Volkswagen
Karmann Ghia

Peter Fletcher grew up car-obsessed during the 1950s, where a car was a symbol of freedom and a ticket to adventure.

A burgeoning middle class was soon to discover affordable mobility; the car was to become a symbol of success as ordinary Australians were increasingly able to explore the world beyond their own postcodes.

Like much of the Western world, post-war Australia was a time of rapid social and economic change. Through the 1950s this country was riding on the sheep’s back while at the same time a local automotive industry was flourishing.

‘I grew up in the inner suburbs of Sydney, in Mascot, the GM plant at Pagewood was just down the road’.

‘As kids we’d sit on the side of Port Botany Road and car spot, if we saw one we liked we’d try and bags it before anyone else’.

There’s a wry amusement in Peter’s voice as he talks looking back over the decades at his pre-adolescent self.