Retracing Australia’s First Commercial Motor Tour
These days, most people think you need a lifted 4WD, chunky mud tyres, MaxTrax, a winch, light bars, a UHF, fridge and just about every off-road accessory money can buy before tackling the Australian outback.
Brenton “BT” Taylor and Brenton “BW” Whittenbury have proven that the mod cons aren’t all that necessary.
The pair have just returned to Adelaide after driving a 100-year-old Studebaker more than 7,000 kilometres to Darwin and back, tackling everything from the Birdsville Track and flooded creek crossings to endless corrugations along the way.
Remarkably, the century-old Studebaker barely missed a beat.
Two Blokes, A Coffee And A Crazy Idea
Like plenty of great country adventures, this one started with a couple of blokes having a coffee.
About two-and-a-half years ago, BW mentioned a dream he’d carried for years.
His great-grandfather, Clarence Judd, had travelled across Australia in 1926 as an amateur filmmaker, documenting a remarkable expedition led by tourism pioneer Captain Edward Bagot in two brand new seven seater Studebakers.
BW had inherited the original camera, the historic film footage and the story that went with it. Now he wanted to recreate the trip. All he needed was someone equally mad enough to say yes.
Rewinding The Clock 100 Years
The pair purchased and had a 1925 Studebaker restored before setting off to retrace the original route along the old Overland Telegraph Line. A second Studebaker Special Six from New South Wales joined them for much of the journey before heading home.
A century ago, Captain Bagot’s expedition became Australia’s first commercial motor tour across the continent — a luxury holiday unlike anything Australians had seen before.
Passengers paid £100 for the privilege. Today, that’s about $8,000.
To help conquer the vast distance and level up the luxury offering, the original tour combined road travel with sections aboard the Ghan between Marree and Oodnadatta, and from Katherine to Darwin.
“It was the yin and the yang of luxury,” BT laughed.
“No windows was considered a luxury because you had all that fresh air. But sitting inside now, it still feels luxurious. It’s got reading lights, footrests and seats seven people.”
While the Studebaker turned plenty of heads, BT reckons the real star of the trip was the countryside itself.
“Driving into Alice Springs five weeks ago, you could’ve been in Switzerland,” he said.
“There wasn’t any snow, but everything was lush and green. And coming back down last week, you’d swear you were in South Australia’s South East. It was staggering, what an amazing place.”
History Came Alive at Farina
Just as the original crew had done 100 years earlier, the Brentons stopped for refreshments at Farina — a place that would have looked very different to the travellers of 1926.
There, they were able to show members of Farina’s restoration group footage of the town 100 years ago, when it was still a bustling railway settlement.
“There were plenty of places along the way that we could compare (from the movie) what it was back then to what we could see today,” BT said.
But one thing that hadn’t changed was the toughness of the century old Studebaker. Apart from a broken rim and a radiator fan repaired in Copley, “Big Red” handle the outback without too much fuss at all.
The carefully planned re-enactment exceeded “the Brentons” wildest dreams.
“We were over the moon,” BT said. “It exceeded our wildest dreams and expectations.”
From 1926 to 2026 – to $26k for RFDS
As if retracing one of Australia’s greatest motoring adventures wasn’t enough, the pair decided to raise money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service along the way.
Their target was $26,000. Mission accomplished.
That’s a pretty solid effort for a couple of blokes who caught up for a coffee and decided to go on an adventure!
