Visit to Charlie's Auto Museum, Victoria

By: Guy Allen - Words & Photos

Date: 19.02.2020

Looking for an excuse to go for a drive out of Melbourne? Try Charlie's Place

Long-term collector and museum owner Charlie Schwerkolt is one of those rare people who has been able to turn his unquestionably quirky tastes into a public resource and have some fun along the way. Located at Arthurs Seat on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Charlie’s Auto Museum houses one of the most eclectic gatherings of automotive flamboyance that you’ll encounter anywhere in the country.

Though the collection isn’t huge, it has a fascinating mix of conventional and oddball gear, with an emphasis on the latter. Rubbing doorhandles with a perfectly normal early Holden, for example, is a V8 Tatra. In fact there’s a couple of the Czech breed floating about, and they’re premium models. Then there are not one, but two Bricklins – the ultra-rare, low-volume futuristic Canadian creations that never really made it in the commercial world.

It’s kinda funny to be wandering through, watching a classic Bathurst race on a TV monitor that hangs from the rafters above a collection of microcars and Studebakers, including a four-door version of an Avanti. Yep, a four-door – so someone got creative with the fibreglass.

We first featured this place several years ago and it’s worth reminding people of its existence. We dropped in recently for a staff drive and, as is often the case with old cars, one of them decided it needed a little rest and went home on a traytop. This time it was Guido’s BMW 633.

Any petrol-head will get something out of a visit and it’s as good an excuse as any to go for a drive…

| Read more: Charlie's Auto Museum visit, 2013

Charlie’s Auto Museum

175 Purves Rd
Arthurs Seat,
Victoria 3936

Tel (03) 5989 6320

Charliesautomuseum.com.au

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