Canberra to the coast, in a 1936 Plymouth

There will be many in the group with similar experiences and memories.
I have written up my father's 1950 Fiat Topolino wagon in a different thread. We would take most of the day from South Melbourne to Inverloch (Vic.), with the back section packed to the ceiling, and more holiday gear stowed in the rear footwell, around the feet of the two young boys.

Roderick.

Think two hours to the coast is too long? It used to take two days 26 January 2019.
Albert Neuss of Queanbeyan has dug up some treasured family photos from trips down the Clyde Mountain from early to mid last century.
One photo features Roy Neuss, Albert’s father, and his 1936 Plymouth parked outside the original Steampacket Hotel in Nelligen, circa 1939.
Albert Neuss’ 1936 Plymouth parked outside the Steampacket Hotel in Nelligen while his grandparents wait for the punt to take them across the Clyde River. Credit: Albert Neuss.
“You can just see dad [Roy] and my grandfather [Charlie] coming out of the pub, where they probably enjoyed a drink while waiting for the punt [the bridge at Nelligen didn’t open until 1964] to cross the river,” explains Albert, whose brother Val, sister Shirley and grandmother are posing by the car.
“Back then, it took two days driving from their home near Glendale, in what is now Namadgi National Park, to get to Batemans Bay,” reveals Albert. “They camped overnight at Cabbage Tree Creek [at the bottom of the Clyde] on the first night.”
As to the mystery long object in the bag visible on the passenger side of the car, “Oh, that’s their tent, there wasn’t enough room for it in the car so they wedged it between the spare tyre and the bonnet for the trip,” explains Albert. “It would have blocked the driver’s view but they didn’t worry about that in those days”.
Incredibly, Albert still has the Plymouth, which he has driven down the coast many times in the last 40 years or so, and which he still shows at antique car events. He even rephotographed it in front of the original Steampacket Hotel in the late 1980s.
The same 1936 Plymouth parked in the same spot outside the Steampacket Hotel, 50 years later. Credit: Albert Neuss.
“After dad passed the Plymouth on to me, I drove it into the ground and sold it in around 1960,” reports Albert, who later tracked it down and bought it back from its Sydney owner around 1970 to “bring it back to its former glory”.
The second photo shows members of the Post family from Bombala, Albert’s wife’s family, enjoying a rest while a Chev truck chugs around a hairpin corner of the Clyde, circa 1926.
Which hairpin bend on the Clyde Mountain is this? Credit: Albert Neuss.
“I’ve been told the kids picked fronds off the ferns as apparently prior to this trip they had never seen ferns before,” explains Albert, who would love to know which of the hairpin corners on the Clyde the photo was taken.
To me, it looks a bit like Pooh’s Corner both before the cave (created in World War II and stocked with explosives in case of Japanese invasion from the coast towards Canberra) and the subsequent proliferation of teddy bears. Or is it Government Bend?
Last week’s photo was an old pedestrian bridge over Bindi Brook near Nerriga. “I imagine the Nerriga pub is doing quite nicely from all the Canberra peeps who have discovered this interesting alternative way to get to the coast,”.
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