Alan Miller, President, Maldon Vintage Machinery & Museum Inc., Tarrangower Times
Back in July, David Walsh of Stringline Retaining Walls in Ferntree Gully was visiting the Maldon Vintage Machinery & Museum.
After seeing the vintage cars on display there, he started to talk about a 1926 Essex Tourer that was owned by his Uncle Howard Lobb, who had purchased it 60 years ago from a farmer in Gisborne for 11 quid.
His uncle at 17 years old drove it around the Melbourne area for quite a while and then decided to strip the paint off it in order to do some work on it and possibly change the colour. He lost interest in doing this and so the vehicle lay for 50 years in a shed before being removed to David’s Factory.
After hearing the story from David, he asked me if the Museum would be interested in the old car. My first question was, “How much would you want for it?” With the answer being, “Nothing, we want to give it to you!” I couldn’t say, “yes” and “thank you”, quickly enough. To top it off, David delivered the car on his way to catch up with his Uncle in Charlton on the long weekend.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 17 November 2023.
