Francis Birtles

Birtles returned to Fremantle, Western Australia, and on 26 December 1905 left to cycle to Melbourne, an achievement which attracted widespread attention as it was the first west to east bicycle crossing of the country.

In 1912, he became one of the first people to make a west to east crossing by car from Fremantle to Sydney in a Brush Runabout with driver Syd Ferguson.

[2][3] On 21 September 1912 Birtles with his brother Clive and bulldog 'Wowser' left Melbourne in a blue 20 hp Flanders touring car to drive to Sydney, Brisbane, Charters Towers and then to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Birtles reached Broken Hill on 25 February and Adelaide on 1 March, where he spent two weeks recovering from an illness, before driving to Burra, Port Augusta, Quorn, and Maree to Cooper Creek.

[6] With his co-driver Alec Barlow, they left Darwin at 4 am on 23 October 1926 and completed the 5,440 km (3,380 mi) journey in eight days and 13 hours, a record.

[citation needed] In an era when there were few roads[7] and gasoline supplies sparse, the epic eight-month journey carried him across mountains, deserts and through tropical jungles and included a number of sea voyages – the last being from Singapore to Darwin.

He travelled via Europe, Egypt, Persia (now Iran), India, Burma and Malaya.On arrival in Darwin, his car was seized by customs officials demanding import duty, until direct intervention by the Prime Minister Stanley Bruce averted the situation.

[8] He continued south via Brisbane and Sydney to the official finishing point of the journey at the General Post Office on Elizabeth Street, Melbourne on 25 July 1928.

[7] In 1933, Birtles travelled to Arnhem Land with a prospecting and mining expedition in search of gold, after having found some several years previously during one of his journeys.