Imphal to witness recreation of historic car expedition from England to Australia
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 09, 2013: Come November, 2013, the historic journey of the first car driven from England to Australia by Australian adventurer Francis Birtles in 1928 passing through Imphal would be recreated with the only difference that this time, the expedition would be led by two Australians, Lang Kidby and Warren Brown in a restored 1925 BEAN motorcar.

However, the car would be exactly the same type as the original one in 1928 and it would arrive at Imphal in early 2014. Informing this to media persons at Hotel Classic here today, Lang Kidby stated that in late 1927, Francis Birtles, an Australian adventurer set out from London to be the first person to drive a car from England to Australia.

All alone, he passed through Europe, Turkey, Iran and Baluchistan before arriving at India and drove from Delhi to Calcutta on January 10, 1928.In Calcutta, Francis Birtles met a young Canadian, Percy Stollery whom he invited to join him in the most difficult part of the whole trip.

From Calcutta, both of them set out their car for Imphal and it became the first ever car driven over the difficult hill terrains of Manipur upto Moreh and beyond into Myanamar, then known as Burma, Lang Kidby said.

He further informed that the Historic Recreation Journey which would be reenacted starting from November 2013 next would be undertaken without any help or support vehicles, exactly like Birtles did 85 years ago.

The same route along which Birtles and his young Canadian companion had driven their car would be traced.

Fortunately, the new Friendship Highway between Imphal and Moreh is the same route that Birtles had traversed in 1928. "Since the roads are much better today than they were in 1928, the expedition is expected to be much quicker and the BEAN car should arrive at Imphal by early 2014", Lang Kidby added.

He observed that recreation of first car journey from England to Australia is very important as many countries can use this occasion to make the people aware of what early pioneers have accomplished.

"As far as Manipur is concerned, the first car journey was the beginning of opening up modern trade route between India and Myanmar, and today great efforts are being made by the two neighbouring countries to strengthen not just trade but also cultural understanding and friendship".

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