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RACA Origins

Sydney, 1903. On a dark and stormy Friday evening in March, three men met at Sydney?s best hotel, the Hotel Australia on Castlereagh Street. The three, Henry Alfred ?Harrie? Skinner, WE Fisher and HE Jones, were members of a small but growing band of Sydney?s motoring enthusiasts taking to the manure-coated streets of the State capital in their automobiles.

Harrie Skinner had called the meeting after an incident on George Street had made him realise that motorists of the day had few rights enshrined in existing legislation.

?I drove to the Cafe Francais for a refresher,? he recalled later. ?I returned to the car and was confronted by a Transit Officer, who demanded my name and address. I, of course, demanded to know ?What for?? His answer was ?For leaving your Oldsmobile unattended [it was actually a 4.5hp De Dion; those are my instructions?. I complied with his request, and at once made for the Transit Department to learn my offence. ?Their reply was ? ?We have carefully considered the subject and have come to the conclusion that it might be possible for a car to start on its own initiative and cause serious damage?. On my explaining the impracticability of such a thing happening, by demonstrating, they were convinced, and the matter ended.?

Far from ending, however, the incident prompted Mr Skinner to visit another car owner, Mr Fisher of Fisher & Lingham Typewriting Depot, and together they decided to call a meeting of owners, foreseeing ?that it would not be long before regulations might be imposed that might necessitate our having to engage a man to go ahead with a red flag?.

A red flag policy would have been unlikely ? Britain had relaxed its own red flag rules a full 25 years earlier ? but Harrie Skinner was right to realise that the ignorance of authorities over automotive issues could seriously limit the future of motoring in Australia. The automobile was still a strange and noisy mechanical novelty to the average Sydneysider, scaring horses and scattering pedestrians.

It had been only three years earlier that the first imported automobile had arrived in Sydney (although other vehicles had made occasional appearances ? see Chapter XX). Despite the distances between Europe and Australia, the inventions of Karl Benz and his peers had piqued the imagination of many, and none more so than Sydney businessman and cycle enthusiast WJC ?Billy? Elliott of the Austral Cycle Agency. On a business trip to England in 1899, Elliott slipped across to Paris where he met with motoring pioneers including the Marquis de Dion and the Renault brothers. Indeed Elliott?s first driving instructor was Marcel Renault, later to die in a racing accident in 1903 defending his 1902 Paris to Vienna victory. Renault helped Elliott purchase his first car, a 3.5hp 1899 De Dion Bouton, with a single-cylinder gas engine run on naphtha. It featured a surface carburettor, dry battery, coil ignition but no choke ? stirring it into life required vigorous use of the crank handle while holding down the compressor lever and, in the words of Elliott?s son Harold, ?uttering a silent prayer?.

The vessel Ville de la Coitat berthed in Sydney on 27 April 1900 and unloaded Elliott?s De Dion Bouton, the first car imported to New South Wales. Something of a showman, Elliott decided to drive the car from the wharf at Circular Quay to his office in George Street. Harold Elliot recalled the event. ?People gaped at it, and as it stopped it emitted a loud bang which accentuated the fear of the bolting horses. I have a very clear recollection of a man rushing out of the crowd, spreading his arms and advising people to keep back because if this newfangled monster blew up, they might all be killed. Its passage up George Street was a signal for every horse to go mad and bolt.? [Full story on pxx.]

In the next few years, Elliott imported around a dozen cars. Sydney?s third car was bought by retail baron and horse fancier Mark Foy, and he later sold it to Harrie Skinner. It was this 4.5hp De Dion that was involved in the traffic infringement that led to the meeting at Hotel Australia.

A motorists? protection association Following the first Hotel Australia meeting, the three attendees contacted further car owners and a second meeting was arranged a fortnight later. On 20 March 1903, seven motorists (Harrie Skinner later remembered 10 or 11) convened at the Hotel Australia, later adjourning to Mr Fisher?s office.

The records note those present as Messrs Harrie Skinner, WE Fisher, AJ Knowles, T Daley, J Spencer Brunton, G Hamilton and George Lane. Harrie Fisher explained matters ? there needed to be a voice for the motorist. That night the Automobile Club of Australia was established, with Mr Fisher appointed secretary pro tem. Seven days later they met again, supplemented by Messrs Bennett, Macken, Masters, Dr McCarthy and with messages of support sent by Messrs Clements, HA Jones, Hunter, Reid, Kelly, Mark Foy, Vale and Dr Cooley.

In the interim between the first two meetings, Harrie Skinner had visited Melbourne and spoken to motor enthusiasts there about his ideas for an association to protect the rights of motorists. As he recalled later, ?It was suggested that Melbourne should follow suit.? It is uncertain with whom Harrie Skinner met in Melbourne, but a likely candidate is Henry ?Harry? James, who had put forward the idea of a motoring club in Victoria as early as 1901 through the columns of The Australian Cyclist.

Harrie Skinner recalled that the name ?The Automobile Club? had been mentioned in Melbourne, so that ?about five months after our Club was formed they organised, and took decided aversion to our title. A lot of correspondence took place, and was the cause of dissention and ill feeling between the two associations; however time wore on and they troubled no more.? For the moment at least ? the rivalry was to erupt again when both Clubs applied for ?Royal? status a decade and a half later.

In Sydney news of the fledgling motoring organisation, the first in Australia, spread quickly. The very next day the Club was invited by the Secretary of the Agricultural Society to attend the annual Easter Show, giving a display on the track and ?a demonstration of the movements of the various automobiles?. In one of the Club?s first official actions this invitation was accepted, and shortly afterwards by a parade of cars was organised in aid of Hospital Saturday, the first of the Club?s many charitable actions.

[XHEAD] General Meeting The next landmark in the history of the Club came with its first General Meeting on 23 October 1903. This time the venue was Usher?s Hotel, also on Castlereagh Street, which was to become a regular meeting place until the Club established its own premises. The meeting saw the Club come into focus, with the election of the Club?s first President, HA Jones, as well as office bearers and general committee. Club fees were fixed at an entrance fee of £1/1/- and then an annual subscription of £1/1/-.

With enthusiasm for both the automobile and the Club on the upswing, a clear constitution and rules were needed, and these were adopted in December 1903, using the Automobile Club of America?s published rules as a model.

At the December meeting the Automobile Club of Australia?s colours were established as red, blue and gold, and the question of a Club Badge was considered. The Rules and a list of founder members were published shortly afterwards.

So began the Automobile Club of Australia, soon to become not only a cornerstone of motoring in New South Wales, but also a key player in the social and political life of the State. Given the role of WJC ?Billy? Elliott in the Club?s founding and later references to him as an active Club member, it is interesting that he does not appear among the list of founder members. Nor does Mr Charles Sherwood, later Club President and elsewhere described as the Club?s third oldest member. Still, the founder list included many of Sydney?s great and good, and member numbers were soon to swell to such a level that the ACA could consider acquiring premises of its own. With rising membership, so the role of the ACA also grew, the need becoming clear for an organisation that was more than simply a club, that could support motorists with technical assistance, improved roads, legal demarcation between horse-drawn and horseless carriages, and measures to provide safety to both motorist and pedestrian.

Nearly three decades later the Club?s sometime ?official organ? Motor in Australia neatly summarised the Club?s role: ?The Club-house is an outward and visible sign of the Club?s importance to motoring life in Australia and a considerable portion of that building is devoted to the administrative work of the Club as an association. It is a rendezvous for the members and the rallying point of all motoring interests.? It went on to write, ?the policy of the Club covers a very wide range of activities including Federal and State motor legislation, police regulations, uniformity of regulations throughout the Commonwealth, the antipathy of police court, press and public, taxation, road construction, touring, road services, sport, technical and legal advice, car insurance, and a multitude of other activities, most of which are unknown to the public, but which can be proved to have saved motorists from many burdens and injustices which otherwise would have fallen upon them. The fact that motoring enters into the life of all classes of the community has placed at the disposal of the RACA from amongst its members a unique continuity of enthusiastic and honorary workers.? That same article identifies the Club?s characteristically modest attitude to its work and achievements, saying, ?the good work on behalf of the motorist has been carried on by the RACA without sound of trumpet or the waving of flags, following the excellent example of Captain Broke of HMS Shannon who, when urged by his officers to make a display of flags when he engaged the USA warship Chesapeake in 1813, replied, ?No, the Shannon has always been a quiet ship?.?

Automobile Club of Australia First Office Bearers 1903

RACA Competition