Albert Ohlmeyer builds Jigger in Tanunda, 1904; motor enthusiast with brother and fellow jeweller J.W. in Clare
Albert Ohlmeyer's Jigger from 1904, on display at the National Motor Museum at Birdwood (formerly Blumberg) in the Adelaide Hills.
Tanunda jeweller Albert Ohlmeyer built another of South Australia’s earliest cars, the Jigger, in his backyard in 1904.
Albert shared his motoring enthusiasm with his brother J. W. (Will) Ohlmeyer, also a jeweller, in Clare. The brothers were the first country members of the Automobile and Motor Cycle Club of South Australia, formed in 1903.
J.W. (Will) and Albert, from South Australian German descent, were trained as jewellers in the Adelaide business of Joachim Wendt, appointed jeweller to the Duke of Edinburgh. Wendt had married their aunt Johanna Marie Ohlmeyer, who cared for Albert and J.W. after their mother died.
In 1904. J.W. (Will) Ohlmeyer – a future Clare mayor – had the building next door to his watchmaker and jeweller store in the town set up with “thoroughly up to date plant” to make repairs to any make of machine. He took on an agency for the bicycles and motors of the Lewis Cycle and Motor Works, "types of which he (had) in stock".
In Tanunda, Albert Ohlmeyer was the proud owner of a Minerva motorcycle from the Lewis business. With the few cars imported from Europe or the United States too expensive, Albert chose to hand build a car in his own backyard. His Jigger had two speeds (high and low) and no springing system, leaving the tyres to absorb any road shock. It reputedly gave a comfortable ride up to 20 miles per hour.
With horse-and-cart roads often dusty or boggy, Albert Ohlmeyer created an unusual articulated steering wheel column to help the driver hop out of the seat and steer from the side of the car when it was bogged. In the Jigger’s first years, the tyres, ignition and a slipping belt often caused the driver to stop for roadside repairs within a 10-mile run. A stop also was needed every eight or nine miles to fill the oil cups for the countershaft bearings. For petrol, a three-gallon petrol can would be sent by coach to Gawler, then to Tanunda by rail.
When Albert bought a Model T Ford in 1916, his two sons Julian and Ernst began to use the Jigger. After a working life of around 20 years, the Jigger was abandoned and eventually restored by the Ohlmeyer family in the 1960s. It went on display at the National Motor Museum at Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills in 1986.
