The Plan

The Count is going round Australia!

That is the long held plan, alright probably naive and downright mad, though it has been done before so there is nothing new here in this. No new ground will be made and no records broken at all, it will just be a trip to see what is to be seen and to experience “something different”. Obviously I am not so naïve that I would just jump in and head off, the car does require some work and perhaps it is time for those new chassis rails and the gearbox could use a rebuild as it is already throwing itself out of gear when under load in third gear. Definitely a new round of brake cylinders and shoes will find their way in there and so too a new radiator, with an electric fan as well. Whilst I am mostly happy to keep the car in fairly standard condition I have installed electronic ignition and the electric fan is a must to go in, there is additionally a heater and steering column form a Mini and smaller steering wheel. I feel they are useful and necessary modifications though are keeping with the main purpose of the vehicle. Why make these changes at all you may ask, well the car used to burn through points at an alarming rate thus the ignition, the steering wheel well I am 6’3” and it certainly makes it somewhat easier to get into and drive. As to the electric fan, well who knows what will be encountered temperature wise and after all it is only a 948cc engine, come on it needs any assistance in power it can get by removing the original fan blades don’t you think?

What items to bring along though is a matter given the size of the boot space and the fact that I don’t wan to be carrying anything in the actual car other than a radio, phone and iPod, where would we be without Apple. Obviously there are going to be spares coming along on the trip, though as yet I have not decided what items and how mad to go with the spares. I am a firm believer in blind faith and in all my travels have only ever been let down, to the point of not being able to get to assistance, twice by a car, out of the many cars I have had (which really is quite a ridiculous number), and that was an EH Holden, homicidal beast that was, who says that cars don’t have personalities. So once I find some decent radial tyres to fit the original rims, sorry no I don’t want cross-ply ones anymore, I will probably take two spares and several inner tubes as well, a fan belt or two and a full set of hoses, possibly an emergency windscreen sheet and a head gasket though not really sure what else. Let’s face it being stuck somewhere and waiting for spares from Sydney may possibly be a pain depending on where the actual waiting takes place, but realistically what is there in the way of spare parts that I can’t get mailed to me anywhere if the need arises, even from the UK if necessary! To the matter of spare fuel and a sizeable collection of tools, well that goes without mentioning really doesn’t it? Oh and water, lots of coolant for the car and lots of water for me, you never know. There is a distinct possibility that I actually did learn something in the Scouts after all, who would have thought. Further I need to load in a light weight two person tent and such light camping equipment to get by and with that lot in the boot I think that I should be set and actually I think it may all just fit into the boot with some careful packing too.

Prior to commencing the journey the Count will be off for to visit an auto electrician and have some extra fuses and relays installed for the electric fan and to have some H4 headlights wired up. Travelling into Queenstown in the rain and fog on the Tasmanian trip drew attention to why everyone refers to Lucas as the Prince of Darkness! I once heard or read someone refer to the lights as being as effective as two damp glow worms in jam jars, a more apt description I could not imagine, to be honest they are useless and actually dangerous. On the subject of lights the front side lights on the Count were replaced with later 1000 model combined parking and indicator units specifically as no one seemed to be able to see the previous set of later addition indicator units and as the front guards had been replaced with pattern parts (which quite frankly were a rubbish fit) and had larger apertures for the lights in them. The rear lights are still the original ones, though I have toyed with the idea of replacing them with the large combined indicator and brake light units from later vehicles, and even bought a pair to fit to the Count, I have decided I don’t like the look of them so I have added a neat pair of chrome LED lights discretely under the rear bumper for indicators. It’s amazing how bright they actually are and it is certainly handy what you can use Harley Davidson parts for.
So finally I have made a decision which is that I will be undertaking this journey in 2014. I feel that if I don’t plan to do it at some stage then I will not do it at all especially as I have been talking about this trip for so many years. To this end I have been looking at maps and thinking about distances and costs and such the like and am starting to get things together. I have quickly thrown together a spreadsheet to figure out the distances involved and average fuel usage and the possible and somewhat scary cost of said fuel. There is always a chance that the trip won’t happen as planned and though hopefully there is a greater chance it will, after all anything is possible. Currently the plan is that it will be done during the winter of 2014. This of course means that at some stage before winter 2014 I am going to need to get the car down to Melbourne and have it registered in Victoria, which I must admit, scares me.

The registration process doesn’t really scare me as much as it worries me to be honest, you see the car still has its original windscreens in it, yes two windscreens, it’s a 1955 so has a split screen. I have not yet had a car in Victoria that I have been able to sell or buy that has not needed its windscreen replaced for registration, maybe there is something going on with Vic Roads and the windscreen suppliers in Victoria who knows, it’s just strange that I have never had this windscreen changing problem before. I know your thinking, original glass what on earth, and yes it is “safety’ glass and as such not the greatest thing when I could have newer laminated glass in the car. I say to you it was an amazing effort to get the glass into the car following its repaint, it involved huge blocks of wood and hydraulic jacks and lots and lots of liberally used swearing! I mean who knew the roof would drop that much from taking the windscreen out? It isn’t something I never want to do again and so unless the people I take it to for the chassis rails replacement know how to do it or someone that can, then I really don’t know who to send it to, because I certainly am not going there again! Mind the back window probably needs a new seal and refit anyway, but let’s face it that is no where near as difficult as the front windscreen!

So the planning so far has shown that it will probably be somewhere in the region of 30,236 kilometres around and then back up and through the centre as well, which means back tracking for substantial distance so as to resume the circumnavigation. Really though what is a trip around Australia without crossing the centre as well, ok north to south as I think that east to west or the other way round is probably asking too much of the Morris at this time, after all it is now 57 years old! Just thought, given the age of the car means that I have owned the Count for 22 years now! That is amazing! That in itself is good reason for planning the trip I feel, can’t make it 30 years ownership and not have done something I started talking about at the 10 year mark can I!

Thinking about what is the deciding factor that makes me want to do this in the first place? Well not actually sure of the answer to that, I have been up and down the east coast of Australia quite a bit and visited a lot of places along the way. I have made tracks across a lot of Tasmania as well and not to forget the thrilling Hay Plains and the coast route around Victoria to Adelaide several times, all in various cars. The fall down factor I guess is that I have only been to Perth and Darwin for a few days each once and no where else in SA WA or NT, which I guess is not great as there is really so much to see all over the country. Thus the thinking process I guess would be that it is time to fix that, in between travels over to Europe and places exotic! When you think about it I have actually visited a lot more of this country that some folk ever do, and as such I don’t get all choked up when people say that you should see your own country before you travel over seas. I mean yes indeed you should get about and see as much of the country that you can as it helps you to appreciate just what you have at home. Usually I find though that the people that say this in their wisdom are from countries that are about an eighth the size of Australia and my theory is that if “they” were to only see all of Australia first “they” probably would not ever get to see the wonders over seas as well, when they are young enough to see them. After all “they” have to remember that there are only a few countries as large and diverse as Australia in this world. So to see all of Australia before one can jet of to lands foreign could arguably take an entire life time, it becomes a matter of priorities and the things that mean most to the traveller in question I guess.

Furthering the question I suppose would be why would anyone undertake such a lengthy journey in a Morris Minor? The most obvious answer to that would have to be simply I have a Morris Minor, so why not use it? There is an obvious suggestion that if I have to do this trip it would be much more comfortable in a modern car, though would the trip be as much fun? Not that I foresee that it is going to go completely smoothly and that there will be no problems with the car I mean lets face facts it is after all an old car, perhaps that part of the trip will make it more memorable. A modern car is of course safer and faster and quieter, though would that in itself make for a much more interesting trip? I am hoping in this instance that it will be safe anyway as I won’t be trying to set a land speed record and the Count always stands out in a crowd, aside from the shape of it, in that it has lots of chrome as well which hopefully should make it more obvious to see. As the Count only has a heater and no air conditioning so I shall have to have the windows open so in effect that will make the trip a little more “connected” with the landscape, perhaps. Driving along with the windows closed in a quiet air conditioned bubble would just seem totally disassociated, after all it is not just the destinations visited rather it’s the trip to get there as well. I tend to find when driving the “modern” that it is more about getting there and as soon as possible, not what is along the way. Perhaps driving the Count will be more conducive to stopping and taking some photos of  anything interesting that may turn up along the route, rather than just getting to the next place and doing the tourist stuff and moving on to the next tourist trap. 

So I guess now is as good a time as any to try and come up with the details that I am planning on for the trip. Well the Morris has already done a circuit of Tasmania, so the jury is still out as to whether it will be included as part of this trip. Really it should be because how can you say you’re driving around Australia and not include driving around Tasmania as well in that trip? So far I have not yet calculated into the figures adding Tasmania to the route, which will additionally require a return journey on the Spirit of Tasmania to be included. This of course is subsidised by the government (well the cost of the cars journey is subsidised, not the passengers) as technically the journey is part of the National highway. Another matter is that while the trip is technically “Around Australia”, wouldn’t the trip be lacking in itself without crossing north to south through the “centre” as well, which of course adds an extra 6086 kilometres to the trip. Mind what is 6086 kilometres when we are talking an approximate distance of 30,236 kilometres anyway?
To get a better idea of the distance I have been onto www.travelaroundaustralia.com and have come up with the following information from there for a planning exercise:


So given that information we can attempt to come up with useful data for the trip which would include estimates of distance, amount of fuel and its costs and time duration to undertake the travel (not that the duration is in anyway achievable with a 1955 Morris Minor and only one person travelling). Noting of course that hopefully petrol won’t cost that figure at most of the place I will be, but may as well plan for the cost to be high and then it should not be too scary when it comes to the end, we can average out over the high and low places:


Now in an ideal world scenario this would all be just lovely and work out just as we want it to, though there is no possibility that a 1955 Morris Minor is going to be able to travel non stop for day after day at the maximum speed limit. Actually it will be lucky to be able to get to the national limit and prolonged travel at such speed would certainly lead to the untimely demise of the engine, not that it would be possible for the driver to travel day after day with out break anyway. Obviously though this is for planning as it certainly isn’t likely that there will be no side trips either that are certainly going to bump up the distances to cover.

Unfortunately being realistic for a time, there is no chance in the whole duration of the trip that something is not going to happen to such an old car that it won’t need to be repaired or towed or something such which will require stops. There is no possibility that the driver (i.e. myself) is going to be able to drive non stop for day after day and I would not want to anyway as what is the point of going if not to stop and see things and just to enjoy the landscape and take a few pictures too. All up I guess this means that I am not really sure how long all of this is going to take to actually do, obviously I am time constrained by the requirement to be at work as leave can only take one so far. Luckily enough I do have some long service leave up now and I should hopefully be able to utilise some of that. The plan though is not to use all my leave allocation and maybe only go for a couple of months, to be honest I am not sure of this point, it is going to require some time spent on thought. Perhaps I am being overly ambitious that I will actually be able to just saunter around Australia in  1955 Morris Minor, with plenty of time for stopping to check anything out that interests me and take photos and spend some time and still do it all in just a couple of months. Ok yes thinking about it is really quite unrealistic, but without an imposed time limit it could just go on for ages and ages. Sometimes a deadline can make for a much better journey and I have never been one to just sit around on holiday, not when there is so much to see and do in this country and really the world over. One has to get on with it or one will run out of time to see it all, don’t you think? That I believe would be quite sad.