Wide Open Road

Throughout the 20th century the car has been tangled up in the social, political and economic fabric of Australia. It conquered the interior, shaped the design of our cities and created some of our best-loved heroes.

Cars quickly became integral to every aspect of our lives. By the end of the 1950s most parents experienced the world through the windscreen and most kids watched it go by from the back seat upon which many of them were spawned.

Australia's love of cars provoked major conflicts in society: between the inner cities and the suburbs, the drinking drivers versus the police, the local industry versus the international world, the petrol car and the future.