French woman shows off first motorised vehicle to Adelaide in 1898 – helped by Lewis mechanics' fast work

Madamoiselle Serpolette demonstrating the Comiot motor tricycle in Adelaide in 1898. At right: Cowell church minister A.N. Trengrove in 1910 on a motor cycle made by Lewis Cycle and Motor Works at its factory at 31 Gawer Place, Adelaide city (inset centre).
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia

The first petrol motor vehicle on the roads of South Australia was driven by a French woman in May 1898. French racing cyclist Anthelmina Serpolette demonstrated a Comiot motor tricycle at the Jubilee Oval where cycling races were held – but with women competitors forbidden. As with the first balloon ascent in Adelaide, the motor tricycle show didn’t get off to a good start but, again, some local ingenuity came to the fore.

As part of her Australian tour for the Comiot Cycle Co., Serpolette was engaged to ride “the first motorcycle that the public of South Australia has been privileged to witness” and she was invited to appear at the Ariel bicycle race meeting at Adelaide's Jubilee Oval on Monday, May 30 – a public holiday to celebrate the Queen’s birthday.

Serpolette received a “capital reception” when she appeared at the oval on a cycle but her motorcycle demonstration struck a fuel problem and the engine wouldn’t start.

The event organisers decided to postpone the exhibition to the Tuesday. Serpolette was relieved: “In Paris, such a failure would have caused a disturbance while the motor would probably have been broken up and the spectators would have demanded their money back”.

In the meantime, the motor tricycle was hurriedly put into an express wagon and taken back to Vivian Lewis’s cycle factory in McHenry Street off Gawler Place, Adelaide city, for repairs.

At 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning, Lewis mechanic T.P. O’Grady tested his repairs by taking the tricycle up to Belair where he collided with a stone carter in South Australia’s first motor accident. The machine’s front forks were damaged and had to be fixed back at the cycle works in time for Mlle Serpolette to collect it in time for the exhibition at the oval at 12.30pm.

On the way to Jubilee Oval, Serpolette drove through Wakefield, King William and Rundle streets., Adelaide city.  Hundreds of people saw her display but a fuel problem again hampered the performance of the machine.

Lewis Cycle and Motor Works, that later built motor cycles and cars, learnt from its experience of the fuel problem. The surface carburettors used at that time used highly-volatile 0.680 specific gravity fuel. Unless stored with extreme care, the more volatile part of the fuel evaporated, leaving a stale residue. To overcome this, Lewis Cycle and Motor Works built a specialised fuel storage.

Mlle Serpolette and her entourage left for Sydney via Melbourne on the Tuesday express.  Just over a year later, on June 5, 1899, the locally built Shearer steam car  – Australia's first automobile – made its first run down the main street of the River Murray town of Mannum.

Lewis Cycle and Motor Works, later Vivian Lewis Limited, would go on to build a large number of motorcyles and an early car.