Penny-farthing bicycle, c1888

• Penny-farthings were a type of bicycle popular in Europe and other parts of the world in the 1870s and 1880s, before they were replaced by chain-driven 'safety bicycles' that resemble the bicycles still in use today. Penny-farthings had a large diameter front wheel and a smaller rear wheel and were named after the English coins, the relatively large penny, and the much smaller farthing, worth quarter of a penny.
• Because they had no gears, the front wheels of penny-farthings were made large to achieve more speed (and distance) with one revolution of the pedals. The cyclist had to ride almost on top of the front wheel, making it difficult to mount, and impossible to stop safely without first leaping off the bicycle, because the rider's feet could not touch the ground.
• This penny-farthing, known as 'The Victory', was made in Melbourne by H Bassett & Co., a company in Elizabeth Street that assembled the bike on a special order, using parts imported from England. In the 1860s Australia had an active local industry making 'boneshakers', a type of early bicycle with an iron frame and wooden wheels, but the frames of penny-farthings required lightweight, high-strength, tapered steel tubing that was not being made in Australia at the time.
• 'The Victory' was owned by a prominent member of the Melbourne Bicycle Club, George William Burston (1859-1924) who used this bike when he and a fellow club member, Harry Stokes, set off from Melbourne on a 'world tour' by bicycle in November 1888. It took the pair ten months to reach London, having cycled an estimated 10,000 miles (16,000 km) of the way through parts of Australia, Asia and Europe, travelling the rest of the way on steam ships. Their biggest distance travelled in a day was 132 miles (212 km) across northern India.
• Burston and Stokes were among the first Australians to make a journey to Europe mostly overland. Their serialised adventures were followed at home in The Australasian newspaper, and in 1890, Burston published a book called 'Round about the world on bicycles: the pleasure tour of G. W. Burston and H. R. Stokes'. On their return, they told fellow Bicycle Club members the worst roads they saw anywhere in the world were the ones in Australia at that time.
• Although their adventure took place before federation, in the years when Australia was still governed as separate colonies, the Victorian-born Burston and Stokes believed they made their tour as representatives of Australia with one newspaper report quoting Burston as saying that because of the degree of public interest in the tour, he felt as though he was setting off as an Australian who must acquit himself well, and Burston's book makes frequent references to them being Australians.
• The Melbourne Bicycle Club, founded in 1878 staged regular racing events on penny-farthings, and in 1887 it inaugurated what is now the oldest and most distinguished track cycling race in Australia, the 'Austral'. Initially staged on grass at the Melbourne Cricket Ground over a distance of 3 miles (4,800 m), this annual race involved penny-farthings until 1893 when it became a wheel race.

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