta, NSW) on 1st May 1957.This centre, which is now almost completed, is the first of several contemplated by the firm of Allen and Starke, owners of a large department store in the Brisbane City Centre. The firm is negotiating for sites in three other locations on the outskirts of urban development in areas of fairly scattered housing. Development on these other sites has not yet been approved by Brisbane City Council.Attention is given to the parking arrangements for the new centre.A parking ratio of 4 sq.ft. to 1 sq. ft. of floor space is considered desirable, and the first stage provides for 750 vehicles with provision for expansion of parking space to accommodate 2,000 vehicles, which with a four-fold daily turnover, will provide total accommodation for 8,000 vehicles. … The whole of the parking area is to be paved and planted with trees, which will also be planted along the boundaries of the site. Scale model of Allen & Stark's department store, Chermside, Brisbane, Queensland, April 1956, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 191380 Chermside Shopping Centre, ca. 1957. Some of the cars even look like the ones in the model, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 119385The 1950s also saw the rise of multi-level car parking. The roof top car park on the R.A.C.Q. building in Fortitude Valley was the first of its kind in Australia. View of the car park on top of the R.A.C.Q. building in Fortitude Valley, 1953, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 202799Another innovation was this multi-story service station in Spring Hill. Amoco service station in Water Street, Spring Hill, Brisbane, 1962, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: 29917-0034-0001In the smaller towns the parking arrangements hadn't changed much by the 1960s although there was more traffic and the cars had been updated. View of Currie Street, Nambour, 1963, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: lbp00218 We return to Queen Street, Ayr, this time in 1967, Burdekin Library, Image number: bur00110No survey of car parking in Queensland would be complete without mention of that innovative combination of car parking and entertainment that was the drive-in movie. First introduced to Queensland in the late 1950s, drive-ins proliferated through the 60s and 70s before all but disappearing again by the present day. Sadly the only pictures we have of drive-ins were taken during the day when they were empty of cars. This drive-in at Waterford West was brand new in 1974. Parking bays at the Waterford West Drive-In Theatre, 1974, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: 27545-0001-0002There were still cars in Queensland in the 1970s, despite the evidence of the deserted drive-in above. Carpark of the Surfers Paradise Hotel, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, 1973, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, John Gollings Surfers Paradise Photographs, Image number: 29348-0002-0033 Carpark and buildings at Garden City Shopping Centre, Mount Gravatt, August 1972, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: lbp00072The 1980s car park reveals a more modern fleet of cars but one not yet dominated by ubiquitous SUVs. Beaudesert Fair Shopping Centre, 1987, Scenic Rim Regional Council, Image number: qbsc00046In 1990 Brisbane street parking still featured individual parking meters. The photograph is by former State Library staff photographer Reiner Irmer. Elizabeth Street looking from the Creek Street area, Brisbane, 1990, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 169864Taking us almost to the present day is this car park at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre from the John Gollings Surfers Paradise Photographs, 1973, 2013. Gold Coast Aquatic Centre carpark at Southport, Queensland, 2010-2013, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Image number: 29348-0001-0056Finally here is a mystery for the eagle-eyed car experts among you. This photograph is listed in our catalogue as dating from 1959 but even those only moderately versed in the history of motor cars will realise that this must be a later photograph. Who can give us a correct date for this well stocked car park at Eagle Farm? View of the stands at Eagle Farm racecourse, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 152014Simon Miller - Library Technician, State Library of Queensland

On 25 October 1937 Brisbane newspaper The Telegraph published a tribute to one of the city's most prominent citizens on the occasion of his 80th birthday.Eighty years old to-day and still hale and hearty, Mr. James Trackson, of Sedgley Grange, Newmarket, looks back on a life filled with usefulness which has been marked by pioneering not in the usual interpretation of that term as applied to those who subdue the wilderness but in the realm of electrical communication, and lighting and in modern transport.There are few men better known than Mr. Trackson in Queensland, and his story has been told in "The Telegraph" on various occasions, but its main features will bear repetition. Mr. Trackson, who was born in Norwich, England, was educated at the King Edward VI. Grammar School and at Sedgley Park College, near Wolverhampton, and the famous Polytechnic in London, where he graduated in Science, specialising in the then infant electrical science. He studied there under Professor Pepper, who afterwards came to Brisbane and lectured and conducted scientific experiments here. Members of the Trackson family outside Sedgley Grange homestead, Newmarket, ca. 1901, James Trackson is on the right with his wife and children and his brother Philange is to the left with his familyMr. Trackson has had the honour of participating in electrical pioneering work in two States and in various departments of that science — namely telephone and electrical light systems. He was employed in establishing Melbourne's first telephone exchange. Then he was engaged on similar work, at Ballarat. Coming to Brisbane with Mr. F. Rosender he was engaged in establishing the Brisbane telephone exchange which was the first Government establishment of the kind in Australia. Before coming to Australia he had been associated with this kind of work in London and took part in the first long-distance telephone service there. Subsequently Mr. Trackson was engaged on the installation of the electric light system in Parliament House here, and later in that of the first street lamps in Queen Street, which afterwards were removed to Roma Street. The old Opera House, now known as the remodelled His Majesty's Theatre, was the first public building, equipped with the new lighting system. Mr. Trackson kept well abreast, of the times and when he found that steam buggies were being used overseas he imported one of these, thus becoming the pioneer of mechanically-propelled private vehicles in Queensland. That was in 1892. In 1900 he imported the first internal combustion car brought Into Queensland. He has been driving cars ever since and has never had an accident. Trackson's Locomobile, Newmarket, Brisbane, ca.1903"I attribute my immunity from accidents," said Mr. Trackson. "to the fact that I have driven as if every other driver was deaf and blind, making liberal allowances for the fools." Mr. J. S. Badger, who, you remember, was head of our tramways here for many years, gave me that advice, and very good advice it was, too." Photograph taken in the side lane off the Foresters Hall in Brunswick Street. The car to the right was imported and carries Mr P Trackson, his wife and family. The car at the back was constructed by Harold Green, Chief Engineer of Trackson Bros. Pty. Ltd.Mr. Trackson has taken a keen practical interest in Jersey breeding, and indeed he nearly lost his life through a Jersey bull attacking him one day. Only the providential intervention of some workmen at Sedgley Grange saved him.In the days when capital punishment was on the statute books of Queensland, Mr. Trackson designed a system of drops which obviated the horrible spectacle of men being strangled instead of hung, and this scale was referred to as "Trackson's Drops." View of the pond at Tracksons property Sedgley Grange, 1903On the occasion of the Pearl ferry boat disaster in February, 1896. Mr. Trackson says he was responsible for the saving of lives through rushing to a nearby telephone and asking down-river places to look out for possible survivors. For a number of years Mr. Trackson was one of the honorary magistrates who assisted in the dispensing of justice in the old Police Court and Summons Court in Elizabeth Street. He often sat on the bench with Mr. Philip Pinnock, popularly known as "Pa" Pinnock, one of the most picturesque personalities who ever presided over the metropolitan minor courts. Police magistrate Philip PinnockJames Trackson died in 1941 and The Telegraph published an obituary which gives some additional information about James Trackson and his electrical company.Queensland had the first State-owned telephone exchange, and Mr. Trackson was one of the experts who established it. He was brought here for that purpose by the late Mr. Charles Hardie Buzacott, the then Postmaster-General. The southern Governments bought out the privately established exchanges in their capitals. Mr. Trackson also was engaged on the work of installing the electric light system at Parliament House, the dynamo for which was operated at the Government printing office which also was similarly lighted. Mr. Trackson, together with his brother William, founded the electrical business which still bears the name of Trackson Brothers. Mr. William Trackson died many years ago and his place was taken, by Mr. Phil. Trackson, another brother. Yorkshire steam wagons in front of Trackson Brothers Engineering Company, Brisbane, ca. 1909Trackson Brothers specialised in electrical equipment and later radio but also supplied steam wagons and tractors and other motor vehicles for a while. They also acquired a license to supply acytylene equipment on behalf of the Acytylene Company. The company were a major draw card and the Brisbane Exhibition in 1902 as described in the Brisbane Courier.Messrs. Trackson Bros., the noted electrical engineers, are quite a big factor in the success of the show, for it is with their assistance that a deal of the machinery is being worked. A 100 horse-power electrical generator, driven by a 550 volt tramway motor (lent by the Tramways Company), is providing energy for about nine motors working Industrial exhibits, also various lighting apparatus. Country visitors are naturally attracted by the Trackson Bros.' locomobile, which has just returned from a Northern trip of 2400 miles, during which the only repairs required were to the tires, and those only because of the awful condition of the roadState Library holds several volumes of photograph albums from the Trackson family presented to the library by James Trackson's daughter Winnie in 1943. The photographs date from 1879 to 1939 and feature their home at Newmarket and their motor vehicles. Also includes photographs from their travels interstate, intrastate and overseas and several Indigenous images. An unusual photograph from the Trackson Family albums showing James Trackson posing as a big game hunter at Higgins' Tiger Farm, ToombulTrackson Brothers have another connection with State Library in that they were awarded the contract to install electric lighting in the then Public Library of Queensland in 1906 as revealed in this recent blog story.Simon Miller - Library Technician, State Library of Queensland

Before the dawn of technological wonders such as GPS and the Internet, the humble road guide ruled supreme as the most effective tool for motorists planning a long distance journey. In the early 1930's one such guide was The Daily Mail motor road guide. Daily Mail Motor Road Guide, c.1930's. John Oxley Library, State Library of QueenslandIts own advertising proclaimed it to be the most complete road guide published in Australia . It also promoted the fact that the guide was "handy in size", making considerably easier to use than unwieldy fold-out maps as depicted in the comic below... Sunday Mail, April 20, 1930 Advertisement, Sunday Mail, December 28, 1930The guide contains 145 maps of various planned travel routes such as Brisbane to Southport via Beechmont; Brisbane to Ipswich and Lake Manchester; Ipswich to Gatton; and Clermont to Charters Towers. The road guide also includes maps to destinations in New South Wales and Victoria. Route from Gatton to Laidley. From The Daily Mail Motor Road Guide, c.1930s. John Oxley Library, State Library of QueenslandAccompanying each map is a "speedometer chart" (probably more accurately an odometer chart), which provides the motorist directions according to how far they have traveled. Along with street names, the chart also included landmarks such as schools, hotels and cemeteries. "Speedometer Chart" from Gatton to Laidley. The Daily Mail Motor Road Guide, c.1930s. John Oxley Library, State Library of QueenslandAccording to the guide the maps and charts were compiled by the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland (RACQ). A map of RACQ patrol routes and call stations for weekend motorists is also included. RACQ patrol routes and call stations. Daily Mail Motor Road Guide, c.1930's. John Oxley Library, State Library of QueenslandThe Daily Mail motor road guide also contains interesting advertisements for this period. The majority of these advertisements (bar the ones for whisky and beer) are aimed at travelling motorists, such as the one for the North Star Hotel in Ipswich that had lock-up garages for their guests, and one for the Griffiths Tea Rooms who supplied picnic hampers. Daily Mail Motor Road Guide, c.1930. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Daily Mail Motor Road Guide, c.1930. John Oxley Library, State Library of QueenslandThe Daiy Mail motor road guide (c.1930's) has been digitised and can be viewed in its entirety via our One Search catalogue.Happy motoring!Myles Sinnamon - Project Coordinator, State Library of Queensland

Guest blogger: Dr Hilary Davies, 2018 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellow.Between 1905 and 1929, the Canada Cycle and Motor Agency (Qld) Ltd (CCM) put Queenslanders on the road in a wide variety of motor vehicles. Owned by Queensland investors and headquartered in Brisbane, the CCM had branches in Rockhampton, Townsville and Lismore, and agents in towns throughout the State.This company formed after Alexander Vaughan Dodwell, the manager of the Brisbane branch of the Canada Cycle and Motor Company, took over that business in 1905.Based in Toronto, the Canada Cycle and Motor Company gained branches overseas in the late nineteenth century, when it formed from five Canadian companies. These included Massey Harris Co Ltd, which manufactured farm machinery and bicycles, and operated a Brisbane branch by 1893. Dodwell and the CCM Building in EJT Barton (ed), Jubilee History of Queensland, Diddams, Brisbane 1909 p302Soon the CCM was selling the Canadian ‘Russell’ car; a range of British cars including the reliable ‘Clement Talbot’; the Italian ‘F.I.A.T.’; and the French ‘Renault’. Queensland’s elite took to the road for work and pleasure. Motoring excursions to places of interest and beauty, such as the White’s Hill Kiosk on Brisbane’s southside, became popular. Talbot motor car parked at Whites Hill Brisbane 1911. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg #108195The CCM’s range of motorcycles, snapped up by shearers travelling between pastoral stations and by young men with a love of speed, included the British ‘Triumph’ and ‘B.S.A.’ and the USA’s ‘Indian’.The CCM sold chasses with custom-built bodies for ambulances, buses, and fire trucks. It supplied the Brisbane Ambulance Brigade’s first motorised ambulance in 1909, and that of the Ipswich Ambulance Brigade.It built the 30-seater ‘Commer’ bus used by Mr Canaan for the first motorised bus service between New Farm and North Quay in 1911. An ‘Albion’ bus from the CCM transported passengers in the vicinity of Jundah in western Queensland by about 1912. Albion truck advertising Williamson & Coy. Jundah ca 1912. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Neg #169428In the years to come, more and more Queenslanders took to the road in motorised vehicles, and the CCM widened its range of makes and models.For further information about the project or to contribute any memories or connections to the CCM contact State Library of Queensland at slqevents@slq.qld.gov.au or 3840 7424.To see more images of the CCM and its vehicles, go to Flickr: Canada Cycle & Motor Agency Flickr setUsing the State Library Queensland's One Search catalogue you can explore resources connected to this interesting Queensland company via this tag Canada Cycle & Motor Agency Hilary Davies is the recipient of the 2018 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellowship for her project Putting Queenslanders on the Road: The Canada Cycle and Motor Agency Ltd. Through examining the collections of the State Library of Queensland, this project will endeavour to make the Canada Cycle and Motor Agency’s achievements, its employees, and its importance in Queensland’s business landscape visible.ReferencesBarton, E.J.T. Jubilee History of Queensland: a record of political industrial and social development from the landing of the first explorers to the close of 1909. Diddams, Brisbane, 1909, p. 302.Brisbane Courier: ‘Canada Cycle and Motor Agency Ltd’, 16 Dec 1905, p. 11; ‘Canada Cycle and Motor Agency, Limited’, 8 Aug 1906, p. 13; ‘The Motor Boom’, 2 Feb 1907, p. 11; ‘Notable Exhibits’, 14 Aug 1907, p. 13; ‘Studebaker Automobiles’, 29 Feb 1912, p. 7; ‘Motor Cycle Record’, 16 Sep 1914, p. 3.Darling Downs Gazette: ‘Exhibits’, 5 Aug 1893 p. 3,McKenty, John A. Canada Cycle and Motor: The CCM Story 1899-1983, Essence Publishing, Perth, Canada, 2011 (digital copy), pp. 77-8, 85.Queensland Country Life, 1 Oct 1910, p. 17, ‘Canada Cycle and Motor Agency’.State Library of Queensland: Image 64779, ‘Advertisement for CCM (Qld) Ltd 1910’; Image ‘Albion truck advertising Williamson & Coy, Jundah, ca.1912’, online.Telegraph: ‘Talbot Motorcars’, 27 Mar 1909, p. 8; ‘Great Show of Motor Cars’, 25 Mar 1911, p. 17; ‘C.C.M. Agency’, Telegraph, 1 Apr 1911, p. 18.The Pastoralist Review, 15 Jul 1910. The Canada Cycle and Motor Agency Ltd was superseded by the Canada Cycle and Motor Agency (Queensland) Ltd in 1908, through an increase in the company’s capital.

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