1943 Malvern Star Autocycle

Description

Although most Australians associate the Malvern Star name with bicycles, the company also produced an autocycle between 1938 and 1952.  Founded in the early part of the Twentieth Century by Tom Finnegan, who ran a small bicycle shop in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern, Malvern Star Bicycles grew rapidly in size – producing just five bikes a week in the 1920s, by 1945 the company had 100 branches and over 1,000 agencies throughout Australia.  Through a series of mergers and takeovers, Malvern Star became part of Australia’s largest cycle maker General Accessories in 1980.  Although different sources dispute the date when Malvern Star began building autocycles in Australia, the earliest model was probably the Junior Deluxe built just before the war broke out, following the pattern of similar British models.   Malvern Star offered two versions during the war years, the unsprung Economy model and a Deluxe model with a pressed steel girder fork – as in Britain they were intended for essential workers such as Civil Defence wardens.  Like many of its British counterparts, the Malvern Star autocycle carried the small type of fuel tank and post-war Juniors used the Villiers 2F engine.  Almost identical to the British-made Norman (or Rambler) autocycle, the Villiers-powered Malvern Star’s manufacture was short lived and production ceased in 1952.