Home; Return to the Mother Ship

Because of the heat, the distance and the load, we took an extra day to get home and managed to unload Wallace into a garage before the rain started.

With the sound of rain on the roof and thankfully a more tolerable temperature, a cup of tea in hand we truly felt we had travelled to the edge of the solar system.

Now, back on Earth the reality sets in. We have still got a way to go before we can say we aimed for the stars and got there, so this is why we've started this blog. To share the journey. Don't expect regular posts from now on. We'll add bits and pieces as we achieve more milestones. The first of them might start in a few more weeks when Doug's brother will come to advise us and maybe help in installing the new/reconditioned 1000 motor. Judy's been put in charge of the interior, relining, fitting the seats and finishing off the dash. Doug's in charge of the exterior and mechanical side of things. We have many other projects under way including more work on Lucy and the caboosey in preparation for the Nationals in Port Macquarie, in April, so apart from the above motor work, we don't anticipate any other work to start until after our Muster in June and a trip we have planned in July. Until then...

On our way to Tamworth, we had noticed a sign about the world's biggest model solar system and had seen some bill boards with hemi-sphere planets on them. On the way back we stopped at Coonabarabran Tourist Centre and read all about it. Starting from Siding Spring Observatory (the sun) and radiating out along 5 roads from there, are scale models, these hemi-spheres that we had seen on the way, of the planets. The size and distance between each model is to a scale 1: 38 million, making it "The World's Largest Virtual Solar System". We decided it was appropriate to photograph "Wallace" at the four last planets between Coonabarabran and Dubbo.

Wallacetown is an abandonded roadhouse/pub and a rest area north of Wagga Wagga.

And so we made it back to Tamworth.

All packed up ready to leave.

From Table Top to Tamworth, Towards Toowoomba

" Aim for the stars. If you only make it as far as the moon, at least you've got further than staying on Earth!"

So, we had our Tourer (or at least Bruce Perry's convertible!) now for the next and possibly the last step towards the dream.
John Dobson is a Kiwi and Morris enthusiast, living in Toowoomba. In 2008 he imported from New Zealand a 1954 Traveller, partially restored. The body was in good condition, in need of some cosmetics in some places, with new wood work. Work had been done on the 850 motor and other mechanicals. The seats had been re-upholstered. All it needed, virtually, was to be re-assembled as most of the bits and pieces were in the back.
Since the purchase of Lucy, Doug's brother, an A30 enthusiast, had had one of Bonnie's motors rebuilt for us. Now, Bonnie's present motor was in good order and there was certainly nothing wrong with Lucy's, so we had a spare motor which we were assured would go like a beauty with nowhere to put it! All Travellers at the time were either fully restored and available for between $21000 and $36000 or needed too much work for us to handle. Recently retired, we decided to take the plunge with John's car, which had not been registered in Australia, for fear that we may never have the chance again.
After consultation with club president Bill, who has a woody himself, and who offered advice and help if needed, and a car trailer, we were off to Toowoomba. The floods had gone but we hit a heat wave which delivered 40deg temperatures for a week. We made camp at Tamworth after 12 hours of travel and headed off bright and early to Toowoomba. It ended up being a long day but well worth it. The scenery was beautiful compared to the 15 years of drought that we were used to (Doug and I used to live in Muswellbrook when we were first married). John and wife Leslie were a lovely couple and they used to have a Pug (dog, we have 3!!) called Rangi!
Euphoric after our purchase, we stopped at Warwick for a coffee before we started the long trek back to Tamworth. There we sat, with silly smiles on our faces. Should we name this new addition to the family? Originally we thought we were going to have to respray this woody and we thought light blue would be suitable and then a good Aussie name, "Blue". Then we'd be taking our Bluey when we went Travelling. But the dark Clarendon Grey was starting to grow on us and we were thinking we should honour its Kiwi heritage so we started going through some Kiwi names. Bruce?...no! Ian?...no, (that's my brother's name)  Hugh? Evan? Kiwi? How about Rangi? A pug is cute like a Morry!...hhmmm! Maybe!! What was the name of the fellow in Footrot Flats?? Not Pew, that was the Magpie! Not Cooch, that was his mate. Not Murphy, they were nasty! What about Maui?  That's one of the Maori peoples' legendary characters after whom we had named our toy Kiwi and who the chain of campervans were also named. Hmmm! Possibly!

Back on the road and heading out of Warwick, the Navman advises "in 500 metres, at the next intersection, turn left. Wallace St" ...WALLACE!!! WAL!! Where's Wally?!! Wallace and Grommit! The name, like the colour, slowly grew on us during the long hours (7) back to Tamworth in the still 28deg heat at midnight!

Aiming for the Stars

Bonnie was our introduction to the AWMMCC and we enjoyed a couple of years driving her at the Mighty Murray Morry Musters. But the step towards owning our "dream machine" needed to be taken so we started looking for either a Tourer or a Traveller. On line, or was it in Just Cars? can't remember now, we found Bruce Perry in Canberra with his crazy little "hot rod", yellow with flames, Tourer. A good Tourer was becoming hard to come by. We liked the high lights and were wary of chop tops, being alerted to them by Noel from the club. Noel had also seen Bruce's car and recommended it to us. It was love at first sight for Doug and it wasn't long until Little Lucifer, "the firey one", later to be known as Lucy, joined the family.

It was difficult getting Lucy registered in NSW due to all her modifications. She has a Datsun 1400 motor which was the 1st problem (officially too big for a modification), she was "too noisy" (though certainly not as noisy as some Harleys!!) and needed more seat belts. Decorative lights had to be wired in and nose cones removed but with the help of Noel, who with his then father-in-law Bill, had restored some 60 odd Morries, after about 18 months, she was on the road!

Not content with just driving her for fun, because she is a great little car and a joy to drive, because of her bigger motor and the fact that she had a tow bar, we decided to buy her a friend.

Lucy's caboosey is an AVan Weekender, 350kg, virtually a bed on wheels with a sleeved annex that slips over the rear opening door. There were two in the yard in Parkes where we bought it. I've seen one other for sale since, but that's all. A rare find?! Since then we've added a few things, like a small microwave (it has 240V) and TV and we also have a little cooler/warmer fridge. So now we're set up with all the basics!

Lucy draws a bit of attention when we're out and about, from happy smiles and waves from children we pass to thumbs up from passing motorists. But one comment we hear regularly from other Morris enthusiasts is "Oh! That's Bruce Perry's car" or Bruce Perry's convertible was at such and such rally. This still grates as we have owned the car for 5 years now. So there was only one thing left to do...get a car that would be recognised as truly being ours and ours alone!

We belong to the Albury Wodonga Morris Minor Car Club, but we haven't always lived in this area. Ever since we became aware of the Wollongong Morris Minor Club, which used to use our road in Kangaroo Valley as part of their annual run, we have dreamed of owning either a Tourer or a Traveller. As the achievement of the dream came gradually closer, with a move to Albury, we decided to try to buy our first Morris. Travellers and Tourers were either too expensive, rare or too delapidated at the time, so we settled for a little four door highlight which had been rebuilt from several cars. It came with two trailer loads of spare panels and parts and the name "Bonnie"