Armchair Travelling: Voyages and Journeys in State Library Collections, page 2

Oh murder! what was that, Papa! My child, it was a motor car...

The invention of the motor car changed travel for everyone. Early 20th century photographs record some of the perils of motoring by the intrepid. The cars often had flimsy collapsible roofs, tyres subject to endless punctures, and easily became bogged on muddy or sandy roads. Arthur Joseph Dease, an Irish gentleman with a camera, recorded a motoring trip around Victoria in 1905. Travelling in the 'ingenious toy' required dustcoats and goggles for men, coats and hats with motoring veils for the women. At Christmas, when they undertook this trip, the Dease party must have sweltered in the heat and been choked with dust on the road. 

When Kathleen Howell and Jean Robertson drove an open Lancia Lambda from Melbourne to Darwin in 1927 they were accompanied by a fox terrier called Barney and Miss Robertson took the photographs, which are now in the Library's collection. They too got bogged in the sand and were attacked by insects, although their clothing - jodhpurs and riding boots - was more accommodating to the climate than that of previous decades. Far from being discouraged by this journey, the two women and a party of friends set off in 1931 to drive to Europe to take part in the 1932 Monte Carlo Rally.

Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.

Travellers' tales and trails within Victoria are documented through the Library's extensive collection of postcards. The front of the card usually pictured the place visited while the messages on the back reminded the recipient that he or she was in the traveller's mind - at least while the card was being written. Comic cards, many of them quite risque, depicted the perils of the horseless carriage, cycling and the horrors of a seaside holiday with squalling children, bullying landladies and the traveller's worst expectations fulfilled. Most of the Victorian postcards can be viewed through the Library's catalogue.

We're off on the road to Morocco!

The armchair traveller's itinerary can proceed peacefully through sheet and recorded music in the Arts Collection. Tramp, tramp, tramp along the highway goes the traveller on foot, while the unfortunate motorist might 'have to get under - get out and get under to fix up his automobile' or be terrorised by a Road Hog. Better to wait on the Bus Stop, Take the A Train or the Chattanooga Choo Choo. By this time, the weary traveller might be inclined to take the song writer's advice to Stay in your own backyard.

But seriously...

There are many ways for the interested person to find records of travel in the Library. The collection holds guidebooks, accounts of journeys, illustrated books on many regions of the world, including the unusual, rare or unique.