From the coldest ice tops of Mawson Base, Antarctica, to the beach fronts of the sunny Gold Coast, a Volkswagen's 45-year journey is continued in a daughter's boundless love for her father.
Volkswagen 1964 Antarctica 1 - a Tribute to Dad.
Video description
A photograph of a red classic Volkswagen Beetle car is shown emblazoned with green and yellow stickers, a rally 32 number, a black number plate that reads HZB-624 and a second plate with ‘ANTARCTICA 1’ on the front. There are two front driving lights on the bumper bar. A young girl leans out the passenger side window of the car, smiling to camera.
Video description
White text appears on the screen: ANTARCTICA 1, A TRIBUTE TO DAD
WOMAN
I've always had a fascination with Volkswagens as my father used to drive in the BP rallies...
Video description
A picture of an older man in a flat cap and sunglasses fades into a photograph of two men standing next to the red Volkswagen with the passenger side door open. The video cuts to middle-aged woman with long blonde hair, wearing blue overalls sits in the passenger side of a red Volkswagen, facing out with her feet on the ground. The Volkswagen has a large BP logo sticker on the side and the woman is wearing light blue overalls with a VW logo on them. The car looks like the red Volkswagen from the photo.
WOMAN
and other rallies throughout Australia.
WOMAN
I remember being home and listening to the radio with my mum.
Video description
Close-up of an album of old black and white photos showing various Volkswagens and people, and with the Volkswagen at a rally with spectators looking on. Dissolve to another old photograph of the Volkswagen, this time being driven past a herd of sheep on a country road.
WOMAN
And of course, my mum getting excited when she could hear his name read out and what place he was positioned, at the time.
Video description
A colour photograph shows the Volkswagen on a stage with BP banners and surrounded by officials. Fade to a black and white photograph of two men in overalls sitting on the bonnet of a Volkswagen with garlands around their necks. In the background is a banner on a bridge which reads ‘AMPOL TRIAL 1964 FINISH’.
WOMAN
He would have been like a celebrity coming in and having the car brought in, up on a stage.
Video description
The WOMAN is sitting in the red Volkswagen. Cut to old footage of the red Volkswagen driving across a white expanse. There is a tractor in the background and onlookers standing nearby. A black and white photo of two men standing by the Volkswagen smiling, with one of his hands raised. The car is very muddy and dirty and there are many people around. The man looks happy.
WOMAN
He was able to drive a car that came from Antarctica 1 in the BP rally and he came outright winner with that.
Video description
In a closer shot, the middle-aged WOMAN, sitting in the red Volkswagen continues to talk to camera.
WOMAN
He'd had a navigator with him, called Joe Dunlop, and between two of them they did very well in the racing.
Video description
A slow, close-up move across a black and white photo, showing two men standing by a Volkswagen. One wears white overalls with a VW logo. The other wears casual clothes.
Audio description
And old Volkswagen motor sound can be heard in the background.
Video description
An old photograph of the old red Volkswagen, Antartica 1, is shown. Fade to the same framed shot, but in modern time: the inside of the current red Volkswagen is shown with the motor running, and a hand on the white steering wheel. Cut to the WOMAN in the passenger’s side seat of the red Volkswagen, facing outward with her feet on the ground, talking to camera.
WOMAN
Earlier this year I went to a car show and saw a red Beetle and as soon as I saw the red Beetle it brought me back to those days that he was able to drive this particular car.
Video description
A close-up of the bonnet and number plate of the current red Volkswagen is shown. The bonnet has a green shield with the letters “BP” in gold-yellow writing and a yellow boarder around the shield. The red Volkswagen has a Queensland number plate with white writing on a black background which reads ‘HZB-624’.
WOMAN
I'd earlier tried to track down the vehicle that he'd driven but the plate said unknown. And when I found out the plates were unknown, I thought this is a chance for me to be able to get these special plates and have them on the car that were on his car back in 1964.
Video description
The front of the current red Volkswagen is shown in immaculate condition with number plates and ‘ANTARCTICA 1’ on the front. The BP logos on the bonnet match the original Volkswagen rally car shown in previous photos.
WOMAN
And when the car was finally finished it, it was just amazing to see it finished and looking like the car that my father had actually driven. Luckily my father was still alive at that stage and he was able to see the finished product so I think he was totally blown away.
Video description
The original Volkswagen from 1964 is shown again in black and white footage driving across a white expanse that looks like sand with a beach nearby.
WOMAN
And surprised, to see the car again looking like it did back in 1964.
Video description
The new Volkswagen is shown driving around the slow curve of a country road.
Audio description
Iconic motor noise of the vintage Volkswagen Beetle can be heard as it passes by.
Video description
Cut to black. White text appears on a black background: Behind every plate is a story. Fade to PPQ logo.
In 1963, a bright red Volkswagen manufactured in Victoria, became Antarctica's first standard production sedan.
Marked with the number plates Antarctica 1, it made regular expedition trips to and from Mawson Base, navigating the harsh arctic conditions, eventually earning the nickname ‘Red Terror’.
Pictured here is the Original Antarctica 1 in 1963.
After 12 months, Antarctica 1 was retired from field work and sent back to Australia.
Navigating some of the harshest conditions in the world, the Volkswagen's success abroad catapulted its popularity in Australia, and was sustained by the incredible racing achievements of rally car driver Ray Christie.
Unofficially promoting the versatility of the Volkswagen, Ray had achieved quite a racing career before he was officially sponsored by Volkswagen to take Antarctica 1 out of retirement and into Australian racing history in the 1964 BP Rally.
Left- Joe Dunlop. Right- Ray Christie moments after winning the 1964 BP Rally.
Completing a gruelling 2,000-mile journey over 4 days, Ray and his navigator Joe Dunlop drove Antarctica 1 to victory.
“I'd never believed that a car that had been down in Antarctica could come to me and I'd win the BP Rally. I mean, it's unheard of,” says Ray in an interview for Club Veedub, in 2016.
Ray continued to race with Volkswagen until 1975, even breaking his own Round Australia record by two days, with a time of 5 days and 22 hours.
Unfortunately, that victorious day back in 1964 was the last time Ray raced with Antarctica 1.
He told Club Veedub, “I drove it into Chadstone Shopping Centre and that was the end of it, I never saw it after that. They [Volkswagen] took it over from there.”
43 years passed, and Ray's daughter Susan was at the 2017 Volkswagen car show on the Gold Coast, where she spotted a 1962 red VW beetle.
“To my astonishment written in white marker on the window was, ‘For Sale’. Immediately, I felt the need to have this car.”
Growing up surrounded by Volkswagens all her life, Susan has spent the last 12 months recreating Antarctica 1 from her residence at the Gold Coast.
Restoration work, including new upholstery, a full paint job, spotlights, and customised replica stickers, were all completed in order to replicate the 1964 BP Rally version of Antarctica 1.
The missing piece of the puzzle was finding the Victorian number plate in Queensland.
“I decided to see if the old number plates HZB 624 were available in black and white, they were!” Susan says.
“Snapping up these precious letters and numbers as personalised plates was another milestone to the restoration,” she says.
In June 2018, ‘Red Terror’, was finally re-created.
Susan Maher as a child with the original, and today with her replica.
Leaving behind a legacy and love for the humble VW, Ray Christie passed away on the 13th of July 2018, at 92 years of age.
“My father was able to see what I'd done, he was amazed and he couldn't believe that I went ahead and did all this.”
“I am happy to carry on his love of Volkswagen,” says Susan.
As Australia's most famous Beetle ever built, Antarctica 1 represents the golden years of Volkswagen's rally racing days. The legacy that Ray Christie has left for his family will forever be written into Australia's automotive history.
