History > 1910 

 

"Every Motor Car shall be registered by the Chief Commissioner who shall keep a register and shall assign a separate identifying number" 

[Motor Car Act 1909, s.4 (1)] 

In Victoria, a vehicle registration system was first adopted in the early 20th century as a simple means of vehicle identification. The Motor Car Act was enacted on 4 January, 1910 however official number plates were not provided by the Registry until 1932. These first plates inherited a numeric only format with the first low numbers being issued to the Governor General and other vehicles in his fleet.

                

The number 100-000 was not reached until April 1926. Number 167-792 was the last number of this first block, which was issued on 1 February, 1932. This first series of plates was either user provided or manufactured commercially, which led to a vast variety in plate styles.

The initials VIC were not used on this first series. While colours should have been white numerals on a black background, this wasn’t always the case and specimens still exist today of silver coloured or natural alloy numerals. Numbers were either hand painted or riveted on to cast metal or pressed bases, sizes varied. Above is a rare example on a wooden base.

History > 1932 

The first official Victorian number plate was issued on 2 February, 1932 by the newly formed ‘Motor Registration Branch’. The 1932 Motor Car Act consolidated earlier legislation and the responsibility lay with the then Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police (1925 – 1936) Sir Thomas Blamey, to ensure all vehicles complied. Plates issued in the previous years (1910 – 1932) were replaced with this new style of plate and incorporated into this new system, with owners retaining the same registration number.

          

All plates in this new system were commercially manufactured and supplied to the motorist by the government. The plates were made of heavy gauge steel with embossed numbers and coated in vitreous enamel. The initials VIC were aligned vertically to the left and was the first time the state identification was used. Brass eyelets were inserted in the holes for attachment to vehicles. This enamel numeric issue continued to number 285-000 and ceased on 19 May, 1939.

History > 1984  

The Heritage Plate Auction was held by the Road Traffic Authority (now Vicroads) at the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre on 21 October, 1984. The auction gave Victorian motorists the opportunity to bid for the states’ most prized historic, distinctive and commemorative vehicle registration plates. The highlight of the auction was the offering of forty eight ‘historic’ plates ranging between numbers 1 and 197, of course the coveted VIC #1 plate was the draw card. This was the first time in Victoria’s motoring history that the number 1 plate was offered (initially held back from issue) and was fiercely contested and subsequently sold for $165,000 - a substantial amount in its day.

                     

These historic plates, which are commonly referred to as ‘auction style' enamels by collectors, were different from their predecessors in that the bases were flat. The characters were still embossed with the plate base coated in vitreous enamel although the numerals were simply rolled in white paint. 

Thirty eight ‘distinctive’ plates were auctioned, those being numbers in even hundreds including: 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 and also repeating number formats, 555, 666, 777, 888 and 999. The distinctive plates included other eye catching combinations in even thousands e.g. 2-000 and 3-000 and 2-222, 3-333 etc. The only running number to be offered was 123-456.

*The passages above are extracts from "Victorian Number Plates - A Complete History" (2005) by Maurice Mangiagli