POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Oil can and dispenser by REDeX

Object No. 85/1553

This conical-shaped tin with a metal dispensing tube is for squirting REDeX English-manufactured oil and fuel additive into car engines and petrol tanks. This was undertaken at service stations and was popular in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. It was claimed that this additive would keep a car's engine cleaner and give added performance, however the claimed efficacy of fuel additives still remains (in 2015) a contentious subject. REDeX is best known in Australia for the famous REDeX Round Australia Trials of the 1950s to test 'man and machine against the elements' sponsored by the REDeX company. The first rally, held in 1953, was the longest endurance event in the world since the 1908 New York to Paris rally. The following year a total of 246 cars left Sydney Showground to travel the 15,500 km course around Australia in 18 days. That year it was won by 'Gelignite' Jack Murray in a 1948 Ford V8 sedan known as the 'Grey Ghost'. Murray gained his nickname for the practical jokes he indulged in such as blowing up outback toilets and trees. In 1955, of the 176 cars entered in the REDeX Trial only 57 finished, with the first and second places going to Volkswagens from West Germany. The Vacuum and Ampol oil companies took over in 1956 and organised similar trials. The publicity and subsequent public outcry over poor road conditions highlighted by the Round Australia Trials were partly responsible for later extension, widening and surfacing of interstate highways. Nevertheless, the main road from Sydney to Brisbane was not fully sealed until 1958, that from Adelaide to Perth in 1976 and the road around Australia in 1986. Simpson, Margaret 'On the Move: a history of transport in Australia', Powerhouse Publishing, Sydney, 2004. Margaret Simpson, Curator December 2015