The interesting, helpful and often amusing stuff your NRMA has been up to since its inception in the 1920s.
While driving motorcars had mushroomed in popularity, the quality of roads was still very much in the horse and cart era. Parramatta Road in particular was abominable - drivers took sticks and stones along with them to fill in the worst of the potholes. Thanks in part to an infant NRMA - known at the time as the National Roads Association (NRA) - the whole length of Parramatta Road from Parramatta to Sydney was rebuilt.
For almost as long as there have been cars there have been messages imploring drivers to operate them safely. In 1929, NRMA designed and distributed this advert that shows a grief-stricken mother cradling a bloodied (and to the morbid mind, possibly dead) child.
Industry pundits tried to blame private motorcar ownership for most of the state's economic ills - supposedly people were eating less so they could afford to run their 'overseas-built' (for shame!) vehicles. When the NSW premier Thomas Bavin joined the chorus, NRMA president JC Watson hit back on behalf of motorists: "Once again the political mind has apparently failed to appreciate the fact that the motor vehicle is not a luxury any more than is a telephone or an icechest, or say, a garden," he wrote in Open Road. "With a big percentage of us a motor vehicle is a necessity; with the rest it is a much-needed convenience… One cannot estimate the number of cars that are used for business entirely, or only partly for business. Take these cars away and the country would stagnate."
With Australian men heading off to fight in World War 2, Open Road began a column called 'Woman at the Wheel' responding to the increased ratio of female motorists. Rather than engine maintenance, however, the column offered tips on suitable driving clothes and recipes for picnic food. The writers were apparently unaware that one of the fragile little dears had driven a car across Australia more than a decade earlier.
1946 - Rationing repealed (eventually)Petrol rationing was an obvious necessity during the war, but when restrictions continued on well after Hitler was defeated, NRMA spoke up to have them abolished. However, courtesy of prime minister Ben Chifley, they were still in effect in 1949 - one reason he was no longer in power come 1950.
In the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of Open Road, NRMA complained about confusing signage on tollways. This is not a new priority - in 1952, courtesy of NRMA lobbying, a large directional sign appeared on the intersection of Parramatta Road and Broadway showing drivers how to get to the Princes, Great Western and Hume Highways.
Television was beamed into Australian homes for the first time and NRMA began a show dedicated to basic car maintenance, hosted by chief engineer Bill Gaffney.
NRMA released a booklet called Driving is an Art, which stressed the importance of skill in reducing the number of fatal accidents. It pointed to driver inattention as a major factor, along with intersections (which were the site of about half the annual accidents in NSW). To this day, improving driver skills is a priority for NRMA.
The Eyre Highway was opened so other Australians could travel west for the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth. NRMA patrols, along with those from Tasmania and Queensland, were posted all along the highway to ensure the pilgrims made it safely across the Nullarbor.
The wife of Prime Minister Robert Menzies, Pattie, was granted lifetime membership of NRMA. When her husband praised her driving abilities during the ceremony, the long-proven safety of women behind the wheel became front-page news. Sadly, the unfounded epithet 'lady driver' would remain part of the Australian parlance.
The world oil crisis pushes petrol prices to record highs (sound familiar?) and NRMA launches a 'Be a Petrol Saver' campaign in a bid to help conserve oil resources. Consciousness of fuel consumption would lead to the creation of an Aussie icon: the Holden Commodore (see our cover story).
The NSW government introduced a trial of breathalyser units in a bid to curb the entrenched culture of drink driving and the deaths resulting from it. NRMA not only supported the initiative, it also ran a famous ‘Don’t Blow It’ campaign, which showed motorists how they could go over the 0.05 legal limit on just three middies of beer.
At Parramatta shopping centre, NRMA staff showed how a well-trained thief could break into a car and either steal it or strip it in minutes. Such services aimed at preventing car theft dated as far back as 1924, when the fledgling NRMA offered free all-day car minding.
In collaboration with other motoring organisations, NRMA introduced crash rating reports. While these tests are commonplace now, they were controversial at the time as they called into question some safety claims made by auto makers.
Everyone clucked their tongues at Beijing for trying to clear the air before the 2008 Olympics. How short our memories are. In 1995, NRMA began a Clean Air 2000 campaign, in a bid to reduce Sydney's smog for the 2000 Games.
* Sources: On the Road: The NRMA’s First Seventy-Five Years; NRMA Motoring + Services 85th Anniversary.
Open Road e-zine December 2008
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