Cars we used to drive: Australians on the move, 1940s to 1960s. Don Loffler. 2021.

In Cars We Used to Drive, Don Loffler, well-known Holden author, reveals his lifelong interest in all makes of cars on Australian roads in the years 1946 to 1966.

Don Loffler has assembled a remarkable collection of 280 colour slides and black and white photographs of owners and their cars, from Austin to Zeta. Makes like Morris, Vanguard, Wolseley, Oldsmobile and Hudson, which have long since disappeared from the new car scene, were once household names, with owners making sure their  favoured make was included in a photograph of a beautiful Australian scene.

The images record the social history of an era very different from today, when people were content to sit on travelling rugs by the roadside to enjoy a picnic lunch brought from home, perhaps with the addition of sausages and chops cooked over a small open fire. Caravan holidays were also popular at a time when motels were not yet in vogue.