At a Garden Party at the Australian High Commissioner’s residence in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, two men – Matthew Benns and Warren Brown – stood out from all the other guests.
The two newspapermen, Benns an Editor-at-Large at The Daily Telegraph, while Brown an editorial newspaper cartoonist with the same outlet in Sydney, Australia, were dressed in 1920s attire, symbolising their attempt to emulate Francis Birtles’ feat of being the first Australian to drive from London to Sydney in 1927.
Nearly 100 years ago, Birtles began his epic adventure at Australia House in The Strand in London, England, in his 1924 Bean 14 Sundowner car. His 26,000km journey took nine months. Birtles’ car is on display at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Benns and Brown will complete the journey in four months, in a 1925 Bean model with an upgraded engine, suspension, and steering.
The team decided on the adventure to raise at least A$100,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, a national, charitable health organisation delivering primary healthcare and 24-hour emergency services to those in rural and remote Australia.
They have already exceeded that amount, with A$117,000 collected.
While Birtles drove solo, Benns and Brown are accompanied by a mechanic and auto electrician, Tony Jordan, and a videographer who changes over time to document the trip for a documentary. The duo is also planning a book about their adventure.
“We travelled from London across Europe and down through the Balkans to Albania in Greece, and from the Mediterranean to Alexandria in Egypt, down through the desert to Cairo, to the Red Sea, where everybody back home in Australia thought we’d be murdered and killed by the Houthis!” said Brown, the winner of numerous awards for his cartooning.
“We then crossed Saudi Arabia, through Riyadh, the capital, to end up in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
“Thanks to the Australian Ambassador in Riyadh, we discovered we were the first Australians to have driven across Saudi Arabia.”
They have encountered people who have never seen a car like theirs, with curious onlookers often pulling over to take photos, and they are regularly mobbed at petrol stations. They became a social media sensation in Saudi Arabia, trending No. 1 on TikTok.
“It’s been amazing. We have met some wonderful people, especially in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and now here in Malaysia, we are having food and drinks at the High Commissioner’s house,” said Brown, whose son, Oliver, has taken over videography duties.
Brown added that they had a “few crazy delays” because of what’s happening in Gaza, Ukraine, and the Red Sea.
“We also had to change routes a couple of times due to geopolitical tensions, which meant we couldn’t drive to Iran or Myanmar. But that doesn’t matter. It’s all part of the story,” said Brown.
A few weeks into their trip, while driving close to the Albania-Montenegro border, Iran launched 200 missiles into Israel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the missiles were in response to deadly Israeli attacks against people in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the assassinations of top IRGC, Hamas, and Hezbollah leaders.
Worried about the escalating conflict, Benns and Brown had to change their route. They planned to go through Balochistan, a region split among three countries – Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
“The plan was to drive from Iran, through Balochistan, and into Pakistan,” said Benns, a best-selling author.
“But we had to change it as Balochistan is in the middle of a civil war. If we had gone there, we would have been stuck.
“So, we had trouble juggling our routes, so that’s when we decided to skip Pakistan and India, as we knew we would also have trouble getting into Myanmar.”
Benns said Birtles also had issues and had to put his car on a boat, missing Thailand and coming straight to Malaysia.
“So, we are facing similar issues. Like him, we are coming out of a pandemic – his was the Spanish Flu and ours, Covid-19. There was war in the East, just like today, and a rise of the radical right,” said Benns.
What are the challenges of driving between 300-500km a day in a car without a roof, windows, doors, and seatbelts?
“The weather can be fickle. One day, we were driving across the Saudi desert, and it rained!” exclaimed Benns.
“When we reached the UAE, there was thick fog. Although we had a police escort, it was difficult to follow them.
“So, we can’t plan anything. People have asked us when we will be at a certain venue as they wanted to organise an event, but we told them, we can only tell you when we are there!”
Benns said they can only drive at a maximum speed of 95 km/h as the old brakes take a while to stop!
“So, we have to be very aware of where we are on the road,” he added.
Despite that, Brown said the car has been brilliant, with Jordan using his experience as a rally driver to pull down and rebuild the car to ensure its reliability.
From Malaysia, the team will head to Singapore, where they will board a ship for the trip to Darwin for the longest leg of the drive, which will see them go to Melbourne via Tennant Creek, Brisbane, and finally Sydney.
That final leg involves a drive of 5,000km.
So, besides a book and a documentary, what else is there?
“Well, we finish on Jan 26, 2025, but we don’t want to stop!” said Benns and Brown in unison.
“We’ll find somewhere else to go.”
