07 May It’s not a bakkie, it’s a…

… Ute! Australia, like South Africa, has produced a number of unique vehicles over the years. Pick-ups have played an important role in both country’s automotive development, and while they became popularly known here as bakkies, Down Under they were dubbed utes. Friend and correspondent Leon Joubert lives in Tasmania and he recently sent in some pictures of a particularly fascinating Aussie ‘special’ taken at a local classic car meet.

“For me, the infamous Australian ute will always be synonymous with brash Holden or Ford models with oversized engines and lots of empty ‘beer stubbies’ in the back, but clearly the Brits still believed in the 1950s that Australian agriculture also needed some accent on culture,” say Leon. “These Humber Super Snipe utes were built by the Rootes plant in Port Melbourne in the 1950s, and this particular example belongs Dr Robin Dubow of Hobart.”

Is there a similar example existing in SA I wonder.