Special Squad

The Highway Patrol’s primary purpose is to detect and shut down speeding drivers as quickly as possible to reduce road carnage. During the 1960s-'80s muscle car era, this was a more hazardous task than today, given the comparatively poor quality of Australian highways and the dynamic safety of pursuit cars, which at best was marginal given their performance potential. AMC reflects on the early days of the Highway Patrol, as told by a long-serving officer from the Gippsland region of Victoria who lived through them.

Story: James Cockington

Photo Credits: Snr. Sgt. David Carey & www.inthejob.com

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Senior Sergeant David Carey (the officer featured with the XB pursuit car on the cover) joined the force in 1965 when he was 18. He grew up in the town of Ararat, Victoria and as a kid remembers being impressed by the local police who drove past in a V8 Studebaker. He thought that looked like a pretty good job.
When he joined up, he did the standard three-week driving course and first drove a Divvy Van. When he joined the Mobile Traffic Section in 1971, he attended the two-week ‘pursuit’ course, which included a day’s training at Calder Park Raceway, doing high-speed laps of the track.
He was then qualified to drive an XY Falcon automatic ‘city car’, fitted with a 302ci (5.0 litre) V8. He later drove an XW with 351ci (5.8 litre) V8 on the Calder Highway for a period and then an XY Falcon on the Geelong Road before he was then transferred to Sale (a large township 215km east of Melbourne), where he got to drive a series of Falcons on the Princes Highway. He was still only in his mid 20s.
These days, David Carey is a Senior Sergeant and Divisional Traffic Advisor based at Sale. His fascinating (and at times sobering) insights, anecdotes and great historic photos accumulated from decades on the job have made this AMC story possible (see On Patrol In Gippsland).

NSW Highway Patrol was alone in using the 351 XC Falcon hardtop and LC/LJ Torana GTR for pursuit work in the 1970s.

Highway Patrol History

There is a long tradition of V8s in most Australian police forces, especially in rural areas. You need a powerful and fast car to catch a speeding motorist.
In fact, Ford V8s were first used by the Victoria Police as far back as 1933, when two roadsters were purchased from the Ford Motor Company.
As noted by Carey, Victoria’s Mobile Traffic Section started out with basic black cars, then changed to light blue in 1955. The official colour was known as ‘Stratosphere Blue’ and then-Chief Commissioner Selwyn Porter was not happy with the term ‘Powder Blue’ which had been adopted by the public.
The first cars used in the Gippsland region were two black Fords - a Pilot and a Ford Mercury V8 based at Sale. They were not visually identified as police cars, but soon became well known on the local roads - especially by truck drivers.