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The National Motor Museum, formerly also known as The Old Mill and Birdwood Mill after its initial location, is a social history museum of the History Trust of South Australia focused on Australian motoring history and automobile museum in the Adelaide Hills in the township of Birdwood, South Australia.
Established | 1964 |
---|---|
Location |
|
Coordinates | 34°49′11″S 138°57′16″E |
Type | Automobile museum |
Director | Paul Rees |
Website | National Motor Museum |
The National Motor Museum in Birdwood was started by Jack Kaines and Len Vigar after they purchased the old mill buildings in 1964, and opened as a museum the following year in 1965. It was first known as the Birdwood Mill Pioneer, Art and Motor Museum, sold to a private company led by Gavin Sandford-Morgan in 1970.[1] It was purchased by the government of South Australia in 1976,[2][3] and from 1982 came under the auspices of the History Trust of South Australia.[1]
In 1980 the Federation of Vintage Car Clubs (SA) approached Donald Chisholm[4] OAM,[5] then general manager of the museum, to participate in the inaugural Bay to Birdwood classic car run. Chisholm agreed to be co-organiser, and suggested and agreed to provide a perpetual trophy for the "Concours d'Elegance", with its design based on the Shearer Steam Car, which would remain on display at (as it was then often called) Birdwood Mill.[4]
The National Motor Museum is Australia's largest motor museum,[3] with over 350 vehicles on display as of 2009[update].[6][2] It holds a large and historically important collection of cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. It is housed in a modern complex adjacent to its original home, "The Old Mill" on Shannon Street, Birdwood.[2][3]
The museum is the endpoint of the annual Bay to Birdwood, in which vintage, veteran and classic cars and other road vehicles are driven by their owners from the foreshore area of Adelaide through to the Adelaide Hills to finish at the museum, where a festival is held and trophies awarded.[7]
The following is a non-exhaustive list of motor vehicles on display:[citation needed]
The following is a non-exhaustive list of motorbikes display:
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