WHEELS & WATER
CLASSIC COLLECTION Everything old is new again at the Gold Coast Motor Museum.
WHATEVER HAPPENED to Genevieve? For 30 years until the late 80s, she was the movie-star centrepiece of Gilltrap’s Auto Museum, once one of the Gold Coast’s most popular tourist attractions. Genevieve wasn’t an actress but a charming 1904 French-built Darracq car that appeared in a 1953 British film of the same name alongside Kenneth More and Kay Kendall, then was brought to Australia by entrepreneur George Gilltrap. Gilltrap’s closed in 1989 and its exhibits were auctioned. Genevieve was reportedly sold to Holland but the Australian public’s fascination with old cars has re-emerged at a new automotive shrine, the Gold Coast Motor Museum. (Ex-racer Tony Longhurst also has a smaller personal display alongside his Garage 25 café at The Boat Works at Coomera.) Barely 10 minutes’ drive from Dreamworld, Gilltrap’s last residence, the Gold Coast Motor
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Museum has already attracted thousands of tourists and become a meeting place for car enthusiasts throughout south-east Queensland. It’s the dream-come-true for brothers Carl and Grant Amor, former body repairers who wanted to complete their late father’s unfulfilled ambition to display his car collection. They bought a beautiful, five-hectare bush site in Upper Coomera, built the museum, a restoration workshop and restaurant and packed in their own collection of more than 70 cars, commercial vehicles and motorbikes. And even a boat. The exhibits were gathered over more than 20 years – at an unimaginable cost, one must assume – and many restored to perfection in the Amors’ own workshop. While a must-see for anyone with a drop of petrol in their veins, the museum in fact promises a fascinating experience for all visitors, of any age.
It’s an eclectic display, drawn from many parts of the world and representing many vehicle types. Vast Cadillac and Lincoln limousines fit for a president sit beside delicate European sports cars including Lamborghini and Ferrari. The Amor brothers will personally demonstrate the siren on the 1911 New York fire chief’s truck and how to enter a tiny, threewheeled Isetta – via the windscreen. Visitors will see everyday models from earlier years and cars they’ve never heard of. Museums often bore me – I’d fall asleep in front of the Mona Lisa – but the Gold Coast Motor Museum has succeeded in creating a significant attraction anyone can enjoy for hours.
