Gorgeous Gullwing, a star. (Images: Iain Curry)
Eclectic, unusual, full of surprises and a delightful place to feed the passion for automobiles of the past, present and future, is one way I’d describe the Brisbane Motor Museum, which only opened its doors to the public barely a year ago.
Located in the Brisbane semi-industrial suburb of Banyo, not far from the airport, the museum was hosting its fantastic Seen On The Screen themed exhibition at the time of my visit, with a brilliant selection of cars and motorbikes from movies, the silver screen and also many featured on a few well-known TV shows.
My personal favourite was the ornately decorated and outrageously conceived Drag-U-La coffin dragster, which is a replica of the car featured on both The Munsters TV show and movies.
The original was designed and built by the famous auto stylist and movie car specialist, George Barris, and the replica is powered by a 350 cu in Chev and is in driveable condition – although good luck running it through your local motor rego branch.
Host for my introduction to the exhibition and museum was the director, Jackson Smith, who is actually the grandson of the museum’s founder, Collin Galley.
Himself an avid car enthusiast and collector, Collin decided he wanted somewhere to exhibit his own car collection and those of others, which is how the concept of the Brisbane Motor Museum germinated and grew in to the excellent multipurpose facility that is displayed on these pages.
Now 85, Collin is a self-confessed lover of English cars, mostly Jaguars, and he has been collecting them since the 1980s. Some of his cars are exhibited from time to time so other lovers of classic Pom bespoke motoring can see and enjoy them.
Jackson said his own passion for cars was sowed early when he was 15. Collin paid him to clean and detail his cars, while Jackson’s dad is a car salesman, so cars and car collecting are ingrained in the family.
“It’s not a collection,” explains Jackson. “The museum is intended as a host facility for special displays. We began with the ‘Cars We Grew Up With’ theme, followed by ‘Muscle Cars of Brisbane’ and have had six different themed exhibits since we opened.”
Coming themes include Jaguar Stories, followed by the sure to be popular, Holden vs Ford.
Aside from the themed displays, which will change every two to three months, the museum also boasts its own licenced café, various meeting rooms with facilities for companies and car clubs, and even has its own dedicated library.
Most of these facilities are housed on the second floor, while a large undercover car park and admin offices are downstairs. A specially designed car lift brings the exhibits up to the second floor, where they can be moved around easily.
Apart from Drag-U-La replica, there are many other movie and TV-linked mostly replicas on show, including the Monkeemobile, as seen on the hit TV series of the 1960s, the almost compulsory DeLorean, another donor car and the same model as that depicted in Back To The Future, a vast 1950s Cadillac Convertible as driven by Austin Butler/Elvis in the locally produced Elvis movie, a GT40 Ford replica as seen in the excellent Ford v Ferrari, a replica of the Volkswagen Beetle ‘Herbie’ from the The Love Bug, the 1970 HG Holden Kingswood from the Netflix Boy Swallows Universe series (based in and around Brisbane) and a 1967 Morris Mini replica, complete with roof-mounted armchair, as seen in the hilarious Mr Bean TV series, created by, and starring avid car enthusiast and racer, Rowan Atkinson.
And for the motorcycle fans, there’s the radically customised Harley V-Rod, which was built for the Transformers movies, although it never appeared in them, but had a brief cameo appearance in Fast and Furious 4, plus there’s the Bat Bike, a 1978 Honda Four Super Sports used by the caped crusader to battle the forces of evil.
Another personal favourite of mine was the Dr Who display in the museum’s foyer, complete with evil Dalek and the good Doctor’s old English telephone box, which is actually the very spacious Tardis time machine. It kind of matches the nostalgia theme of the museum, as visitors travel back through time as they enter the building.
My good mate and avid car enthusiast, Craig Hughes, who joined me on the visit, couldn’t help hamming it up for the camera before we left. Unfortunately, his encounter with the display didn’t yield that week’s tatts numbers, or change the results of any past footy grand finals.
There is far more to the Seen on the Screen exhibit, and, indeed, far more to the Brisbane Motor Museum.
As Jackson explains: “We are developing a motoring hub here for enthusiasts to enjoy and utilise and we’ve decorated the whole place with a lot of memorabilia, model cars and books and posters to add to the automotive theme.
“So, we want people to come here and enjoy this unique place and just soak up all that the museum has to offer, from the café to the function rooms and other resources, and, of course, to enjoy whatever exhibit we happen to be hosting at the time.”
The Brisbane Motor Museum is located at 959 Nudgee Road, Banyo. For further information, visit: brisbanemotormuseum.com.au
