Life on the West Island - The saga of Bubsie

There are many quaint and amusing West Island stories from early years of the 20^th Century. One is the saga of the first motor car to circumnavigate the continent, which was recently unveiled by a regional ABC radio station. They reported that exactly 100 years ago, a 5-horsepower car fondly known as Bubsie became the first motor vehicle to complete this epic 17,500 km trip. The 1923 Citroën 5CV was pushed to the limit, bush bashing its way across the country.

ABC Online takes up the story:

In 1925, Bubsie's 22-year-old driver, Nevill Westwood, was a Seventh Day Adventist missionary and had a history of doing long odysseys across the outback. In the winter of 1925, Mr Westwood and his friend Greg Davies set off from Perth with a mission to take literature to outback stations in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Bubsie was loaded with swags, clothes, an extra fuel tank, water, oil, spare tyres and other supplies.

While reliable road infrastructure spans the country today, historian Kevin Amos said there were few roads for the pair to follow in 1925. "From up around Broome onwards they were basically following some tracks and then eventually resorted to literally bush bashing from homestead to homestead. It was pretty slippery and slidey across the Northern Territory when it rained, but once they reached Mount Isa there were formal roads down to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide."

Tyre punctures and the need for help along the way were common, including the car being carried by pulley across the Fitzroy River with the help of the local community.

Motoring enthusiast Warren May said Bubsie was a "very basic car" that was not always easy for the explorers to drive. "Nevill Westwood was six feet three tall and he took with him a mate, Greg, who was nearly as tall. These guys drove with their knees up through the steering wheel.”

Once the pair arrived in Darwin, a feat in itself, Mr May said they resolved to finish the circle. Westwood decided: 'Well, we've come halfway around, why not go the other half?”

Mr May said when in Sydney, the drivers received word another crew was attempting the full lap of Australia behind them. "The story goes that he decided to hightail it back to Perth," he said. The path back to Perth was hot and lonesome, with Mr Davies quitting the journey at Albury to return to his nursing studies. The entire trip took six months to complete, finishing December 30, 1925.

The story was preserved in photographs and a few letters that were passed on to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra by Mr Westwood's descendants. Curator Dr Laura Cook said the photos offered an almost day-by-day account of the expedition.

According to Mr Amos, Mr Westwood came across a broken-down car while crossing the Nullarbor. There were two ladies and a man in the car. They had run out of water and were severely dehydrated. He was able to share some of the extra water that he carried, got them rehydrated, tinkered with their car, got it going again and sent them on their way and literally saved their lives.

Ms Cook said she could not confirm the story but had no doubt it was the kind of mateship travellers had with each other at this time. It does chime with what we know of him. There's kind of an unwritten code amongst these record-breakers and intrepid motorists that you would always stop to help somebody if you saw them at the side of the road, even if they were engaged in the same record-breaking attempt as you.

Once Mr Westwood had made it home, he put Bubsie into storage while he continued travelling on church business. While Mr Westwood's brother sold Bubsie in 1926, as soon as he returned from overseas, he bought the car back.

The original car is in the National Museum, but now a new group of adventurers is preparing to retrace Bubsie's tracks with a completely restored 1923 Citroën 5CV. It had been a challenge for the group to find a car of the same model and year as Bubsie, until they came across car aficionado Paul Smyth in New South Wales who was willing to part with his 102-year-old Citroën 5CV.

The ABC reports that:

The car's seats and bonnet had already been worked on before Mr May became involved in the project, but it still required extensive repairs. He recruited his friend Colin Gibbs to work on it with him, however, they both quickly realised the body work would be too much for them, so they enlisted another car enthusiast, Graham Tyler, who did all the body work and cut out all the rust. "We had to fabricate a lot of new panels because it was just so old," Mr May said.

The entire restoration took more than 1,000 hours and involved taking almost every nut and bolt off the body work for repairs, sandblasting and repainting. Mr May said the motor was fortunately in good condition, and the restored car was now fully drivable.

The replica was completed a year ago and has been displayed in cities across the West Island since the beginning of 2025. From June, the rebuilt 1923 Citroën 5CV will be hitting the road to retrace the 17,500km route of 1925. Starting at Bickley in Western Australia, the replica will undertake most of the journey on the back of a trailer but will be driven short distances in some of the towns it visits.

So, perhaps if you are on the West Island later this year, you may chance to see the replica of Bubsie pass by and pause to reflect on the pioneering spirit which took the tiny car right around the continent on an epic adventure a century ago.