Grey Nomads and other
adventurers take delight in driving around Australia today, pulling their caravans or stopping at the many motels
available to them.
The roads are fully sealed and signposted, and travel is relatively easy as they whizz along in their air-conditioned vehicles.
But roads in the early 1920s, particularly in the north-west of Australia, were generally nothing more than dirt tracks through the scrub. There were few maps and even fewer, if any, signposts and the journey could be quite hazardous.
Yet Nevill Westwood was eager to share the gospel. His trips using a bicycle and then a motorcycle seemed to have whetted his appetite for more adventure, and he was keen to set off again in 1925. Only this time he decided to upgrade even further and use
a motor car.
Nevill did some careful research and decided to buy a 1923 Citroën 5CV two-seater. It had been manufactured in France and was called the ‘petit citron’ or ‘little lemon’ because at first it was only available in bright yellow! Citroën had established itself as a major producer of low-priced mass-produced cars in Europe, which meant it was a car Nevill could afford.
Fortunately the tiny car was also cheap to run, simple to drive and had good ground clearance – a valuable feature on the rough Australian roads. By 1923 the Citroën was available in other colours, and Nevill’s car was a deep red model. 1
Because of its ‘cute’ size the little Citroën had also been dubbed the ‘baby Citroën’ and Nevill gleefully called his new acquisition ‘Bubsie.’
Nevill seemed to enjoy inventing nicknames. His sister’s name was Ethyl, but he affectionately called her ‘Ethylene,’ a chemical used for ripening fruit and vegetables!
Nevill’s preowned car already had 48,000 kilometres on it, but Nevill was still exuberant and persuaded 24-year-old Greg Davies, a fellow student from Carmel College, to go with him. The men couldn’t take much with them. For a start, both were tall. Nevill was six-foot-three and Greg measured an inch taller, so it would have been a very tight fit as they squeezed their long legs into the front of the car.
As for the tiny boot – it’s a wonder they could fit in enough food, water, extra petrol, tools, books and clothes they would have had to take with them! The spare wheels were fastened on the running board on the driver’s side, so the only way to clamber out of the car was through the left-hand door!
They could pull the canvas hood over the open car, but there were no windows to protect them from the rain, and certainly no air-conditioning. There was no way to keep out the dust that swirled around them as they drove. There were no motels where they could stop for a meal and shower, and no takeaways to satisfy their hunger. They had to depend on the hospitality of the station owners as they puttered along the rutted tracks, or dig into their own meagre supplies to keep them going.
They wisely chose to begin their journey in winter, but the weather in the outback could still be uncomfortably hot in the middle of the day and very cold at night. Yet the men bravely set out into the unknown, secure in the knowledge that they were doing God’s work and He would take care of them.
Nevill Westwood and Bubsie at the Rabbit-proof Fence
REFERENCES:
1. Citroën: 100 years of audacity and innovation. Retrieved from https://www.citroen.co.uk/about-citroen/history.html
