COLONIAL CAPERS

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING IN OUR VICTORIAN-ERA WATER JUDGING BY THE SUBSEQUENT CAREERS OF THESE VISITORS FROM THE SCEPTRED ISLE

- ROB BLACKBOURN

THE INTERESTING little Wolseley electric-fence sign (pictured) caught my eye as I helped tidy up a local property. It interested me because I’ve long been aware that Dublin-born Frederick Wolseley had invented a successful mechanical sheepshearing machine here in the colonies as a young bloke in the pre-motor-car Victorian era. The Wolseley shearing-machine business he established in Australia ultimately gave birth to Wolseley Motors Limited in the UK. But a Wolseley electric fence was something new altogether…

As I parked near the newsagent on the way home a 1929 Austin 7 Chummy tourer pulled in behind me – not a thing that happens every day. So as you do, I chatted with new acquaintance John Needham about his Seven. Readers may recall an early Unique Cars column of mine about my own student-days Austin 7 misadventures in the cockpit of another version of the mighty two-main-bearing 1929 model, a two-seater Meteor sports. It turns out that John has a long connection with classic cars and motorsport and that many readers will know him from the ‘Old Car Gearboxes’ business in Moorabbin (Vic). When I mentioned my Wolseley-sign find and Wolseley’s connection with colonial Australia, John reminded me that Herbert Austin had also spent time here as a young fella before returning to the UK to make his significant automotive mark.