-
Engine
The first engine powerful enough to be used in a road vehicle was invented by Gottleib Daimler in 1885 , who used it to make a motorbike and then the first motor car. -
Period: to
Henry Ford
Cars were use to be carraiges with engines instead of horses . This was often expensive and easily broken . Henry Ford changed it when he developed a cheaper car called the Model T Ford . He sold 15 million Models T Ford worldwide . The imapcts were that travelling to more distant places takes less time and it is easier to get there. -
Highways
During the 1930s , reinforced concrete was developed for use on highways , which took heavier traffic . -
Car industries
After WWII , the growth of the car industries increased dramatically . The Australian government encouraged overseas manufacturers to make more vehicles in Australia . -
First Mass Production
The first mass produced Australian car rolled off the assembly line at General Motors Holden in Melbourne in November. This car was called FX Model Holden and costs 733 pounds or $1466. The car became very popular and overseas car companies tried to compete but high taxes on imported car made them more expensive than the locally built Holden . American companies like Ford and Chrysler soon built factories in Australia to sell cars to the Australian market. -
Cars
In the 1950s , a good economy and growing population meant that more people were buying cars . By the end of the decade , owning a car was the norm- a growing used car market and loans for money to buy new cars made it even easier . -
Flight
World War II led to major advances in aircraft technology. Air travel was ideal for a large country such as Australia. In 1959, the introduction of jet-powered planes, which were faster and could stay in the air longer than propeller-driven planes, cut travelling times dramatically—the length of the flight from Singapore to London was halved. -
Cars being common
By the 1960s , cars were an essential form of transport for many people who now lived the new outer suburbs and the 2 car family was becoming common. -
Flight
By the 1960s, fewer people travelled overseas by ship, as it was
cheaper to fly to places such as England and the shorter travelling times (25 hours in a plane compared to six weeks on a ship) made air travel far more popular. -
alchol limit
The Victorian Government was the first to set a legal alcohol limit of 0.05% for drivers, which is followed by the rest of the country . This was to stop people drinking to drive which is the main cause for many car accidents. -
petrol prices
In the 1970s, rising petrol prices led to the development of
smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Japan began to make smaller,
cheaper cars which soon outsold the bigger and more expensive
Australian-made cars. -
Child Restraints
Other safety measures , such as requiring drivers and all pessengers to wear seatbelts , motorcyclists and cyclists to wear helmets and tougher laws on child restraints were inposed in the 1970s and 1990s. -
International air terminals
In 1970, international air terminals were built
in Sydney and Melbourne to cater to this new trend. -
Road safety
Random Breath tests are introduced in all states -
further safety
Better roads, red-light and speed cameras and improved car design also helped to reduce the road toll. Problems with drving today is when people are affect by alcohol or speeding with has a high risk of causing an accident . Laws and requirements to drive today are made to reduce the number of accidents on the road for everyone's safety.
