c1947 Malvern Star Autocycle

Description

Most Australians associate the name 'Malvern Star' with bicycles, but from 1938 to 1952, the company also produced a powered Autocycle. Malvern Star Bicycles was founded in the early years of this century by Tom Finnegan who ran a small bicycle shop in Malvern, a suburb of Melbourne, and grew rapidly in size from producing five bicycles a week in the 1920s to having 100 branches and 1,000 agencies throughout Australia by 1945.  Through a series of mergers and take-overs it became part of General Accessories, Australia's largest cycle maker in 1980.  Although different sources dispute the date when Malvern Star began production of autocycles in Australia, the Malvern Star followed the pattern of British autocycle and it is most likely that their first model was a Junior Deluxe powered machine, built just before the War in 1938.  The evidence of surviving machines indicates that a number of autocycles was built during the war years and, as in Britain, these were intended for essential workers such as Civil Defence wardens.  There were two models, an unsprung Economy model and a de Luxe version with a pressed steel girder fork.  The Malvern Star carried the small type of fuel tank, like many of its pre-war British counterparts.  After the war, the Junior powered model was replaced by one using the Villiers 2F engine.  This 2F-engined model was identical to the British-built Norman (or Rambler) autocycle. However its manufacture was short-lived and it ceased production in 1952.