‘Year 6s, start your engines.’
This phrase may be foreign to today’s students, but for primary school children from the late 1970s to 2008, it unlocks a time-honoured fixture of childhood in the Goulburn Valley.
Excursions to DECA in Shepparton were the equivalent of attending the Sandown International Motor Raceway – exhilarating and impactful, but most importantly, buckling down on safety.
This was a time when 12-year-olds got behind the wheel of a very small, very charismatic vehicle known as a Careful Cobber.
Complete with painted-on faces and powered by small petrol engines, the Careful Cobbers were the cornerstone of DECA’s driver education and road safety program.
Through its 30-year history, more than 250,000 students across Victoria and southern NSW have taken part.
Accelerating to present day, these Careful Cobber cars are a distant memory – until now.
For weeks, The News has been in hot pursuit of the Careful Cobber cars’ whereabouts to assist the Numurkah Historical Society, which had put out a call via Facebook on Friday, February 9.
“For the last two years, we’ve had the Verney Road School’s two cars at Show Us Ya Wheels in Numurkah,” Numurkah Historical Society member Jeff Blackley said.
“This year, we’re keen to get a few more, which is why we had that call out on Facebook.
“(The cars) are a part of our Goulburn Valley history.”
For those not in the know, the car’s story resembles a reverse park through history to 1970.
Eric Montgomery founded the dedicated ‘off-road’ driver training facility after witnessing first-hand the tragedies associated with local road accidents during his 25 years of service with Victoria Police.
On November 1, 1974, the Goulburn Valley Driver Training Complex (GVDEC) opened on 40 acres of ex-sewage farm on Wanganui Rd, North Shepparton.
During the late 70s and early 80s, it underwent expansion, and in 1985, it began operating as the Driver Education Centre of Australia (DECA).
The Careful Cobber program was integral to the organisation, bolstering the road safety cause from locals’ early years.
“The feedback we’re getting from adults is they can remember when they went to DECA and drove the cars, even some grandparents remember it — it was a very meaningful program,” Mr Blackley said.
But all good things must come to an end.
In August 2008, the Victorian Government sent letters to more than 150 primary schools participating in the program to inform them that funding would be “redirected into other student learning and teacher professional learning programs”.
The foreseeable demise of the program triggered a series of ‘Save the Careful Cobbers’ protests, lobbying and petitions throughout the remainder of 2008.
But even public influence couldn’t shake the obtusely unsupported decision.
On December 17, 2008, the cars took their final lap, marking the end of the road.
On October 20, 2010, seven remaining Careful Cobber cars went under the hammer in Altona.
To add fuel to the finale, the cars were auctioned off one at a time, separating the last of the unique fleet of driver education vehicles.
Which begs the question: where are they now?
The News hit quite a few bumps while attempting to track them down.
Mad Mate, commonly called “Mad Max”, went from being the pedal-powered car students had to use if they were mischievous on their DECA visit, before crossing over to the right side of the law.
The car was repainted in police colours and used as a promotional gimmick, playing a significant role in the Greater Shepparton police branch’s Blue Ribbon Foundation.
In 2015, it was parked inside the former RACV Shepparton shop on Wyndham St.
Then, it ultimately fizzled into the unknown.
The News attempted to contact Shepparton police for information on the former Mad Mate, however they were unavailable for comment.
There were rumours of two Shepparton residents possessing “quite a large collection”. They were contacted but did not respond to requests for comment.
Verney Road School in Shepparton owns two Careful Cobbers, one orange and one yellow, which the Numurkah Historical Society borrows for its annual Show Us Ya Wheels event.
The Museum of Vehicle Evolution (MOVE) currently has two Careful Cobbers on display — one primarily white and one green with no roof, made especially for the visit from the Royal Family.
In 1985, Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, travelled to Victoria to recognise the state’s 150th anniversary.
The couple were treated to a tour of DECA, where the former Prince of Wales switched from backseat limo driving to the driver’s seat of the green machine.
Camille Montgomery is the current owner of the Monarch mobile and has leased it to MOVE.
What gave her the honours?
She was Princess Diana’s royal chauffeur during the couple’s stop at DECA.
MOVE has also been given Ms Montgomery’s photos and memorabilia from the Royal visit, but the memory of that day remains with her.
At eight years old, Ms Montgomery admits she had no idea who Charles and Diana were at the time.
Her mind was elsewhere.
“You can see I’m not that girly girl, so having to wear that dress and the frilly socks, I hated every second of it,” she said.
In her alter-ego attire, she presented the Prince and Princess of Wales with a remote-controlled Careful Cobber, made especially for their sons William and Harry.
But it wasn’t all smooth steering.
“There’s a certain area on the track, one corner, where with these Careful Cobbers, you could never go opposite each other, they wouldn’t fit, especially since these roofless ones were a bit bigger,” Ms Montgomery said.
“Dad said, you go that way, and we’ll send Charles the other way.
“I remember as I was coming up to the corner, I was on the outside, and Charles had come around. All I could think was, oh no.
“But we actually passed each other – I don’t know who was watching over us.”
Although the near fiasco had Ms Montgomery holding her breath, her passenger, Princess Di, giggled the entire time as the masses on the sidelines threw flowers at her.
The experience is no dime-a-dozen, but it wasn’t as emotionally potent as one would think when you’re eight years old.
“I wish I had taken more in, I guess, what the day was and how special it was. It was a privilege,” she said.
As the daughter of the late DECA founder, Ms Montgomery’s love of all things vehicular is in her DNA, so much so that even the Princess of Wales could see the gears flicker behind her eyes.
“(After the drive), Diana shook my hand and said, ‘Thank you very much, I think one day you’ll become a Formula One driver’,” Ms Montgomery said.
Ms Montgomery didn’t become a Formula One driver.
Instead, at St Mary of the Angels Secondary College in Nathalia, Ms Montgomery has a fleet of 11 buses.
She’s in charge of their maintenance and safety and said everything DECA stood for remained “a big thing in (her) life”.
When DECA was ridding the cars from its premises, Ms Montgomery rang and asked for the ‘Royal vehicle’.
She said she’s thankful the green Careful Cobber was gifted to her but admits it was the yellow one she really wanted.
“Dad organised (the yellow Careful Cobber) to go to Canada to a driving school over there, and then it disappeared,” she said.
“Dad tried getting it back, but no-one seemed to know anything about it — we don’t know if they sold it off or what happened.
“It’d probably be worth something because it was the Royal car Diana was in.”
Now older and wiser, Ms Montgomery said she wants to preserve what’s left of her Dad’s legacy.
Her focus is on preserving the cars that are still around — saving them from becoming rust buckets or, worse still, vanishing.
But the cars aren’t all she’d like to see preserved.
“(Having the Careful Cobber program back), that would be my dream — to see them back at DECA where it belongs... to get Shepparton kicking and screaming again. We need it,” she said.
“Since it’s been taken away, the kids have really missed out on that bike safety and road safety, especially nowadays where you’ve got a lot more road accidents, unfortunately.
“I believe that we might see a bit of the old DECA, I hope so.”
In 2012, DECA amalgamated with Wodonga TAFE and continued providing driver safety, training and licence approval.
It’s possible that Wodonga TAFE will give way to DECA’s former trademark, given that DECA has appointed a new education manager, Warren Peters, to take the wheel.
According to Ms Montgomery, Mr Peters wants to “shake things up”, which includes bringing back the Careful Cobber program.
Shane Nayler, DECA’s transport and logistics manager, said he and Mr Peters had spoken about this.
“Warren’s dream is to restore the program in some way,” Mr Nayler said.
“We, and a lot of the community, have passion for the program, and because of the high road fatality (statistics recently), we think it’d be a worthwhile project.”
The pair has discussed needing to form the right partnerships and see if a plan can be outlined over the coming year to get the former program up and racing again.
They believe this would involve applying for some type of grant to fund the cars and track refurbishments, and they would liaise with schools to scope interest.
It would take a collaboration from investors, engineers, and educational institutes to get the job done.
And though it’s hard to say whether the dream to “bring a bit of the old DECA back” will become a reality, we’d be as Mad as Max not to at least hope for it.