THE late Eric \u2018Whirly\u2019\u00a0 Wilson purchased a 1927 Dodge \u201cFlying Four\u201d in 1956 with the intention to wreck it for parts.<\/p>\n
In 1958 the Ararat Golden Gateway Festival was formed and there was to be a street parade.<\/p>\n
Whirley being Whirley had to be part of it.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where the Southern Cloud, or as it is more affectionately known \u201cThe Old Bomb\u201d was born.<\/p>\n
In the days before its first outing, the Bomb was spray painted silver and the leaking radiator was replaced with a 13 gallon drum.<\/p>\n
From its very basic beginnings Whirly continually added bits and pieces to the Bomb, the highlight being the propeller on top which is a genuine aeroplane propeller off an Arvo Anson or Wirraway.<\/p>\n
In 1964 the Moomba Festival Committee contacted Whirley to enter the Southern Cloud in the parade.<\/p>\n
Over the next twenty\u00a0 years The Bomb and Whirly entered the Moomba parade eight or nine times winning the best country novelty award on all occasions.\u00a0 The first award was given in 1964 and the last in 1984.<\/p>\n
The Old Bomb was parked outside the Southern Cross Hotel at Moyston as a tourist attraction between 1963 and 1969 while Whirly was the licensee.<\/p>\n
Whirly, his family and friends travelled to many parades around country Victoria over the years, including Maryborough, Bendigo and Port Fairy to name a few.<\/p>\n
The Southern Cloud was put into storage, but in 2004 Whirly\u2019s kids got the car going as a surprise for his 80th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n The following year, after a fresh coat of paint, it was entered in Moomba for one last hurrah, with Whirly at the wheel.<\/p>\n All the propellers and moving parts on the Southern Cloud are driven by the original motor which still runs, except the magneto was replaced with a distributor.<\/p>\n The Bomb made its next appearance at Whirly\u2019s 90th<\/sup> birthday in 2014.\u00a0\u00a0 After Whirly\u2019s passing in 2017, the Wilson children decided to honour their father by entering the Bomb in the Golden Gateway Parade in Ararat where it all began.<\/p>\n Following negotiations with the Langi Morgala Museum the Bomb is now permanently housed there and will be open for public viewing from January 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n The museum is open Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 3pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Southern Cloud finds a new home
\nAN important part of Ararat\u2019s history has found its final resting place
\nSouthern Cloud was the creation of the late Eric \u2018Whirley\u2019 Wilson, originally made for the 1958 Golden Gateway Festival.
\nKnown affectionately as \u201cThe Old Bomb\u201d, the novelty car appeared in no fewer than eight Moomba parades and has been a highlight at countless community gatherings around the Ararat district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-3021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/IMG_2063-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-MJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3021"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}