Gilberts Motor Museum, Strathalbyn

On my recent road trip to South Australia, we managed to visit a number of interesting motoring museums.  One of them was Gilberts Motor Museum in Strathalbyn.  It was quite an interesting museum, and surprisingly hasn’t been there all that long.

The museum is located in an old car dealership and service centre.  It only opened during the COVID era, so has been there about five years. Going to the musem, you would be hard pressed to see that though.  There is so much automobilia on the walls that it gives the feeling of a museum that has been operating for many years.

The museum collection is entirely on loan.  While different parts of the collection probably turn over at different rates, I would imagine it will look quite different if I ever return.  The museum concentrates on South Australian motoring, particularly motoring in the Strathalbyn area.  It is run by volunteers.

The first room you enter is mostly pre-war cars, and quite interesting ones too.  I think I understood that one of them was going to be entering the bay to Birdwood the following day.   Its always good to see cars of this area out on the road.

The next room has a variety of different cars.  This one had a lot of focus on locally made cars.  For example, there was a Bolwell Ikara there, of which only 12 were ever made.  There was also a few other things like a Morgan Three wheeler, and quite an extensive collection of motorbikes.

The next room had some interesting local cars, including a van that wears SA 1, apparently trading in numeric plates in SA is not possible, so the van is kept registered to keep the plate.  There are no annual inspections in SA.  SA 1 actually pre-dates NSW 1 and Victoria 1.

As well as the main museum exhibits there is also an excellent reading room full of car books.  You could easily spend a few hours in that room.

Beyond the reading room, there was also a small annexe that had a series of micro cars, including one with a vinyl body.   And of course, like with many museums, there is often a bit to see in the public parking lot too.  At the time we were there, probably because of the Adelaide Rally and the Bay to Birdwood, there were quite a few groups going through.  There was a guy from the the Mercedes Club in Victoria in his E36 AMG.  There was a whole group with Australian made Mitsubishis, and there was a Ferarri BB512.

Strathalbyn is an interesting town to visit, and Gilberts Motor Museum is worth a stop.