What is a Careful Cobber!?
Careful Cobbers were the brainchild of the late Eric Montgomery who came up with the idea of educating primary school children road safety. These facinating vechiles came in many shapes, characters, and colours, and were the highlight of many children's schooling in the local area. The Careful Cobber project was first initiated in 1974 and at its peak, it would cater for 15,000 students a year from 137 schools. It was a great shock to many when in 2008 the government announced it would cease funding the Careful Cobber program and it was given the axe. Sadly these vechiles have been sold off to collectors or transcended to the rainbow road over the sky. Did you know these vechiles once had a royal brush with fame though?
Princess Diana and Prince Charles
In 1985 Prince Charles and Princess Diana enjoyed a laughter filled visit to Shepparton that centered around the Careful Cobbers. Diana's chauffeur for the day, Camille Vanbreda Montgomery, and the local Mayor, Jenny Houlihan, met at the Shepparton Motor Museum in 2014 to remember the day with the ABC:
"We had something special that was good enough to be put on the royal tour program," said Jenny, who was the teacher in charge of the children's careful driving program at the time.
Camille recalls reaction from friends and family, saying, "...even my teachers at primary school were like, 'what did she say, what did she say.' I had no understanding who they were really or what they were here for but I was pretty famous around town for a while."
Apparently Diana didn't say much as she was giggling the whole time, but after the drive she leant down to Camille, said thankyou and, "I'm sure you'll be a formula 1 driver when you grow up."
Careful cobbers were well loved in and around Shepparton. They were the focal point of a traffic safety program at schools throughout Victoria and NSW from 1981 to 2008.
"It was about road safety, it was about bike safety, and when you hit grade six it was the ultimate, you got to drive a Careful Cobber," Camille said.
But in 2008 it was announced that funding for the program would be cut. Rallies were held and a petition with 4000 names was presented to government by then Member for Shepparton, Jeanette Powell.
The petition didn't save the program and in 2010 the cars went under the hammer at a local auction house and haven't been seen again.
The green Careful Cobber that Charles drove now spends its days at the museum, except for a short stint each year at Camille's children's school fete.
This careful cobber will remain a local. As Jenny said, "this is a particularly important little vehicle in the history of Shepparton because we were able to give Charles and Diana a special experience. I think the memory stayed with them a long time, and it certainly did with us."
This Location
Here you can see the old course created for the Careful Cobbers. DECA still operates here today as a transport trianing facility on behalf of the Wodonga TAFE. With almost 50 years' experience in the driver training market, DECA is regarded as Australia's leading post-licence driver training provider of Heavy Vehicle Licence upgrades in all categories. As a division of Wodonga TAFE, we offer seamless, collaborative delivery of complete driver training programs. DECA delivers world class, post-licence programs in unison with Wodonga TAFE's innovative resources and comprehensive solutions packaging. Sadly, the days of these colour Careful Cobber characters is well and truly gone...
The Cache
You will be looking for a unique micro of sorts. Some would say you wouldn't get far without it...but that's just the beginning! BYOP. Replace exactly as found.
