The Highland was one of the first types of
automobiles
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
to be offered for sale in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. Charles Highland was a
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
bicycle dealer who imported a Daimler
petrol engine
A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American and Canadian English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends ...
in 1894 and constructed a primitive motorised
tricycle
A tricycle, sometimes abbreviated to trike, is a Human-powered transport, human-powered (or gasoline or electric motor powered or assisted, or gravity powered) Three-wheeler, three-wheeled vehicle.
Some tricycles, such as cycle rickshaws (for pa ...
. Two years later Highland and his son Charles Jnr built a four-wheeled, two-seater vehicle using bicycle components and a
De Dion-Bouton
De Dion-Bouton was a French automobile manufacturer and railcar manufacturer, which operated from 1883 to 1953. The company was founded by the Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, Georges Bouton, and Bouton's brother-in-law Charles Trépardoux.
Ste ...
engine.
Replicas of this car were offered for sale in 1897 but it is not known how many were built or sold.
[Davis, Pedr & Tony, “Aussie Cars”, Marque Publishing, Sydney, Australia, 1987 ]
References
Vintage vehicles
Cars of Australia
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