John Williams, Treasures of Nhill & District Facebook page 5 August 2025, Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times

Nhill was the halfway marker for outlandish speed records set in the 1950’s by car drivers who took enormous risks. Risk of death and risk of arrest, but all survived.

The test was who could drive from Melbourne to Adelaide in the fastest time in highly illegal speed runs on the Western and Dukes Highways, which at the time were rubbish roads. The only upside, traffic was relatively light and it was flat except for the Adelaide Hills.

In 1950 Melbourne motor spares executive Arthur Thomas claimed the first record of 6 and a half hours during a highly secretive dash that took only three hours from Melbourne to Nhill

(In 1920 a Vickers Vimy bomber took 6 hours and 45 minutes to fly from Melbourne to Adelaide Direct)

Thomas’s average speed was 71.2 mph (114.5) but clocking 100mph (160.9) where possible. He was accompanied by passenger Harold Stuart in a British Austin A90 Atlantic.

The Atlantic was launched in 1948 with a determined sales drive in America. It was ahead of its time with extras that included indicators, hydraulically powered windows, a choice of radios, and even a hydraulically powered top for the convertible version.

But the car was a flop in America and if the failings of the car were bad enough, Jaguar had the effrontery to bring out their XK 120 which debuted at the very same 1948 motor show. The XK 120 would set a new record for the Adelaide-Melbourne run of 6 hours and 16 minutes.

And then in 1951 a nerve shattering 340 minute run was made to Adelaide in a specially tuned Austin A90. The Atlantic was back.

At the wheel was Ronald McCormack of Albert Park who carried two passengers, one in the cramped back seat, a 32 gallon auxiliary fuel tank and two bags of sand in the boot. The extra weight over the rear wheels would supposedly give the car more traction.

To make the timing of the run semi-official the speeding car was checked by observers in Nhill and Tailem Bend.

One can only imagine how the Austin negotiated two significant obstacles on the journey, the Commercial Hotel corner in Nhill and the Devil’s Elbow in the Adelaide Hills…. maybe the sandbags prevented a broadside.

They were not so lucky near Kaniva when corrugations on the road sent the car barrelling sideways into a fence. The crash tore off the rear bumper and dented the boot.

The top speed to Adelaide was 117.2mph (188.6kph) and an average of 85mph (136.7).

An attempt to better the time on a return run to Melbourne was thwarted when the police at Nhill were tipped off.

Soon after these hair-raising illegal speed runs which could be likened to the “Cannonball Run” of American bootleggers, my grandfather Horrie Williams bought a mink blue Austin A-90 Atlantic convertible.

My recollection of the car is vague other than a trip to Adelaide during which we ran over a large snake and Dad complaining that the drum brakes were all but useless.

Many years ago a work colleague restored an A90 which had been recovered from a dam near Nhill….”I wonder”.

Footnote: In more recent times several so called “Cannonball Run” events have been held in Australia, particularly in the 1980s and 90’s. Prompted no doubt by the 1981 Burt Reynolds movie of the same name. In 1994 a “legal” run the Northern Territory was marred by the death of four people.

This article appeared in Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 13 August 2025.