Jul 14, 20203 min read

BREMER BAY BARNFINDS

WRITTEN BY BINDY DATSON

Max Wellstead is the descendent of the original Wellstead who settled at Bremer Bay (South West Western Australia) in the 1840s and the family was a major landowner and sheep farmer in the area. The farm was never particularly prosperous and over time parcels of land were sold off, including land at Point Henry Peninsula where Mark and I were lucky enough to be able to purchase two blocks of land of about 8 acres each and built a holiday house in 2002.

Max has turned his homestead and outbuildings into a museum which includes a collection of old cars (both running and not) and lots of household, musical, medical, and farm memorabilia – you could spend days there fossicking.

On an earlier visit to Bremer Bay we had asked Max if he knew of any pre-1940 old car that the Club could buy as a Perkolilli racer (Lake Perkolilli near Kalgoorlie being the venue for the Red Dust Revival, ‘races’ held for vintage car enthusiasts with cars built pre-1940). Max suggested a 1937 Vauxhall 14/6 that he had, and we went to his outbuilding barn to have a look. One look at the Vauxhall and it was apparent that it was too good for the Perkolilli races but in the next bay was an old 1927 Dodge buckboard that rang all the bells as a potential Perkolilli car!

Photos were sent off to interested parties and Mark and I decided to buy the Vauxhall as we have no old car currently, both Jaguar and Citroen being in workshops. There was a thick layer of dust on the Vauxhall and it hadn’t run for at least a year but was still licensed and was not expensive.

Back in Perth a meeting was held by members of the Dipsticks who were interested in being involved with a Perkolilli car and it was decided that a few members would come down to Bremer to take a look at the Dodge and make the decision whether to buy it.

So, on the 15th July, Peter and daughter Jess, Dave, Barrie, Richard and Ion arrived at Bremer Bay to stay a couple of nights and see the Dodge and some of the surrounds. Next day after some sightseeing we headed to Max’s museum café and after a coffee and cake we had a look through the museum with Max giving us a bit of a guided tour. We then went to see the Dodge to make a decision.

After a look around the yard, an old wooden trailer of about the same vintage as the Dodge was spied so eventually a decision was made to purchase Dodge and trailer from Max.

Mark had already managed to get the Vauxhall running after draining the old stinky fuel out and blowing the lines through, so it was back in our Bremer yard, washed and ready to be loaded onto a trailer.

After taking the huge Land Rover rear wheels off the Dodge (which were too wide to fit on the trailer) and replacing with smaller wheels, it was loaded onto the car trailer ready for the trip back to Perth.

Next morning, 17th July, both trailers with Dodge and Vauxhall loaded and tied down left early for Perth with Richard and I bringing up the rear with the old trailer on board Richard’s ute. After an uneventful trip (though slow in the case of the heavy Dodge, as our Pajero could only do 90kms max before feeling movement in the trailer) everyone arrived back in Perth tired but satisfied.