The Royal Daimler Project
Welcome to the Royal Daimler Project website.
The Royal Daimler Project aims to have the vehicle operational and ready for display by the 60th anniversary of the Royal Tour, in 2014. Here you can support the Royal Daimler Project to make this historic vintage car fit for a Queen again.
Track the progress of the Royal Daimler Project below and discuss with the conservators at the National Museum of Australia.
As a project for conservation students from the University of Canberra we cleaned and prepared the eight spare pistons and rods for storage till later in the project.
The next five photos show the condition of the assembly prior to cleaning.
After 48 hours in a plastic tent the Daimler looks quite unreal.
Unpacked the technology team and registration staff get the first real look at the object.
Col is impressed by the size of the vehicle.
But not the broken spare crankshaft!
We found some interesting relics in the boot,
and then parked it in a workbay for a closer inspection.
Arrivals are also exciting as you get to show others in the organisation what all the fuss has been about.
As the doors go up on the trailer the beast emerges.
Object pick ups are always a bit exciting and a bit sad. Someone is always losing a piece of history to the national collection – and the nation is gaining a story.
The 15th of November 2009 was no different. We had an early morning start to meet the owner and a specialist in transportation for the car and the spare engine bits.
Clean and waiting for transport to arrive.
The car was clean and the tyres pumped up ready for the trip to Canberra.
It wasn’t until February 1954 that the newly-crowned Queen Elizabeth eventually stepped onto Australian soil. Although by now almost six years old, the four Daimlers languishing in storage were recalled for duty. Perhaps we can assume that the huge cost of acquiring them in the first place offset the need to impress the Queen with more fashionable vehicles?
A big thank you to the Daimler and Lanchester Owners’ Car Club of Australia for their generous donation to the Royal Daimler Project. We hope to see Club members here in Canberra soon.
Arrival at the Museum - taped for transport
It is strange how an inanimate object can be perceived as having a character, but many do. And conservators develop quite intimate understandings of the workings and foibles of the objects they are working on. Some we gently coax along through their treatment; others need a stern talking to! They all have different characteristics, not just because of their physical make-up and specific deterioration but they carry their history with them and all of these things touch us in different ways. Looking at the Daimler I see a solid and determined character, a character that still comes through despite the wear and tear and signs of neglect. My favourite photo of the Daimler, however, is one that makes it look – to me – more human than any other. The tape over the headlights was placed there to protect the glass in transit but somehow it gives the car eyes and expression. I love it. Wonder how its expression will change over the months to come.
After news of the cancellation of the 1949 royal tour reached Australia, the Chifley government was now faced with the unenviable prospect of redirecting the final stages of planning for the tour – street displays, infrastructure, souvenir production and transport. A huge budget had been allocated to the celebrations, most of which had already been spent, to the dismay of many.
This photograph of the Australian government’s completed order of Daimler cars, possibly taken by a proud factory employee in November 1948, is rendered all the more poignant in light of what happened next.
The Royal Daimler has been placed in a special protective “bag” for a short time while conservators are busy preparing objects to go on display in the Main Hall of the Musuem. Talking with Ainslie today, the team will be busy attaching the wings to a Percival Gull monoplane next week. The Gull is one of a number of large objects nominated to go into the redveloped Main Hall of the National Museum in October.
The team will be back to work on the Daimler in April. Meanwhile, the “Carcoon” will be keeping the Royal Daimler free of dust as it awaits its makeover.
1948 Daimler landaulette
