Number plates

[hiflange]

A number of older bikes I've seen in WA have numberplates hanging off them and I know a few people who have a bicycle numberplate collections. Recently the WAHCC published a piece on bike plates in WA.
Someone's contacted us with a good question; "I was just wondering if bicycle number plates were Australian Wide or just in W.A.?"
What's the story in other states?

[WyvernRH]

A number of older bikes I've seen in WA have numberplates hanging off them and I know a few people who have a bicycle numberplate collections. Recently the WAHCC published a piece on bike plates in WA.
Someone's contacted us with a good question; "I was just wondering if bicycle number plates were Australian Wide or just in W.A.?"
What's the story in other states?

That's very interesting, I had no idea that WA had done this and until relatively recently as well.
I can't help on any Oz plates but in my memory bikes residing in certain Belgian, German and Dutch cities had to be registered and the tag hung off the bike somewhere visible. Don't think there were any nation-wide rules and I'm pretty sure they are not required now.
AFAIK the rules were enforced by the equivalent of council officers and traffic wardens, I do know that the Belgian police were not at all interested, regarding it as council revenue raising and having better things to do.

Richard

[DarrylH]

I was at school in QLD the 50's and and the only time I saw a bike number plate was on the bike of a school mate who had come from WA. Can't remember the colour but seem to recall that it was fastened to the back of the seat.

[landyacht]

all the WA goldfields towns had number plates/. I have 2 really ratty Boulder plates ,both on Aussie frames. Ive seen kalgoorlie Menzies,Leonora,laverton ,broadarrow,orabanda,Norseman,Southern cross and Northam. they are gold . the owners had no interest whatsoever in parting with them ,and you learn not to even ask. I think they would have to date to WW1 and just after, but are usually fitted to frame from the late 20's and mid 30's

[hiflange]

Have a read of the article linked above. They came in in 1917 and were still being issued in the 60's. I have two bikes with plates, an early 50's Flash and a '30's The West. In the light of the seemingly endless calls to register bikes it'd be interesting to know why they were dropped.

[uart]

Have a read of the article linked above. They came in in 1917 and were still being issued in the 60's. I have two bikes with plates, an early 50's Flash and a '30's The West. In the light of the seemingly endless calls to register bikes it'd be interesting to know why they were dropped.

Yeah, it's a really interesting question Robert, and to be honest it's part of our history that I never even knew about before reading this thread. I don't recall ever seeing number plates on bicycles in NSW, and I've been here since the 1960s.

Regarding the reason for abandoning them, my guess would be that the rise and rise of the motor car simply made them close to irrelevant in terms of the amount of infrastructure and policing costs for the bicycle compared to the car. Remember that in the early part of last century in many places the bicycle would have been far more prevalent than the car, now of course that situation is completely reversed.

[Mediocratus]

There are some bicycle number plates on display in the Dongara Museum.

[Clydesdale Scot]

A quick search on Trove suggests it was a WA occurence only.
This 1939 article records that bikes were first registered in WA in 1932 and are also required to be registered in the Eastern States.
Not the best piece of journalism!

In 1950 the Melbourne City Council favoured the introduction, but the Police spokesman thought they would serve no useful purpose.
In 1939, the NSW Police Association thought it was a good idea. But I suspect there were other events on the horizon that were more pressing.

In 1950 a Miss Collingwood, from Brisbane who had ridden to all the states of Australia was in Rockhampton. It was recorded that "Her bicycle still carries a West Australian number plate."

Now did Oppy's bikes ever get registered when he rode in WA roads and carry the number plate?

[hiflange]

The history of the origins of bicycle numberplates in WA (including botched legislation that postponed the introduction by 4 years), is given in this article from 1917.

[zebee]

A friend of mine who had a number plate on his bike when he was young in WA said that they were dropped because the overhead of managing them was just too much. It cost more to keep track of them than the fee brought in and any benefit didn't cover the shortfall.