Car number 20,  Ford Escort 1976

The Ford Falcon, good car as it was, did not drink petrol slowly!. And like many people at that time, we downsized, we traded to a British Ford Escort with a 'motor mower' sized engine of 1.3 litres.

The Escort was small, slow and easily forgettable. The photo on the left is our actual car. The photo of the red car is there as another view of these popular cars. 

This photo was taken around 1977, at that time Pam and I were into CB radios...the craze was in full swing then...you can just see the antenna mounted on a rack on the roof. We were living in Caboolture then, some of the locals, ones we used to chat to online, decided to form a club...the word was put out and we were surprised at the number of folk who expressed interest...a meeting was held in a hall in town and the Radio Caboolture CB Radio Club was formed, our online presence was Romeo Charlie CB Club.

I was RC05. CB radio really gained momentum about then in Australia and I recall spending many late hours communicating with others, not just Australians but from overseas too, particular the USA. A phenonium know as 'skipping' allowed radio waves to 'bounce' of the ionosphere and travel many, many miles....it was quite an exciting hobby. 

As a social club we often went on 'runs' in the weekends, all chatting away to each other as we drove along...lol. the photo above was taken at one such run....a bbg at Lake Wivenhoe.

I bit later we heard of a CB radio organisation that had started up in Canberra, it was set up primarily as a service to assist other CB'ers in trouble anywhere...it was named CREST or Citizens Radio Emergency Service Teams. Radio Caboolture joined CREST and for a long time we monitored channel five, the CB emergency frequency...there were many examples of assistance given, it might have been to relay a message to first responders, to assist with persons lost or in need  of breakdown assistance or had run out of fuel.

The Queensland Police Service  recognized the usefulness of CREST and we were invited to a meeting with senior officers, and for a tour of the new Police HQ just opened in Brisbane.

A number of time following that meeting we were called upon to assist the police...I recall being located on a small hill overlooking the Bribie Island - Caboolture intersection on the Bruce Highway one Easter, we relayed regular traffic numbers and/or delays to the police highway patrol.

Sadly, too many idiots eventually destroyed the operation of CREST by interjecting and music playing on channel five, we could no longer use it effectively and it eventually closed down completely. CREST had approached the government with a request that channel 5 should get some protection but that didn't happen for a long time and too late.

Back to cars...Towards the end of the 1970's the Middle East oil embargo hit...this caused a significant leap in world oil prices. Not only did the petrol price rise but there was talk of oil being in very short supply; many Brisbane service stations had 'No fuel' signs out.

Some local 'experts' were even suggesting that rationing would occur, with preferences given to essential vehicles only. Naturally, this scared a lot of people, us included. As it turned out, there was some petrol rationing but not a lot...the cost did eventually drop back, but never to the level it was previously.

Realistically, buying  this little Ford was a mistake, two doors do present some issues.