registration plate in Australia

[Norman Golm]

My TC 7677 was originally sold in Adelaide in 1949 my question is what did the Australian license plate look like, how was it mounted on the front and the back, does anyone have one? It would be fun to display one at a show.

[Phil Dadd]

Hi Norman, each State in Australia has a separate number plate design, most of which have changed through the years. In the 1930's through the 40's they were mostly black plates with white letters or numbers. Currently the South Australian plates are white background --- or even yellow! As with most of these, the old plates are replaced with the newer varieties, and are not reissued. Thus they have become collector's items and are rarely available. I will send you photographs of three SA designs as well as the one on my own car which has New South Wales registration. I have included this as the combination of letters and numbers will have been the same regardless of the State in which it was registered in (say) 1949. These were taken at an Alvis rally, but the plates will be the same regardless of the Marque of the car. I will send them to your email address as I do not know how to transfer photo images onto this forum. You may note that there is no photograph of my MG TA on this forum -- simply because I do not know how to do that.
Hope this info helps --- I really doubt that you will be able to find a registration plate from that era here in OZ. Quite often when our cars are sold overseas the plates are still on them, hence it may be that an earlier owner in the USA may have them?
Phil TA 2982

[Matthew Magilton]

Gday Norman,
South Australian plates at the time when TC's were new had 6 digits (no letters) usually commencing with '2' at that stage. Down the left side were the letters S A in vertical format. The background was black. Attachment at the front was usually two screws half way down the sides of the plate.
You may like to look at Wikipedia "Vehicle registration plates of Australia". Also, have a look at the excellent club website "MG Car Club of South Australia" >Registers >Pre War and T type.

SA314068.png (40.54 KiB) Viewed 5990 times

Matthew.

[Matthew Magilton]

Gday Phil,
Photos: First save the image on your computer, it will need to be shrunk down to an easily usable size (under 300 Kb?). When replying click on Full Editor, then on Browse, which will link to your images then select the image and upload and attach the image. I'm certainly no guru on these things so excuse me if I got something wrong.

Matthew.

[Matthew Magilton]

Norm, have a look at Ebay item # 301523859432
There may be others too.

Matthew.

[Norman Golm]

Thanks for the info.

[Phil Dadd]

G'day Matthew,
Sorry I won't be able to make the Victorian Natmeet, but I am unable to get in or out of the TA due to Spinal and Hip problems. Hopefully they will be under control by May for the Alvis rally in the Barossa. Thanks for your input re the SA plates. I have a friend in their Sporting Car Club who is following up on Norman's query. I was under the impression that SA had gone to two letters and three numbers immediately following WW2 --- the same as NSW and Vic, but I stand corrected! I know that they went to the three letter three number plates in 1951, the same as the other Eastern States. My understanding is that the six numbers that you have shown, ceased with WW2, as I think it did in Vic and NSW. My Austin 7 Sports was re-registered in Melbourne during 1945 and had an AB 456 plate.
Regards,
Phil

[Matthew Magilton]

Gday Phil, Sorry to hear you will not be able to make it to the National Meeting.
SA were using 6 figure number plates until the 1960's. I have lists of T types including TF showing these plates, (also for Queensland). Something to do with their smaller population I suspect. In 1966 they switched to 3 letter-3 number plates.

Cheers,
Matthew.

[Norman Golm]

Matthew, Phil mentioned may you be able to provide more info on my car, TC 7677 xpag 8471. I understand that the car was sold to a Mr Keen by Motors Ltd on Sept 11 1949. How it got to Hubbard Ohio USA is not known. If you are interested in the restored condition go to : ngolm.simdif.com , no www required.

[Norman Golm]

On page 43 of TCs Forever it shows a plate white numbers and a black background anyone have a plate like that? I assume the picture to be in the 40s.

[Norman Golm]

Sorry the picture on page 43 is obviously in england. Sorry wrong plate.

[Matthew Magilton]

Sorry Norman, that is all I know about 7677.

Matthew.