Grit: an Epic Journey Across the World - Francis Edwin Birtles

On 26 July 1928, Francis Edwin Birtles completed the first successful journey from London to Melbourne in a motor car.

The epic journey in a 16hp Bean took more than nine months to complete.

According to motoring writer Peter Wherrett, Frank, Birtles has not received the same amount of recognition that Bert Hinkler, and other contemporaries received when they made and broke flying records.

Wherrett, in his book Grit, chronicles Birtles many adventures both in Australia and overseas. Birtles was the first person to ride a bicycle from Perth to Sydney in 1906, first person to travel by motor car (a Model T Ford) from Sydney to Cape York and back and many more . All his adventures were self-funded.

Birtles was married twice: the first was annulled within twelve months and the second to Neo Long, which lasted until Birtles death in 1947.

It was an interview with Mrs Long in 1981 that set Wherrett on a 25 year journey of discovery of the man, who he said was arguably ‘the greatest adventurer by motor car Australia has ever known. "

Birtles suffered unimaginable deprivation during the London to Melbourne journey, including being attacked by starving wolves, stalked by bears, food shortages, lack of money, having to physically build parts of the road to travel through Burma (now Myanmar) and nearly losing the Bean while crossing the Ganges River.

But Birtles said he suffered most at the hands of Australian Customs when on arrival in Darwin, they refused to release the Bean. "It makes me ashamed to be an Australian’ he is reported to have said in the Northern Territory Times.

He arrived in Darwin with no travel papers for the Bean and when he explained that they had rotted away in the monsoon in India, Customs were less than sympathetic.

It took a telegram from the then Australian Prime Minister, Stanley Melville Bruce, ordering the car's release that Birtles was able to continue his epic journey to Melbourne.

Birtles donated the Bean nicknamed Sundowner to the people of Australia and it now on display at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

Wherrett with the publication of Grit has gone someway to give Birtles the just recognition he so richly deserves.

Grit an epic journey across the world (Ibis $29.95)

Graham Gittins

Pictured is Peter Wherret beside the Bean in the National Museum of Australia - Canberra

I thought I recognised the name. Birtles features in The Age of Motoring Adventure, a collection of extracts put together by TR Nicholson.

Nicholson included extracts from the following books:

The Long Lead by MH Ellis, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1927. covering a Sydney Daily Telegraph sponsored expedition from Sydney to Darwin in a red 14hp Bean named 'The Scarlet Runner'
Express to Hindustan by MH Ellis, John Lane the Bodley Head, London 1929. This describes Driving through the Balkans with Birtles in one extract and crossing the desert from Persia to Baluchistan in another, both in a Bean Imperial Six named 'Scrap Iron' in 1927 during an attempt to drive from England to Australia that got as far as India.
Battle Fronts of Outback by Francis Birtles, Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1935. Two extracts: one describing a gold prospecting trip in SW Queensland in an unnamed car, and the other describing tackling the Persian mountains in winter in his Bean, the 'Sundowner', en route from England to Australia in 1928

Quite a man!

Originally posted by D-Type
I thought I recognised the name. Birtles features in The Age of Motoring Adventure, a collection of extracts put together by TR Nicholson.

Nicholson included extracts from the following books:

[The Long Lead by MH Ellis, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1927. covering a Sydney Daily Telegraph sponsored expedition from Sydney to Darwin in a red 14hp Bean named 'The Scarlet Runner'
Express to Hndustan by MH Ellis, John Lane the Bodley Head, London 1929. This describes Driving through the Balkans with Birtles in one extract and crossing the desert from Persia to Baluchistan in another, both in a Bean Imperial Six named 'Scrap Iron' in 1927 during an attempt to drive from England to Australia that got as far as India.
I]Battle Fronts of Outback[/I] by Francis Birtles, Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1935. Two extracts: one describing a gold prospecting trip in SW Queensland in an unnamed car, and the other describing tackling the Persian mountains in winter in his Bean, the 'Sundowner', en route from England to Australia in 1928

Quite a man!

Thank you for the cross references....good to see certain peoples exploits are being written down