The Protest

“Sign the Petition to Council!"

"That Motor car has got to be banned from our roads! Just last week it spooked our mailman's horses and he almost lost his buckboard over the Rails going down the Razorback."

"Mrs Butt’s hens have stopped laying."

"It’s creating so much dust the washing ends up red before it can dry."

"Someone is going to be killed before long.”

In 1909, with an eye to the future of transporting produce, ‘Old’ Fred Smith purchased a car, a 1908 International Harvester Corporation Motor Buggy with its two cylinder 16 hp engine and solid rubber tyres at a cost of £180. He had it brought up to Montville by a ‘motor car expert’ from Brisbane who stayed a week to give driving instructions and advice on mechanical repairs. But even though the children loved the motor buggy and climbed on the two-rail fences to cheer as it rattled by, it was incredibly noisy; and the animals were terrified, with horses bolting or even throwing their riders. Poor Fred was not at all prepared for the immediate community backlash. A petition to ban the motor buggy from using local roads on the grounds it was ‘dangerous and against the progress of the district’ was sent to Council and after seeking legal advice, it responded that the matter was outside its jurisdiction.

Cooler heads prevailed and a local solution was accepted by all road users in the district. The car could use the Razorback Road to Palmwoods exclusively from dawn ‘til 8.00am. After that, the road was dedicated to horse drawn vehicles, bullock teams, riders and pedestrians. This arrangement lasted long enough for locals to see there were benefits in these new motor vehicles.

Community acceptance was gradually established once Fred’s son, Monty Smith, the sole driver of the car, proved to be a very capable and courteous driver. By 1912, when Monty was asked to drive the Governor and other dignitaries to inspect a number of Montville’s successful citrus orchards, the battle between road users had reached a truce.

‘Old’ Fred’s brother, Henry Smith, also recognised the commercial benefits of motorised transport, and in April 1911 he purchased an Albion motor bus to transport goods and passengers which his wife, Jane, also learnt to drive.

Jane learnt to drive the Albion motor bus. She transported her friends and their families. Her twins Pat and Peter at the front of the motor bus parked in front of the Smith family home, Eastnor circa 1914.

These early years of motor vehicles on the road were marked by a lack of regulation – no vehicle registration, no driver’s licence, no speed limits. In June 1911 the Montville Progress Association wrote to the Maroochy Shire Council asking for a regulation speed for motor cars on the Razorback. There were now two cars in Montville.

Henry and Jane regularly drove visiting dignitaries in the motor buggy on their fact-finding tours of Montville’s agricultural success, but Henry still preferred to hitch his horse Duke to the buggy when driving to his holiday home at Maroochydore. Montville finally accepted motor vehicles when Owen Callaghan, Montville’s legendary mailman, replaced his horse team and buckboard with a Dodge truck in 1923. By then a number of Montville families owned a motor vehicle including T-model Fords and Studebakers.

This conflict between road users was not just an issue for Montville; it was played out across South East Queensland and only partly resolved in the Main Roads Act of 1920. This act required that all private vehicles using public roads should be registered where the registration fee would be used for the maintenance and expansion of the public road network.

This was followed with an amendment in 1922 that required drivers of motor vehicles to be licenced where this first drivers’ licence was simply an identification document and did not prove competency.

Of more pressing concern was the lack of uniformed speed limits. Early vehicles could get up to 25 miles per hour, but the condition of the roads would never allow for such a speed. While speed limits in inner Brisbane were being trialled, in most rural areas the general rule of thumb was to drive to the road conditions. However, with no formal learn-to-drive programs in place, this was vulnerable to a wide range of driver capabilities and experience.

Today, with the explosion of E-motor technology, we seem to be going through a similar period of change in our mode of transport. However, the difference is that, because of the sheer volume of E-vehicle traffic competing for road space, we really don’t have 20 or so years to solve legislation and enforcement problems.

Doug and Cate Patterson

15/12/2025