WOMEN MOTORISTS

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 63

WOMEN MOTORISTS

TOUR ROUND AUSTRALIA. (Photographs in This Issue.) (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 9. Two women motorists, Mrs H. S. Holman and Mrs D. W. Cummins, left Sydney a few days ago in a Chrysler Plymouth coupe to drive round Australia. It is an arduous undertaking but the two women, who are sisters, looked forward to their adventure with the greatest enthusiasm. Both are competent motorists with much experience in all kinds of conditions. The route planned is through Newcastle to Brisbane, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns, and thence across Queensland to Morven, Burketown, Camooweal, Anthony’s Lagoon. Daly Waters and Katherine to Darwin. Returning from Darwin to Katherine, they intend to cross the Northern Territory and the Kimberley district of Western Australia, visiting Wave Hill, the Orde River and Wyndham, and then returning to Hall’s Creek and proceeding to Derby. From Derby they will follow the coast of Western Australia down to Onslow, Gladstone, Geraldton and Perth. After leaving Perth the route will be Bunbury, Busselton, and through Narrogin to Merriden on the trans-continental line. They will then follow the regular overland route through Coolgardie, Norseman and round the Great Australian Bight to Port Lincoln, Port Augusta and Adelaide, and along the coastal road to Melbourne and Sydney. The car is fitted with an extra petrol tank holding 31 and a-half gallons, a water tank to hold ten gallons, and a special balloon silk tent. The adventurous sisters are the daughters of Mr W. B. Sinclair, late of the Western Australian Government

Railways. Mrs Holman has travelled widely throughout the world, and has been impressed by the lack of knowledge of Australia possessed by people abroad. She has an ambition to do something to bring this country into prominence. Her sister has been nearly all over Australia and has had practical experience both of the driving and mechanical part of motoring. Both sisters are good shots and enthusiastic anglers. They will keep a diary of their adventures and also will make motion pictures of what they see.

No other women motorists have completely encircled the Australian coast as Mrs Holman and Mrs Cummins propose to do. Mrs Marion Bell and her daughter motored over the regular route followed by those who have driven round Australia, but they cut off most of North Queensland, as also did Mrs J. Dorney, who accompanied her husband on a honeymoon trip. Mrs Gladys Sandford and Miss Stella Christie drove from Sydney to Perth and back to Adelaide, thence north to Darwin and back, and then returned to Sydney in an Essex in 1927; they were the first women to make such an extended trip in Australia without male escort.