NEVILL WESTWOOD & "BUBSIE"

Researched and compiled by Gordon Freegard in January 2026 from many resources inculding "First Car Around Australia" by Paul Blank, "Right around
Australia ", National Museum Australia and Trove.

THIS IS THE STORY OF A REMARKABLE LITTLE CAR'S GREAT ADVENTURE.

Around the time of the dawn of motoring and a new kind of adventure developed. Exploration of new lands was still one of the latest challenges for mankind, and motorcars added an extra dimension to the possibilities.
By the 1920s car manufacturers also realized the publicity benefits of their cars conquering exotic lands, and the company founder Andre Citroen was probably the most adept at this. The crossings of the Sahara and into China by Citroens became renowned world-wide, with news-reels and magazine stories showing these great escapades.

 

NEVILL WESTWOOD & GREG DAVIES            #1
 

 NEVILL WESTWOOD & HIS MOTORBIKE          #2
 

Australia was one of the great unconquered challenges. In 1925, a 22-year-old Western Australian evangelist. Nevill Westwood set off for a trip to the North-west of Western Australia in his 1922 model Citroen 5CV. Not long before. He had bought the second hand Baby Citroen, which had already covered 40,000 miles.
Taking his friend, student Greg Davies in the passenger seat, the journey would eventually take on incredible proportions. With no intention to gain notoriety or fame, ultimately their trip would take them right around Australia - and into the history books as the first ever to achieve this.I

If you thought that a tiny 2-seater car with a 856cc 4-cylinder engine would be the best suited car for such an adventure, you’d be right. Considering Nevill was six-foot-three and Greg measured an inch taller, they would have been a very tight fit in the cockpit of the car they dubbed “Bubsy”. In spite of its diminutive size, lack of power and simple specification, Bubsy proved well and truly up to the gargantuan task, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

NEVILL WESTWOOD & HIS NEWLY PURCHASED CITROEN             #3
 

  THE CITROEN'S RADIATOR        #4
 

Andre Citroen had been among the pioneers in car mass-production and his small 5CV, introduced in 1922, proved to be an exceptionally popular model, with over 80,000 made. The 5CV sold well in Australia too, as a competitor to the Austin 7 - with over two thousand 5CVs being sold in Australia in the 1920s.
Bubsy wore the stylish French boat-tail body, with seating for two and a little space behind the seats with an external lid for access.
Luckily for future generations, Nevill Westwood photographed and wrote letters about his driving adventure. Reading though letters written to “My own dear Mother”, and his sister Ethel (Nevill nicknamed her “Etherline” after the fuel…. ) provides a fascinating insight into the journey.
 

   NEVILL WESTWOOD & GREG DAVIES ABOUT TO START THEIR TRIP          #5
 

   ABOUT TO LEAVE BICKLEY          #6
 

The journey began from the Seven Day Adventist College in Carmel, Western Australia on the 4^th of August 1925, with the northern WA in mind as the destination, and missionary work the aim.
With the charming style of a well brought up young lad, Westwood wrote to his mother on August 13^th. “Thursday we travelled to Three Rivers Station and had the pleasure of crossing the Murchison, Gascoyne and Roebourne Rivers all in the space of a few miles”.
They faced extremes in temperature - from as low as minus 5 degrees C to the greatest heat Australia can dish out, all in an open car wit no heater or side windows.
 

ARRIVING IN THE OUTBACK          #7
 

  CROSSING THE FITZROY RIVER        #8
 

   ARRIVING IN THE OUTBACK       #9
 

In some places locals came to the aid of the intrepid adventurers - many of them never having seen a motorcar before. One evocative photo taken en route shows a team of aboriginal women on a tow-rope hauling the car over a creek-bed at Fitzroy Crossing.
The further the adventurers went, the rougher and less populated areas became. Sometimes there would be 1500 kilometres between homesteads or towns.
The bush tracks were little used, and in many places had disappeared altogether. The letters describe progress often at walking pace for days, with scrub, ant hills, fallen trees, rocks and other impediments needing to be dealt with. Their pick and shovel were worked hard, and the little car was used to move some objects beyond the powers of the two men. September 22^nd 1925, at 1.30pm saw the lads cross into the Northern Territory.

  GETTING HELP        #10
 

The route took them through places such as Marble Bar - the hottest place in Australia and on the Madman’s Track - where many a gold prospectors had perished, reputedly having lost their minds.
While tackling the Madman’s Track the fuel tank of the Citroen sprang a leak. A rubber hose was joined between the extra fuel can and the carburettor, but after a while the rubber perished. The solution was that Westwood kept his finger on the hole in the fuel tank and operated the controls wit help from Davies who was calling directions - because Westwood’s view was obscured in the contorted position plugging the hole ….
On entering the Northern Territory, Westwood was advised that theirs was the first motorcar to have travelled from WA to the Territory.

  ARRIVING IN THE OUTBACK        #11
 

  ARRIVING IN THE OUTBACK        #12
 

    ARRIVING IN THE OUTBACK      #13
 

     ARRIVING IN THE OUTBACK     #14
 

Clearly their journey was very different to the many factory-backed motoring expeditions which took place around the world. These lads had no spares and no support - relying on their ingenuity and faith. And a great deal of both were needed to ensure they could get through some areas.
Tyres were problem enough in the cities in the 1920s and proved a challenge more than once for Westwood and Davies,From a letter dated October 11^th,1925: “Next morning we started on the remaining 125 miles (to the next station) but more tube trouble developed. Next day we used up the remainder of our patches. We then ran for over 30 miles on one flat tyre filled up with grass and leaves, until we punctured another tyre, so we left the car and walked six miles to the station.

  GETTING HELP IN A DIFFICULT SITUATION        #15
 

Mr. Egan, the manager was just retiring but he soon made us welcome….. Unfortunately they were just out of patch outfit (glue) or almost so. I put in a part cow hide (killed that morning) on two wheels, but the tyres kept coming off. In this way we did 60 miles in two days”.
The car was left at The Pigeon Hole. On arrival at Victoria Station the boys discovered that the owners had no patch outfit as it was in their car, away at Katherine. There was however a vulcanising machine, which Westwood spent two days “experimenting with” eventually learning to repair the tyres before a 40-miles horse ride back to the citroen.

Lost
When the crew reached Emungaln, where the railway went to Darwin, Westwood took the train to Darwin, returning with a selection of new rubber. The rais had begun and the bush tracks becae impassable, so ten days later, after the tracks had dried, they set off again, only to become lost a few days later. They continued, eventually stumbling upon the burnt out wreck of a car, which Francis Birtles had abandoned after one of his exploratory drives. Its location was known and thus helped get Westwood and Davies backon course. Later, the Overland Telegraph line helped keep the adventurers on track.
Further across the Northern Territory the dark soil, wet by the rains was then baked by the sun into a rock hard ridged surface, which limited the car to slower than walking pace.
 

  CROSSING THE QUEENSLAND/NEW SOUTH WALES BORDER        #16
 

In some areas which horde-drawn vehicles, and the odd Model-T Ford frequented, the tracks were too wide for the Baby Citroen. Some of the photos showed that the clever solution was to remove the slightly dished disc wheels and remount them backwards, thus increasing the width of the stance of the car. The rear mudguards had been touching the tyres at times, and were discarded. “It was in some ways improved the look of the car”. Westwood reckoned.

The intrepid adventurers crossed in Queensland on October 29^th at the rabbit-proof fence. Soft sand in creek beds were a problem noted, but luckily the Citroen was quite light and could be dug out and pushed, or pulled.
At on point when the little car ran out of fuel, a herd of cattle converged on it. Davies readied his revolver while Westwood filled the tank from a fuel can. They moved on without the need to use the gun.
 \Another time: “We drove until the petrol ran out .….. and I then footed it into Anna plains, 20 miles”. Westwood reported to his mother, who was no doubt a little concerned at the adventure her young son had undertaken, Still, there were crazier exploits under way. In the same letter Westwood gleefully announced he had met a pair of men who were walking around Australia.
 

   ARRIVING IN SYDNEY        #17
 

The most serious mechanical was when the gearbox suffered a stripped gear - a tow by horse and some work by a blacksmith and Bubsy was back on the road. But after one mile the repair failed and had to be redone. Later in the trip the rear axle had to be removed and straightened - the job done on a railway line.
As the journey progressed some publicity started to appear about the trip. Sponsorship in the form of six Rapson tyres and tubes at a heavily discounted price,and a gift of a tyre pressure gauge were arranged.
The journey to Brisbane and then on to Sydney and Melbourne was far easier than the earlier part of the drive, as the areas were more inhabited and a better road system existed.
 

   ARRIVING IN SYDNEY       #18
 

At Albury Greg Davies stayed behind, leaving Westwood to do the rest of the journey home solo.
By mid-December the car was in Melbourne and work had been spreading of the marvellous adventure of the Baby Citroen. Westwood took the car to the Melbourne Citroen agent but found nobody there. Eventually finding a salesman he said: “after hearing my name he asked if I was the Overlander. On being answered in the affirmative he told me that all the men in the garage, the manager of the cafe and a number of others had driven had driven out on the road to meet me”.
The drive onwards, via Adelaide was uneventful, but one letter mentions the loneliness of driving by himself.
The final drive into Perth, from Coolgardie was a 23-hour marathon. On December 30^th, after 10,700 miles (17,200 km) over 148 days, Bubsy and Nevill arrived home.
 

  HOME AT BICLLEY AT LAST        #19
 

 MAP SHOWING "BUBSIE'S " AMAZING TRIP         #20
 

Some silent movie footage still exists of the car being welcomed back into Perth at the end of the journey, surrounded by other Citroens, driving through roads leading to the centre of the city.
In a letter written late in the journey Westwood makes mention of another Citroen which Gilberts (the Perth agent) had subsequently sent around Australia, “but nothing appeals to the public more than a private car performance.” Several others also began a similar journey at much the same time, however it was Westwood who was the first to complete the circumnavigation of Australia.
In 1929 Bubsy and crew participated in the “Western Australian Centenary Procession” with recognition as the first car to travel around Australia.

RESTORED & SAVED

While at the time of Westwood’s adventure was accliamed with newspaper and magazine stories hailing him a hero, little credit has been given since about this incredible journey for three quarters of a century. The car was put aside and Westwood’s son Ron took over the now derelict but fairly complete Citroen, after Nevill had died. Ron had spent some years collecting spare parts from remains of other 5CV’s as he travelled the countryside with his work, so he was well stocked for when the restoration would take place.
Well known Brisbane Citroen importer, dealer and rally driver Jim Reddiex decided to do a recreation of the Westwood drive in 1975, in a Citroen 5CV of his own. Ron Westwood decide that this would be the target to his restoration, however Bubsy was not yet finished when Reddiex got to Pert, though his crew enthusiastically took up the offer to visit the historic car. Greg Davies also came to see the car, which he’d last seen at Albury fifty years before. It brought many a tear to his eyes seeing Bubsy again, and helpfully, he was able to explain what the various non-original holes in the dashboard had been made for.
Ron eventually finished the restoration of Bubsy, which had retained many of its original components and fittings. The car sat rarely used under his house in the Perth hills.
This writer tracked the car down in 1985 and Westwood was pleased that someone cared enough about his Dad’s old car. As a result, the car was shown to the public at the Classic Car Show at Lilac Hill near Perth in 1986. A photo of the car, publicizing the car show appeared in the newspaper. And again, Greg Davies, by then in his mid-eighties, went out to see Bubsy - a car which had been such part of such a magnificent event in his life.  I had the pleasure of meeting the frail Davies and showing him the car.
Ron had always dreamt of taking the car out again on a trip circumnavigation Australia, which almost happened in 2000 as a 75^th anniversary run. The car was re-stored, but with Ron’s advancing age and financial support for the trip hard to find, the idea was called off at the last minute. Looking at the tiny car today, it is hard to imagine it would be easy driving it a few kilometers on a sealed road - let alone 17,000 kilometers over impassable ground that a modern four-wheel-drive would struggle with.
 

Ron was getting too old to use the car and wanted it to be looked after appropriately. Recently with some help from this writer, the car was purchased by the Museum of Australia and it travelled to Canberra, had further restoration work conducted and is now a prized exhibit - daily getting the recognition it well deserves.
In 1925 one of the last great motoring challenges was taken on, in perhaps the least likely car. Today Bubsy remains an incredible testament to the sheer bravery of those pioneering motorists.

   RESTORED "BUBSIE"       #21
 

   RESTORED "BUBSIE"       #22
 

  RESTORED "BUBSIE"        #23
 

    RESTORED "BUBSIE"          #24
 

SPECIFICATIONS

Citroen 5CV 1923-1926
Engine: 856cc in-line 4-cylinder, detachable head. Side valves. 2-bearing crankshaft. Bore & stroke 55mm x 90mm.

Thermosyphon cooling (no fan). Battery ignition with Delco distributor. Solex carburettor and magneto from1924

Transmision: 3-speed gearbox, floor mounted gear-change, rear wheeldrive

Power:  11bhp @ 2600rpm

Suspension: Quarter elliptic leaf springs all round

Dimensions: Wheelbase 7’4 1/2”. lengthened to 7’9” in 1924

Tyres:   700 x 80, increased to 715 x 115 in 1925

Production: 80232 were made
 

REPLICATION

A century ago, a 5-horsepower car fondly known as Bubsie became the first motor vehicle to circumnavigate Australia.

The 1923 Citroën 5CV was pushed to the limit, bush-bashing its way across the country.

And while the original car is in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, a new group of adventurers is preparing to retrace Bubsie's tracks with a completely restored 1923 Citroën 5CV.

Motoring enthusiast Warren May said he first heard of the project, "Right Around Australia", by faith-based group The Incredible Journey in May 2023, and decided to get involved.

It had been a challenge for the group to find a car of the same model and year as Bubsie until they came across car aficionado Paul Smyth in New South Wales who was willing to part with his 102-year-old Citroën 5CV.
A thousand-hour labour of love
The car's seats and bonnet had already been worked on before Mr May became involved in the project but it still required extensive repairs.

He recruited his friend Colin Gibbs to work on it with him, however, they both quickly realised the body work would be too much for them, so they enlisted another car enthusiast, Graham Tyler.

Mr Tyler did all the body work and cut out all the rust.
"We had to fabricate a lot of new panels because it was just so old,"
Mr May said.

The entire restoration took more than 1,000 hours and involved taking almost every nut and bolt off the body work for repairs, sandblasting and repainting.

Mr May said the motor was fortunately in good condition, and the restored car was now fully drivable.

The replica was completed a year ago and has been displayed in cities across the country since the beginning of 2025.

From June, the 1923 Citroën 5CV will be hitting the road to retrace the 17,500km route of 1925.

Starting at Bickley in Western Australia, the replica will undertake most of the journey on the back of a trailer but will be driven short distances in some of the towns it visits.
 

   THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"       #25
 

 THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"           #26
 

REPLICA

Driving around Australia in any car is no easy task, even more so if you’re travelling in a 100 year old Citroen.
Though we had the luxury of using the 2023 Drive Car of the Year winner in the EV9 on our lap around Australia, the team at Incredible Journey – a non-proift religious organisation –  is looking to recreate the legendary adventure of Nevill Westwood and Greg Davies, down to the car.
Using a 1923 Citroen 5CV known as ‘Bubsie’ as their workhorse, Westwood and Davies did the unthinkable by becoming the first drivers to successfully circumnavigate Australia in 1925.
According to the National Museum of Australia. the pair took five months to complete the round trip, and in that time the two Australian travelled 14,000kms before successfully circumnavigating the entire country.
Westwood and Davies started from Perth to the Northern Territory, passing Brisbane and Sydney before taking the Nullarbor Plains back to Western Australia.
To celebrate the Western Australians incredible cross country trek, Incredible Journey is looking to retrace the pair's historic route.
While ‘Bubsie’ has been immortalised and permanently retired at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, event organisers for "Right Around Australia"  has restored a different 1923 Citroen 5CV.
The event started on June 9, 2025 at Landsdale Christian College – the sister school of Carmel Adventist College where Westwood originally attended – with event organisers planning routine stops at various states and territories until the end of January 2026.
Warren May, an Incredible Journey team member who worked on the replica vehicle, said the donor vehicle was sourced by other car enthusiasts in Maitland, New South Wales. However, restoring a historically accurate century-old car isn’t easy.
 

“The original [replica] car started as a coupé, but the original [Bubsie] car was called a boat tail, so to replicate [Bubsie], the back had to be cut out and a boat tail had to be replicated to fit, so that was the biggest part of the restoration,” May told Drive.
While May said the team “were very fortunate” they had enough parts to build the project car, they faced a few roadblocks during the 800 plus hour restoration process.
"One of our biggest issues was getting [historically accurate] tyres, but [Melbourne-based] Antique Tyres was very helpful in locating tyres... but it did take a few months to get them,” he explained.

 THE BOAT TAIL OF THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"           #27
 

   THE GEARBOX OF THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"         #28
 

"The gearbox and clutch were also one of our biggest hassles… we’d put the gearbox in, and the thing would shudder, and we’d have to readjust the spring tensions. We found that the gearbox shaft, the bearing had worn on the aluminium housing, so we had to rectify that.
"We had the gearbox and clutch out about five times before we were confident, we had it right,” May told Drive.
Besides various mechanical challenges, he said the replica vehicle “had a lot of body panels that were missing... a lot of the panels had to be remade because of rust… we had to fabricate them.”

It’s hard to fathom driving a five-horsepower car around Australia in 1925, where road infrastructure was in their infancy.
But in 2025, May said 100-year-old Citroen 5CV would be deemed more of a safety hazard, hence why event organisers are towing the replica car to various locations.
"Our project started as a thought ‘, Well, can they drive it around Australia?’ But because of the speed and age of the car, from a safety point of view, we deemed it unsafe because if you’ve got a four-trailer road train coming up behind you, we didn’t like that idea,” he said.
Additionally, some parts of the car like the windscreen wipers are manually operated, meaning if it’s a rainy day, May said “you have to manoeuvre the windscreen wiper by hand, you have to change the gears, you have to steer the car so at one stage you’have got no hands on the steering wheel”.
 

  THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"          #29
 

While the car is fully registered and can be driven on local roads legally, it doesn’t fit the requirements of travelling on highways, which are needed to replicate Nevill Westwood’s original journey.
May stated, “there’s some indication” that some guys can reach 60km/h; however, the team determined “that around 45km/h is a comfortable speed”.
When asked what prompted May and his mates to recreate the original journey, he said it was Westwood's humanitarian mission following his conversion to Christianity that inspired them.
Neville Westwood became a Christian when he was 18 years old, and he wanted to do something in his Christian life, so he set out to try and visit people and try to bring hope and help to people,” he told Drive.
 

    THE DASH OF THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"        #30
 

    THE DASH THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"        #31
 

    THE ENGINE OF THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"        #32
 

  THE ENGINE OF THE REPLICA "BUBSIE"          #33
 

According to May, Westwood was known for his philanthropy and focus on community, travelling through remote areas using a range of mobility tools like push bikes and motorbikes in his early life.
"The passion that he had for helping others is what drove me and my mates to say, ‘hey we’re not only living a piece of Australian motoring history, but we’re also living a piece of human history where a Western Australian guy wanted to help his fellow man’,” he explained.
"That’s why we’re telling the story to as many people as we can, so that if you help others and your kind to others, it pays off.”Though the automotive industry has evolved at light speed in a 100 years, at its core, Incredible Journey's Right Around Australia event aims to rekindle the kindness and mateship Australians are known for
The most important thing [about this event] is the reason why he [Nevill Westwood] did it. He didn't set out to be a hero in the motoring industry, he set out to help people [and] he apparently lived that his whole life,” May told Drive.
"For me, that's where it comes to, it's the passion for helping others. For me, it's a buzz because I can catch up with car clubs all around Australia. The networks of names and friends that we've created is amazing.
"I could speak for the rest of the team members that they've got contact numbers in their phone now [that they didn't have prior], people that want to visit and come back and see where we live and we do as well. It's been an absolutely incredible journey.”
While you can see the Citroen 5CV at various stops along the eight month journey, it's worth noting the French car maker bid
au revoir to Australia's new car market in late 2024.
Prior to its exit in Australia, Citroen was the longest-running automotive brand in the country, accruing over 100 years of history in Australia before sales were permanently paused amid declining demand.
Interestingly, it was the 5CV convertible that was the French marque's first model in the land down under, with Citroen introducing the grand tourer to the local market in 1923.
 

Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area.

References:                  Article:    FIRST CAR AROUND AUSTRALIA by PAUL BLANK
                                                NATIONAL MUSEUM AUSTRALIA
                                                "RIGHT AROUND AUSTRALIA"

                             Image:    

Copyright : Gordon Freegard  2008 - 2025