Bill Richardson Transport World is a

transport museum A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport (road and rail)—including old cars, motorcycles, trucks, trains, trams/streetcars, buses, trolleybuses and Coach (vehicle), coach ...

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

in Southland, New Zealand. The museum is a complex of vehicles and transport-related objects. A highlight of the display is a rare 1940

Dodge Airflow truck The Dodge Airflow truck was a special request model truck that Dodge introduced in late 1934 and available through 1940. It used styling cues from Chrysler Airflow cars and the Divco 1937 Model-B delivery vans. Most of the 265 units produced we ...

. Bill Richardson Transport World also displays wearable arts and social history objects. It also has a construction zone for children, a library with a focus on transport and manuals, and an events and conference centre. The facility includes a restaurant, The Grille Café. The museum is operated as a tourism venture by Transport World, an Invercargill-based business.

History

Bill Richardson, a Southland businessman, had a transport company called Southern Transport as his first business. Under his guidance, it grew into the

HWR Group H. W. Richardson Group (HWR Group) is a New Zealand company that provides fuel distribution and retailing through its Allied Petroleum brand in New Zealand and its Petrogas brand in Victoria, Australia. It also owns companies in the concrete, tr ...

. When he bought trucks for the business, he had to concede that sometimes he, in his words, "bought a truck more with our hearts than with our heads." Transport World's collection began in 1967 when Bill Richardson began collecting old trucks, which by the time of his death in 2005 had grown to 150 vehicles including both trucks and farm vehicles. He also collected petrol pumps and other transport-related memorabilia, such as signs and toy models. Richardson's daughter Jocelyn and her husband Scott O'Donnell decided to open up the collection to the public. Building consent was granted in December 2014 for a building on the Tay Street site to house the collection. The design featured

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

styling, to fit in with other buildings in the area. A new extension was built and in November 2015 Bill Richardson Transport World was opened.

Collections

Bill and his family collected many rare and unusual vehicles, along with popular classic vehicles. The collection spans from a 1904 Ford Ac car to a 2016 Dub Box caravan. Collections focus on: *American pre and post-war trucks *British post-war trucks *

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vans *Pre-Model T Ford cars *Ford V8 cars *Classic and modern race cars * HWR company trucks *Agricultural

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

s and machinery

Vehicle highlights

Most of the vehicles in Bill Richardson Transport World are rare, unusual or significant. Highlights include: *A 1940 Dodge RX70 Airflow truck: This is one of only several hundred made and one of only three known to be restored in the world. *1914 Stewart 1 ton truck: This truck was built by the Stewart Iron Works of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA who made trucks from 1912 to 1916. This is the only truck of this make believed to exist. *1932 Mack BG: the first truck to use the Mack Bulldog mascot. 2904 units of this model were made. *1907 Ford Model K car *1924 Gotfredson 20B truck *1936 Maple Leaf HY: Unusual make, a Chevrolet made in Canada with a Maple Leaf badge on it. *1962 Kenworth Log Skidder *1974 Begg 018 Formula 5000

Exhibitions

The following exhibitions are on display at Bill Richardson Transport World: *Pork Pie Corner: an exhibit displaying extra footage from the 2017 ''Pork Pie'' movie and real movie props, including the 2016

Mini Cooper S The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally (b ...

used during filming in Invercargill. *Richardson Family story: It tells the story of the Richardson family from when they first came to New Zealand several generations ago to the present day. It also tells the story of life in early New Zealand and Southland business. *Ford exhibition: exhibit about the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...

. *Mobil exhibition: tells the story of

Mobil Mobil Oil Corporation, now known as just Mobil, is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil, formerly known as Exxon, which took its current name after history of ExxonMobil#merger, it and Mobil merge ...

's history, from its beginnings as

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

to its present structure as

ExxonMobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...

. This is included in Transport World because HWR is the New Zealand distributor for Mobil. *Wearable Art: gallery showcasing wearable art pieces from FibreOctave, an Invercargill event. *A collection of around 1,500

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Happy Meal A Happy Meal is a kids' meal usually sold at the American fast food Chain store#Restaurant chain, restaurant chain McDonald's since June 1979. A small toy or book is included with the food, both of which are usually contained in a red cardboard b ...

toys

Interactive elements

Bill Richardson Transport World has several interactive elements to its attraction: *Construction Zone: children's room full of

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

and tablets with educational games. *Pork Pie Police car: a real decommissioned police car used during the filming of

Pork Pie A pork pie is a traditional English meat pie, usually served either at room temperature or cold (although often served hot in Yorkshire). It consists of a filling of roughly chopped pork and pork fat, surrounded by a layer of jellied pork stock ...

. One of the only decommissioned police cars with accessories still attached. *Replica

Goodbye Pork Pie ''Goodbye Pork Pie'' is a 1981 New Zealand comedy film directed by Geoff Murphy, co-produced by Murphy and Nigel Hutchinson, and written by Geoff Murphy and Ian Mune. The film was New Zealand's first large-scale local hit. One book described it ...

1978 British Leyland Mini 1000 car: has been reconstructed as it appeared at the end of the movie, with many parts missing. *Jail Scene: 1925 Ford TT Replica Paddy Wagon and mock jail set with dress ups for children. People can access the back to recreate what it was like for a prisoner. *Majestic Theatre: a replica of Invercargill's Majestic Theatre that plays old movies.

References

External links

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Bill Richardson's Transport World - Invercargill NZ - Classic Restos Series 33
at

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The Largest Vintage Vehicle Museum , Bill Richardson Transport World , Invercargil, New Zealand
at

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