My brother-in-law, a retired Geologist in Western Australia, has managed to find two interesting photos, both created and held by the Geological Survey of Western Australia.
The caption reads in part "Bogged T-model Ford on the Bullfinch-Southern Cross Road". The date given is 1911. The car looks well used, and I wonder if it is one of the earliest T's in Western Australia. Can anyone suggest the date of manufacture of the car?






I do have higher resolution scans if anyone would like a detail of parts of the photos.

Dane.

It looks to me like it's an 09 or 10 tourabout. 09-10 features include the roll up windshield that you can see in the top, the low rad filler neck and the lights. Ken

Dear Dane, what great photos...Dave C

With all that mud those poor buggers could be stuck there for days & days.
They probably would have been better off leaving the road and driving on the grass!
Would ONE horse be able to extract a badly bogged car like that one?

Manuel in Oz

That photo has to be from some other country. I say that because the gentlemen aren't wearing ties & sport coats.

Us ''AUSSIES'' always dress up to go out pig and kangaroo shooting.

You want to see what we wear to a BBQ! I get my best pair of thongs out!

As long as they are matching thongs, David!!

Manuel in Oz

PS we are talking about footwear here

A T with 21 horse power. (20+1)

Dane,

Great photos thank you for posting them. As you pointed out it does not appear to be a new car. If it was a USA produced car I believe Ken’s date of 1909-1910 would be correct. In fact if it was an original USA produced car we could narrow it down to an early 1910 model year tourabout . In the USA the tourabout was introduced in Jul 1909 as a 1910 model (ref: http://mtfca.com/encyclo/1909.htm ). And it would have been produced before mid year 1910 because the radiator does not have the tie bar near the bottom and it has the low radiator neck. So for a USA produced car that was not modified by the owner etc. it would have been a Jul 1909 to Jul or so 1910 car.
But there is also the chance it originally may have been a mother-in-law roadster and the owner replaced the mother-in-law seat with a second front seat. In that case it could be a 1909 model year car if it had been produced in the USA.
But because it is in Australia, appears to have a split front seat, I would suspect it is a Canadian produced Model T. As such we do not have near as much information about when Ford of Canada did or did not introduce items. Sometimes they were years before the USA production adopted something – such as the slant windshield and one man top introduced by Ford Canada with the 1920 model year touring and not introduced by Ford USA until the 1923 model year. Or sometime Ford Canada continued a part long after it was discontinued in the USA. Ford USA discontinued the ribbed transmission pedals during 1915 while Ford of Canada continued to use them into the mid 1920s. I don’t know when Ford of Canada introduced the tourabout. I don’t know when Ford of Canada stop installing tops with the roll down front windshield etc. Hopefully we will be able to gather additional information to help document when Ford of Canada made more of their changes.

If anyone has additional information on when Ford of Canada introduced their tourabout or the higher neck radiators, please let us know.

Again great photo.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

Dane I have a copy of the second photo in the book "Exploring the Golden West" about H.W.B. Talbot's life in the Mines Department. The caption which maybe wrong is "Bogged car, Eastern Goldfields 1921." From other photo's he may be the fella behind the radiater. This also was probably when he was a pastoral lease inspector in the 20's however if it was then the government would have a more recent vehicle I would think. cheers

Dane

Here is the same photo from another book, mentions Armidale WA. Looks like a late 09 or early 10 to me. Low raiator neck, no reinforcing bar across radiator.

Big base frame windshiled, Rands I think, later style to late 09 very early 10 Rands. Could have been put on later but is the early style.

Roll down windscreen and ford script on radiator make it later 09 to early 10.

To sum up if the windshield went on later, it could be a late 09.

As Hap said, Split front seat is Canadian. Note front seat has double bucket style. Back would be the same like a genuine Tourabout.



Mark