Bert and Angie Hayes’s Motor Museum
Around three years ago Bert and Angie Hayes moved to Boyup Brook from a farm they owned and ran in the Northam York areas, this was so they could ease into retirement and live closer to their family.
This move has been quite life changing, having to prepare their farming property for sale, arranging a clearing sale of the farming equipment as well as dissolving a vehicle dealership, all the while establishing a new home in Boyup Brook, has kept the couple quite busy over the last three years.
One of the major tasks this move involved was finding a place to house their collection of classic motor cars. The collection is a passion which Bert and Angie both share, a collection which has grown and been refined with over forty years of collecting.
Bert and Angie have in their collection twenty cars, three caravans and a motor bike, all licensed, with all vehicles needing to be started and run on a regular basis.
Bert explains the undertaking, “We purchased the old John Deere dealership building along Railway Parade to house our collection.
The showroom and workshop is where we have opened the display to the public, it is opened by appointment, really if someone calls wishing to view the collection we will open up, groups are always welcome.
We have renamed the building ‘Bert’s Garage’ with the adjoining office building being ‘Angie’s Diner’ these buildings have become ‘Boyup Brook Classic Cars’.
“The collection has a range of cars from the 1920s to the 1970s and includes a wide range of shapes and sizes from a Morris Minor to large Cadillac Sedans, featuring Australian, English and American cars.
The oldest car in the collection is a 1928 Ford Model A Roadstar which we have owned for around thirty-seven years.
In the collection we have cars from all decades, 1938 Chev, 1946 MG, 1955 Ford Thunderbird, 1965 Holden Primer, 1974 Lincoln, E type Jags and my old Fairlane.
We are still buying and selling cars with a notion of balancing our collection.
One of the largest expenses with the collection is the batteries. We go through a load of batteries.
Our neighbour, Lance Carlisle, has also contributed several motor bikes to the display. He has also become a wonderful volunteer who is helping us bring the collection to the public, concluded Bert.”
As part of the atmosphere there is also an American diner theme with petrol bowsers, called ‘Angie’s Diner’.
Angie, who is a very crafty has decorated the diner with some of her crafts, there are paper tole pictures, jigsaw puzzles, diamond pictures and the like all with an automobile theme. She also reupholstered the chairs in the diner.
Angie goes on to talk about the venture, “One of the cars in the collection is our wedding car, it is a Holden HD Premier sedan which was purchased new by Bert’s father, it still holds pride of place in the collection.
One of the influences I bring to our ‘life style hobby’ is when Bert finds a car which we must add to our collection, I’m the one who gets to ask ‘How are we going to pay for this one’?
Our lives literally revolve around the collection; we are members of several different car clubs.
Through the car clubs with the car rallies and tours, whilst being around like-minded people we have made lifelong friendships throughout the years.
One of the cars we have purchased from the USA is a Mustang Mach 1. When buying this car Bert said it would be my favorite, it is very similar to a work vehicle I used to drive, a Falcon XA 351 hard top. We have now converted it to a right-hand drive, its growling engine note is one which always gives me goose bumps when starting up, there has hardly ever been a better sounding motor vehicle.
We open the show room by appointment, I’m usually the one in the diner collecting the entry fee whilst Bert takes the wide-eyed, oohing and aahing visitors for a tour through the showroom.
He has an entertaining story as well as being able to explain the history behind ever vehicle, he can talk for hours about our cars, or any vehicles for that matter,” said Angie.
It is a very special collection and is well worth a walk through to view these classic cars and is good value for the entry fee. To make an appointment you can telephone Bert or Angie on 0428 181 689.