Pams father had just retired and the family had decided that they would all move to Queensland....by that time Pam and I were engaged so it made sense that I would go along too.

This car was also significant as it really was the last 'bomb' I was to own, with the exception of a couple of cheapie second cars along the way from this point on our main car was always be a good one.

The family was going to fly up and I was going to drive up, on my own. I had of course driven this trip many times but only up along the coast. I decided this time I'd go via the 'inland route', over the Blue Mountains and up the Newell Highway to Brisbane, I had a bullbar installed before leaving...the trip took we about 4 days and I was totally happy with the way this little Ford went.

The bullbar served its purpose when I hit a wallaby one morning north of Moree, the poor thing was badly injured and in pain, I got my .22 rifle from the boot and put it out of its misery, just as I did this a family pulled up behind me...me, stopped in the middle of the road, rifle in hand, imagine what might happen with that scene today.

One part of the trip is lodged in my memory...the time of the year was winter, June or July 1971 I think,  my very first night was spent in a caravan park at Bathurst, I had a little one-man tent, in the morning a severe frost had occurred...I recall dropping the ropes and poles and the little tent just sat there...frozen!!

The photo on the left is of the actual car and was taken in the front yard of our little rented cottage in King Street, Woody Point, where we lived there for about 2 years....first son Darryl was born while we lived there. (Redcliffe Hospital). The right hand photo is just a better view of this model Pommy Ford.

The Cortina was a reliable car and took us to many parts of the country, we had it for some four years. It was also an uninspiring car as most Pommy cars of that time were. I parked under a tree somewhere and some birds or something made a mess on the roof, try as I might I was unable to clean it off...I had a vinyl roof covering installed and it looked great...we got a good trade-in valuation because of it. My next car was to be my very first new car...and not something I like to remember...