Heritage time travellers FIONA STOCKER
‘The pride of the collection is a 1912 Wolseley ‘Town Tourer’, purchased in 1913 by Woolmers’ then owner Thomas Archer IV.’
44 Journeys
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oolmers Estate in the Northern Midlands is in many ways a time capsule. The buildings have changed very little and the tools, artefacts, household goods and vehicles acquired by six generations of the Archer family from 1817-1994, for the most part, remain intact. The estate’s collection includes a small, but wonderfully idiosyncratic, collection of motor vehicles. For Peter Rae, Chair of the Woolmers Foundation and cousin of Thomas Archer VI, the top priority is preserving and displaying the collection in a way that befits a property that’s not only significant to Australia’s history, but also has a place on the World Heritage register. The three vehicles in the collection were the pinnacle of personal transport in their day. They are now housed in the former Coach House and a nearby timber garage close to the main house. The pride of the collection is a 1912 Wolseley ‘Town Tourer’, purchased in 1913 by Woolmers’ then owner Thomas Archer IV, who was an early motoring enthusiast. His son and successor, Thomas Archer V, took his wife Marjorie on a honeymoon tour of Tasmania in the Wolseley in 1915.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2020
Two decades later, upon inheriting the estate himself, Thomas V added to the collection with a 1936 Dodge ‘Beauty Winner’. This was described in effusive terms in the Camperdown Chronicle of Victoria as having a ‘brilliant new style and breathtaking beauty’, and perhaps reassuringly, ‘improved and balanced driving control interior’. Glancing through the windows of the Dodge as it rests magnificently in the Coach House, the spacious interiors, beautifully tooled leather upholstery and huge armrests still effortlessly evoke an age of luxury. The third vehicle in the collection is a Dodge ‘Kingsway Coronet’, which was purchased by Thomas V in the mid-50s. Its sky blue form and chrome trim looms from the darkness of the shed in which it is garaged, and the stylised art-deco jaguar on the hood appears to leap towards the light. While they are still in good condition, the vehicles are not preserved or presented as they should be and are open to the birds and dust, says Peter Rae. Visitors to Woolmers Estate expect the cars to be preserved and displayed in pristine condition, he explains, but this requires significant funding. The trouble with not
