Games | Bunbury Mail | Bunbury, WA

When French photojournalist Jean Dulon recounts the story of his 24,000km trip around Australia in a tiny Renault 29 years ago, one of the most astonishing facts was he did not hit a single kangaroo. "We did hit one rabbit. But no, not a kangaroo," he said. And yet there are those of us who only have to drive from Canberra to Cowra and it's like vast mobs of eastern greys have descended to graze on the verges of the Lachlan Valley Way, waiting for the next ACT-plated car to swing around the corner. Such an untarnished trip to the four corners of the country almost beggars belief, yet the proof sits parked and perfect in the Talking Blak to History gallery at the National Museum of Australia. Monsieur Dulon's epic journey idea had its beginnings at the Paris Motor Show in 1992 when an odd little car known as the Renault Twingo was first unveiled to the world. This was the-then state-owned manufacturer's new "car for the masses"; cheap and cheerful, with two doors, a long-sliding rear seat and a fabric sunroof. It planted the seed which, when Sydney was announced the following year as the venue for the 2000 Olympics, Monsieur Dulon took to the marketing folk at Renault; to take a Twingo to Australia, drive it all around the continent and prove its reliability to the world, filming the most remote parts of Australia along the way, and writing stories about the journey for a French magazine Never mind that the left-hand drive Twingo was rejected as a potential export to Australia; the enthusiasm of the effusive Frenchman had its way over the Renault bosses and he secured a car out of New Caledonia, shipping it to Sydney for its remarkable journey. Veronique, his partner, joined him along the journey but curiously, she had to hide in the footwell when he filmed himself driving. It was, it seems, meant to be portrayed as a solo journey. Along the way, while in Adelaide, Monsieur Dulon met famed Indigenous artist, designer and athlete John Moriarty, and the two struck up a friendship. It led to the little Twingo travelling to Borroloola in the Northern Territory where it received a unique new paint job in the Moriarty-designed style, similar to that of two much larger and very obvious Qantas 747s at the time, respectively painted with Wunala and Nalanji Dreamings. READ MORE: After the Frenchman's long journey - which took him to places as far distant as Cape York and Warburton in outback Western Australia, with only one flat tyre along the way - Monsieur Dulon had the boldly-daubed little car shipped back to his home in Nice, where it served as a family runabout until the National Museum acquired it and brought it back to Australia in 2016. Slipping back behind the wheel again after so many years, the French journalist clearly had nothing but affection for the little car. "You know we had some very interesting times in this car. So many kilometres - and so much red dust!" he said.

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