The first Queensland-made car was manufactured in Toowoomba 125 years ago. I told a version of this story live on Darling Downs radio 4AK.
The Trevethan was a motor buggy with apparently a one-and-a-half horsepower, single cylinder engine, and was the first Queensland-made car.
It was designed and built by brothers Thomas and Walter Trevethan in their Coach Works in Neil Street, Toowoomba. Construction started 125 years ago in 1901 and was finished the following year.
In 1903 the car was driven down the Toowoomba range and onto Redcliffe on the northside of Brisbane. The lack of engine oil and primitive engineering back then made long journeys like that a massive achievement. In 1915 the car was seriously damaged after being charged by bullocks.
The builders of the car were Thomas and Walter Trevethan and their uncle Adolphus Trevethan was killed by Aboriginals in 1852. He was the manager of the cattle property Rawbelle, near Eidsvold in the Upper Burnett district.
Their father was Thomas Trevethan Snr who in 1888 was the 22nd mayor of Toowoomba. He was born in Plymouth, Devonshire, England. He did a blacksmithing apprenticeship in Toowoomba, and in 1863 established the Toowoomba Coach Factory which became the most reputable provincial factories in Queensland.
The factory, first in Ruthven Street and then Neil Street, was proudly signposted as being “by appointment to His Excellency Sir H.W. Norman KCB”. Sir Henry was a senior Indian Army officer who served in the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the Indian Mutiny, and was the Governor of Queensland.
Thomas Snr was just forty-five years old when he died, leaving a widow and twelve children, the oldest of whom, a daughter, was only eighteen years of age. Ownership of the coach factory passed onto the family.
Walter was his oldest son, and Walter’s wife Eva also died unexpectedly, leaving him to raise four children of his own, the youngest just three months of age. The wife was the granddaughter of the Rector of Heslerton in Yorkshire, England, and Librarian to Knights of the Garter at St. George’s Windsor Castle. The Knights of the Garter is the world’s oldest national order of knighthood in continuous existence, and the most exclusive with not more than twenty-four members.
In 1909, Walter held a meeting at Crown Hotel in Margaret Street to announce that he had bought the Toowoomba Coach Factory business from the rest of his family. But historic feats by he and his family didn’t end there.
In 1912, Walter set a new motor car speed record by driving his six-cylinder Napier Tourer from Brisbane to Toowoomba in just 3 hours and 7 minutes. He would have gone even faster except that he got a flat tyre along the way and was held up at the Railway Gates at Redbank.
In the First World War, Walter’s brother Lyne Trevethan flew with the 4th Squadron that set the world record of all Air Forces on the Western Front by bringing down 245 German aircraft in the final twelve months of the war.
In 1929 on the sporting front, Walter’s nephew Tommy Trevethan scored two centuries in a two-day A grade cricket match to set a Toowoomba record.
Walter was the Queensland distributor of Triumph motor cars when in 1930 his son Verner Trevethan drove a Triumph Seven to break the Brisbane to Sydney mileage record. And so the list goes on.
This remarkable story of Queensland engineering began with the Toowoomba Coach Factory in 1863, and announced itself to the country by turning out Queensland’s first car in 1902.
Sadly there’s no legacy car industry in Australia today, but the historical photos shown here indicate that the rapid evolution of design was amazing., as was the pioneering and record-breaking Trevethan family.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON 4AK.
Photo credits:
The Trevethans: The Family Who Built Queensland’s First Car – Harold Peacock with Copilot.
1902 Trevethan the first car made in Queensland – State Library of Queensland.
Adolphus Trevethans headstone – Just Jack 2020, Find a Grave website.
The original Thomas Trevethan’s Coach Works was established in 1863 in a building in Ruthven Street – State Library of Queensland.
Crown Hotel, Margaret Street, Toowoomba – Wayne Patterson, Toowoomba History Photos and Stories Facebook page, 2021.
Napier Tourer on its record-breaking Brisbane-Toowoomba run, 1912 – State Library of Queensland.
Trevethan family memorial Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery – Trish S 2022, Find a Grave website.
History Out There 