Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 - 1954), Saturday 6 November 1926, page 26


Birtles^ Record

Messrs. Francis Birtles and Alec. Barlow completed their record-breaking trip from Darwin to Melbourne in a Bean car last Saturday. They arrived weatherbeaten and tired at the Melbourne G.P.O. at 5.32 p.m. They finished the run in 8 days, 13 hours, 11 minutes, a distance of 3,380 miles. Their time from Darwin to Sydney was 6 days 17 hours 40 minutes, which was 40 minutes better than the Darwin-Adelaide record, and the distance was 886 miles further. Travelling night and day, each man took a turn at the wheel, and some idea of the strain both drivers underwent may be formed from the fact that during the eight and a half days their total amount of sleep was only six hours. The route taken was through Katherine (N.T.), Winton, Longreach, and Charleville (Q.), Bourke, Dubbo, Sydney, and Albury to Melbourne. Mr. Mr. Birtles is emphatic in saying that Central Australia should be opened up by motors before experimenting with railway lines. Motors, he states, could provide transport for most of the country.