He’s a serious Moke Bloke
John Brooksmith drove from Melbourne to be part of the Easter weekend’s Morris Register event in the city and Dubbo Photo News caught up with him a few days later as he was checking out of his motel and getting ready to head home. He’s a fan of smaller vehicles and his Mini Moke, tiny though it is, looks like a giant next to his Heinkel and Messerschmitt micro-cars.
The avid car enthusiast was more than happy to give Dubbo Photo News readers the rundown of the Moke’s interesting army history. “When Minis came out, they made a car and a van and a ute – and they made a Moke. “The Moke was made for the English Army, but the English Army told the makers that they didn’t want them because they were a pile of rubbish. The company tried to sell them to other armies and they couldn’t, but after a few years trying they sold them to civilians in different colours. “(Some time later) the Australian Army got hold of few and they then bought five batches of Mokes,” Mr Brooksmith said.
“They were used as officers’ runabouts on big army bases. (The Moke was useful) if you had to go to the gate over there, or you had to go to the railway station or wherever you had to go,” he explained. “You’ve got two seats in the front and just a swab in the back in this original one from 1975. It’s registered as a ute and you could sit in the back of a ute in those days.” There were 63 made in the batch that Mr Brooksmith’s army Moke came in, and while he said a lot of the military ones have survived, the problem is that out of about 40,000 Mokes made, just 316 were built for the military. That means that if anyone finds a military one they think they’re rare so they put them in the shed and you never see them. “This one also has an army trailer with it. The army went to the workshops in Maribyrnong and they got 90 trailers made and we’ve got trailer number 39.”
He said he’ll be recommending Dubbo as a great venue for car club functions. “Everything went well, everything was smooth and proper, and we had functions and this and that on the weekend. Everything went perfectly, it was good.
“Dubbo’s a good place to hold these sorts of events. The next one’s in Shepparton in Victoria.”