For decades, the North American and Australian automobile industries have shared components, parts, staff, engineering skills and design expertise, not to mention business and management structures, as well as advertising and trade practices. The result has been the production of many unique vehicles.
In September of 2022, the SAH co-hosted a “Wheels Across the Pacific” virtual symposia with the Automotive Historians Australia (AHA) to explore this trans-Pacific automobile history.
Streamed live, and free for SAH and AHA members, the symposium was a great success.
Linked History
Featuring papers by SAH and AHA members, the symposium saw presentations on various aspects of Australian and North American automobile industries. Topics included the design of individual cars, the importation of Australian cars into North America, the relationships of women and automobiles in the United States and Australia, and challenges both people and institutions face today with respect to preserving automobile history and presenting automobile history to the public.
The 2022 Symposium
On September 17, 2022, the Automotive Historians Australia (AHA) and the SAH co-convened the one-day online symposium at which ten speakers presented nine papers.
The program can be found here.
Credit goes to the AHA for organizing and administering the event, and extra credit goes to students at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) for staging and recording the event in one of the campus auditoriums. With a twelve-to-fifteen-hour time difference (depending on your North American time zone) the symposium ran from mid-afternoon to near midnight on Saturday, September 17, which was Sunday morning to Sunday afternoon in Australia.
Since the conference was virtual, it could be recorded. Check out the papers via the links below.
6th Automotive Historians of Australia Conference - 0 Introduction
Acknowledgement of country, president's welcome, conference welcome for the 6th Automotive Historians of Australia Conference - Wheels Across the Pacific: Transnational Histories of the Automotive Industry
6th Automotive Historians of Australia Conference - 0 Introduction
Acknowledgement of country, president's welcome, conference welcome ...
Acknowledgement of country, president's welcome, conference welcome for the 6th Automotive Historians of Australia Conference - Wheels Across the Pacific: Transnational Histories of the Automotive Industry
6th AHA Conference - 1 Louis Fourie: BIRTH OF THE AUSTRALIAN AUTO INDUSTRY
A summary of the origins of the Australian auto industry will be ...
A summary of the origins of the Australian auto industry will be presented for the benefit of attendees outside Australia. A contrast will be offered with other Southern Hemisphere auto ...industries. A 1917 concern about the volume of automobile imports on cargo ships, subject to enemy attack, prompted a tariff incentive that created a domestic body building industry.Show More
6th AHA Conference - 2 Dave Hermanson: THE MOBILGAS ECONOMY RUN IN THE UNITED STATES AND AUSTRALIA
In 1950, General Petroleum Corporation sponsored the Mobilgas Economy ...
In 1950, General Petroleum Corporation sponsored the Mobilgas Economy Run reviving the pre-war runs sponsored by the Gilmore Oil Company. In November, 1955, the Vacuum Oil Company, Pty., Ltd. announced ...that the Mobilgas Economy Run was coming to Australia. This presentation will cover the time period from 1955 through 1965 and will show how these events while connected, evolved into their own. As the American events remained fairly constant, more emphasis in this presentation will be placed on how Australia went their own way in staging these Runs with some unintended and confusing consequences as a result.Show More
6th AHA Conference - 7 Christian Meyers et al: INDUSTRIAL PRESERVATION AND STEM OUTREACH THROUGH XR
Our team’s research explores how to incorporate the cultural ...
Our team’s research explores how to incorporate the cultural preservation of significant industrial heritage through meaningful user interactions. Based on its social value significance, a local Geelong invention, the first ...Ford ute, a utility vehicle from 1934, is selected as a case study. Tactile interaction is explored through a 3D printed puzzle of the ute, reverse engineered from 3D scanned assets to provide object-based STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) outreach opportunities with early primary school students in the Greater Geelong region.Show More
6th AHA Conference - 5 Norm Darwin: HOW THE MONARO BECAME THE PONTIAC GTO
Holden’s 2002 Monaro CV8 on the surface appears to be an unlikely ...
Holden’s 2002 Monaro CV8 on the surface appears to be an unlikely contender to become Pontiac’s famed muscle car, the reborn GTO. How the Monaro became the Pontiac GTO is ...revealed in this story of transformation, the hurdles, cultural differences, and the players.Show More
6th AHA Conference - 8 Harriet Edquist: THE GMH DESIGN STUDIO AT FISHERMAN’S BEND
This paper will explore some of the thinking behind my exhibition ...
This paper will explore some of the thinking behind my exhibition Dream Factory: GMH design at Fisherman’s Bend 1964-2020 at City Gallery, Melbourne 2021. Based on a selection of drawings ...held in the RMIT Design Archives, the aim of Dream Factory was not only to discover new ways of working with archival material but also new ways of exhibiting contemporary design.Show More
