primotipo…

English international, Peter Whitehead spent quite a bit of time in Australia during 1938 on business. One hat he wore was as a member of the W&J Whitehead family, Bradford based, wool textiles business, the other was as the driver of his much smaller motor racing enterprise.

His success in ‘chasing sheep’ is unknown but his motorsport endeavours were well rewarded with victories in the Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst, and the Australian Hillclimb Championship at Rob Roy in Victoria’s Christmas Hills. See here; https://primotipo.com/2016/02/24/peter-whiteheads-1938-oz-tour/ and here; https://primotipo.com/2015/04/16/peter-whitehead-in-australia-era-r10b-1938/

As you will appreciate from the articles, Whitehead was in Australia long enough, and travelled broadly enough, for his views to be fully formed on the state of motorsport play at that time.

Peter Whitehead was spot on with his observations really.

Picking up his points in the order they were made, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) was formed in 1953 to manage, organise and regulate (sic) the sport on a national basis. Perhaps without World War 2 a more focused governing body would have replaced the Australian Automobile Association earlier.

Handicap racing continued throughout Australia well into the 1950s. We had a relatively small number of racing cars spread over a vast continent. Handicaps ensured everybody had a chance of victory, by this means, competitors were prepared to travel vast distances by road, rail or coastal ships to race.

Then the only Australian racers who competed ‘regularly’ on bitumen roads were the West Australians on their Round the Houses road courses in various country towns. Allan Tomlinson’s stunning Lobethal AGP win in 1939 is in part credited to his skill on such surfaces relative to the east coast based competitors, aboard his MG TA Spl s/c. See here; https://primotipo.com/2020/12/04/tomlinsons-1939-lobethal-australian-grand-prix/

A series of races to attract international competitors did eventually happen, formally with the Tasman Cup – seven/eight races in NZ and Australia in January-February each year – in 1964, and informally with a series of international races for the better part of a decade before that. Peter Whitehead returned and raced a couple of Ferraris here during that period. See here; https://primotipo.com/2020/10/10/squalo-squadron/

The bad-blood, combative relationship between the New South Wales Police and the racing community lasted well into the 1950s and is a story in itself.

This piece was written by Kenneth Maxwell earlier in the trip and was published in the June-July issue of The Car.

Etcetera…

The Whiteheads were customers of Australian wool from the earliest of times. The contents of an article in The Argus (Melbourne) appealed to the economist in me. The piece reported on the business trip of Henry Whitehead, a relative of Peter Whitehead, in January 1920 who is described as having interests in “three of the largest of the great Yorkshire textile works.”

Whitehead’s visit was as a director/advisor of Yarra Falls Spinning Co Pty. Ltd. at 80-110 Trenerry Crescent, Abbotsford – on the shores of the Yarra River in Melbourne where wool was scoured/cleaned – and he commented that “Although Australia is the greatest wool producer in the world she could not have competed with England before the war in the marketing in Australia of goods manufactured out of her own raw materials…But times have changed, and today Australia has the opportunity of making more of her own goods, and particularly of making up her own raw materials.”

Funnily enough, a century on, we are still better at shearing sheep and digging holes in the ground (mining) than manufacturing, that is, value adding to the raw materials we export to others.

Henry Whitehead spoke of the need for immigration of skilled labour to aid growth of the industry and encourage further British investment.

The Yarra Falls Spinning Company was then capitalised at £200,000, “the great bulk of which is Australian money.” The other directors, with the exception of Whitehead, were Australian, the factory was commenced in 1918 and employed 200 in 1920. The only limiting factor in expanding the business right then beyond relatively simple wool scouring and combing, to the production of worsted cloth (for clothing) was the difficulty of getting specialised weaving plant and equipment made, and imported from the UK.

So, Peter Whitehead would have been busy, apart from his racing…

Credits…

The Car, December 1938 via the Bob King Collection, Leon Sims Collection, Ted Hood, The Argus January 1, 1920, Picture Victoria

Tailpiece…

Peter Whitehead fettles his ERA #R10B in frigid Canberra weather in June 1938. He was taking part in annual speed record attempts in the national capital, weird though that seems.

Mind you, there was a round the houses taxi race in Canberra not so many years ago, the Canberra 400 from 2000-2002.

Finito…