I have rabbited on before about the opportunities that came my way during the sixties where vintage cars could be found languishing under a tree etc. During those years as a country commercial traveller I located 8 Austin 7 vehicles as barn finds 6 of which I purchased. One Latrobe sports was located in Shoream [Victoria] which was later relocated to a Melbourne suburb [Doncaster] and which I have lost track of, if it still exists and a chummy in Yarram in Gippsland which is the car in this story neither car was for sale.
As I visited Yarram 11 times a year I had established that Mr Leo Mclead worked at the local Toyota Dealership and he was the custodian of his elderly mothers 1929 chummy and as I hadn’t acquired my first seven that I was looking for as a restoration project I badgered him monthly to see if I could buy it. The car had been in the family since new and it wasn’t for sale, I was never allowed to view the car to establish that it was indeed an Austin 7.
During the 70’s my chummy that had now been acquired and restored took precedent and other sevens had come and gone which I have written about elsewhere but I still rang Leo 4 or 5 times a year to let him know that I was still interested. This went on for 40 years including two visits to the town during club rallies.
By 2015 mother had passed on and Leo was now the owner of the car and in the february of that year a strange thing occurred. I received a telephone call from a lady whom I did not know who advised that her husband was dying of cancer and was expected to pass away within 6 months. She was getting her ducks in line as part of the anticipated estate settlement included an old small Austin tourer. I enquired if the car was in Gippsland?, ‘’ yes she replied, is it in Yarram I enquired, yes how did you know she asked, because it must be Leo McLeads car’’ was my response. He was the cancer patient. Mrs Mclead was as dismayed at the coincidence as I was and I enlightened her of the occurrences of the past 40 plus years. To this day I don’t know how or why she rang me as neither of us had ever met.
Nearly 6 months later she contacted me again to seek my advice to value the car for the estate [I had no interest in purchasing the car any longer] as Leo had passed on. Photos were sent and I was finally able to confirm that indeed it was a blue 1929 Holden bodied chummy and sight unseen it was duly valued to enable a nephew to acquire the car and remain in the family.
Mrs Mclead did confirm that Leo did remember my advances in the past and was pleased with her choice to seek advice of which I was chuffed.
Hopefully the car will surface in the future and remain in the one family ownership, perhaps even fully restored.
