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It was while riding on the Ghan from Darwin to Adelaide five years ago that Ted McKellar decided to buy a HR Holden.
“The trip on the Ghan gave me plenty of time to think!” he laughs.
The Taree taxi driver had known for a while that he wanted to buy something a little different for the weekends.
“It was always going to be a Holden,” he admits.
So the search for his dream Holden was on and Ted’s internet searches netted him a car in Queensland that he thought would fit the bill.
“I thought right, well, I’ll catch a train up there!”
But the owner of the Holden threw a spanner in the works at the last minute by saying he was going away for three months.
And Ted didn’t want to wait that long.
So he got back online and this time found a car a little closer to home at Mt Hutton in Lake Macquarie.
“I could see it was a big heap of rubbish as soon as we arrived. I didn’t even want to look,” Ted admits.
The car was as bad as Ted feared but fate was on his side. A friend nearby said he’d find him another car before he left Newcastle.
When Ted clapped eyes on ‘Effie’ he knew his search was over.
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Trouble was the owner of the HR was playing golf at the time and it was his wife that was showing the car.
Ted had to do the negotiations by phone with the owner and his attempts to haggle weren’t going well.
“I said, ‘I’ll put you onto my wife,’ and that was the best thing that could have happened!”
Ted’s wife Claire cut an impressive deal and Ted, at last, had found a beloved HR Holden to take on club outings.
As a taxi driver in Taree for 20 years, and with a long association with the Taree Powerboat Club, it is fair to say Ted is very well known around his home town.
But as our interview is interrupated for the third time by friendly passersby, I’m unsure if it is Ted or Effie that is more popular.
“They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” says a fisherman.
“She’s a real beauty isn’t she?” says an old associate of Ted.
“We get a lot of stares with it,” admits Ted once we begin chatting again.
In October Effie will turn 50 and Ted is proud of her heritage. The car has never been out of rego since first hitting the tarmac in 1966 and as the third owner, Ted keeps her well maintained.
He has owned a number of cars over the years including a Daimler DB18 and a Morris Minor but Ted is more than content to keep the HR for the long haul.
“This is the last one,” he confirms.
“So I’ve been told!” He adds.
