Number plates book

Australian Number Plates is a new booklet published by the Blue Mountains Family History Society. It lists all number plate ranges for all states and territories, which makes it a useful source for dating photos of old cars, as we do, or dating the car itself if it still has original plates.

As an experiment we asked Yvonne Wright, secretary of the society, if she could check the history of the South Australian plates RSO-015 on this photo of a Monaro GTS taken some time in 1968.

Unfortunately, Yvonne says that South Australia is the hardest state to get specific information about. She could tell us, however, that alpha-numeric plates (three letters followed by three numbers) were first issued in South Australia in January 1, 1967, beginning with the series RRR; and they featured black characters on a white background.

The current SA Department for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure was only able to supply estimated dates for the period 1967 to 1980. Information from each state depends on how accurately the original records were kept then changed to digital files.

“Fortunately most other states seem to have more detailed records than South Australia, so we are able to be more accurate with the information supplied,” says Yvonne.

The booklet is available for $7.50 plus postage. To order a copy, email: xploretree@yahoo.com.au

We were also wondering what happened to Jenni Simpson, the 19-year-old Miss Australia entrant seen leaning over the Monaro’s sweeping bonnet. Details are sketchy but it appears that she may have won this car in a competition. If she still owns it, the Monaro will be 46 years old later this year.