Historian Leigh Goodall has brought home the last known Ward motorcycle, manufactured in Williamstown 103 years ago.
The owner of Williamstown’s Garage Classics museum said many people were unaware there was a thriving motorcycle manufacturing business called Ward Cycles & Motors operating at 53 Ferguson Street from 1912-16.
He chanced across the Ward bike with a JAP motor after a friend saw it in a Tasmanian collection.
“I flew over to Tasmania and met the owner, the collector, who thought it would be a good idea if it came back to Williamstown to reunite with the town it was born in,” he said. “I haven’t found another one in existence, so I think this is the only one left in the world.”
“It runs well,” Mr Goodall said. “They were very primitive in those days – they didn’t have a gear box, they didn’t have a clutch, they didn’t have brakes. So they were fairly dangerous to ride. They were all the rage and people put their money down and they weren’t cheap.
“They were 30 pound – I mean, you’d buy a house with probably 40 pound.”
Mr Goodall has been lent the motorcyle for a year to display at his museum and other sites, including Williamstown library from June 21 to July 31.
