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Collection

The National Motor Museum is the recognised centre in Australia for the research, recording and preservation of all aspects of Australia’s road motor transport history. With a collection comprising 400 cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles, the National Motor Museum is home to an internationally acclaimed collection of vintage, veteran and classic vehicles.          

But the collection is about more than the vehicles; it is also about the people behind the vehicles. The owners, drivers and designers of vehicles as well as those who helped build and sell them.

Here you can inspect the vehicles that helped to shape both Australia’s motoring and social history and discover some of the unique stories behind them.

One of the most interesting and historically important vehicles in the collection is the 1899 Shearer, the oldest Australian built vehicle still running. Built at Mannum in South Australia, this bulky steam-powered car was probably the first vehicle manufactured in South Australia.

The Talbot, which first crossed the continent from south to north in 1908, is featured in a magnificent display tracing the epic 51 day journey from Adelaide to Darwin and which comprises stunning photographs as well as some fascinating and evocative oral recollections.

The stories of the people behind the vehicles give a fascinating perspective to life in Australia. The display of the restored hawker’s van is a fine illustration of this. Between 1928 and 1954, Harry Monsoor, a Lebanese-born hawker, drove the 1927 Graham Brothers’ van and become the life line of food and supplies to the people of far northern South Australia. Harry Monsoor’s van was restored by the National Motor Museum in 1989.

Its not only the earliest Australian vehicles that are presented at the National Motor Museum. The very first Holden, the prototype of the Mitsubishi Magna as well as the new Holden Monaro are but some of the vehicles which are part of  the make up of one of the most comprehensive and exciting collections in the world.