Travelling The Bruce Highway In 1931

With much talk in the media about upgrading the Bruce Highway, the motorists of today would have much more to complain about if the conditions of the past are anything to go by. Enjoy this historic account shared by local Burdekinite, Glenis Cislowski, and written by William Langford Penny back in 1931.
William Penny was 25 when he and his friend, Raymond Becker (22), departed from Sydney in a Singer Junior 8 h.p. motor car, on Monday 2 February 1931, headed for Townsville.
Nicknamed Rastus, the Singer was overloaded with six large suitcases including auto tent, stretchers and camping equipment. They took the New England Tableland route to reach Brisbane on 17 February, covering 970 miles on 27 gallons of Shell spirit, averaging 36 mpg. Up until then, the road was good to Brisbane and the journey easy.
However, the roads were bad from Brisbane, where they went to Rockhampton via Esk, Nanango, Kingaroy, Goomeri, and Gympie, before arriving at Maryborough, on Monday 2 March. William and Raymond left for Childers Wednesday 11 March. The trip from Childers to Rockhampton took 16 days owing to rainy weather and flooded creeks.
Passing through Bundaberg, Gin Gin, and Gladstone, they didn’t reach Rockhampton until Friday 27 March. They left Rockhampton on Good Friday, 3 April headed for Townsville.  
After getting bogged in St Lawrence, they reached Ilbilbie at dusk under heavy rain showers to find the track slippery. With no accommodation and feeling hungry, they pressed onto Koumala, only to crash into a concealed boggy washaway. The two men camped on soaked stretchers under the stars and endeavoured to sleep with mosquitoes for company.  
The Patterson family, who were travelling in a Ford and returning to Rockhampton, gave them breakfast and loaded them with cheese, cakes, guavas and lemons, before helping them out of the bog. Their Singer car arrived in Mackay Easter Sunday, 5 April.  
The intrepid travellers left Mackay, Easter Monday for Bowen. The car had no brakes, and because it had small wheel tracks, was very hard to navigate on the track. After Bloomsbury, the difficulty of crossing the flooded O’Connell, Andromache, and Thompson Rivers, became a problem where once again they got bogged and needed two draught horses to pull them out.  
They camped the night in a shed at the homestead of a gentleman residing on the river bank.  Smouldering cow manure helped to keep the mosquitoes at bay. William and Raymond stayed at Proserpine and left for Bowen, Wednesday 8 April at 2pm.
They arrived at Home Hill about 7.00pm that night. They spent about a few hours in Ayr before making an uneventful run to Townsville, arriving at 5.00pm, Thursday 9 April.
They would then make the long, arduous return trip all the way back to Sydney. By the time they were done, their 1930 British Model Singer Junior, an 8 horsepower vehicle, had covered 12,000 miles, on the original retread tyres with no punctures, averaging 50 miles per gallon.
Upon being met by Shell Company representatives, the pair described the Bruce as deplorable on account of it being wet season, with William advising anyone, ‘To think twice before undertaking the trip, and on no account use the road during rain or soon after rain.’
Next time you’re on the Bruce Highway, spare a thought for the men and women who travelled it frequently back in the day, taking days, weeks and sometimes months, to reach their destinations, getting bogged, or finding it completely impassable.

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