Car Features

The Creepy Crawly Rally lives on

In late August, 2025, Historic Vehicles came across a NSW Creepy Crawly Rally event, held in the Southern Highlands. There were some very rare and interesting vehicles on this run.

The origin of the ‘Creepy Crawly’ Rally dates back to 1991, in the UK, where a veteran-car enthusiast, Bryan Firth, organised a get-together for pre-1919 cars.

His inspiration came from the fact that the famous annual London to Brighton Run excluded post-1904-built veteran vehicles. Bryan came up with the idea of a rally for pre-1919-built, single-cylinder and twin-cylinder vehicles.

In contrast to the 60-mile, fixed-route London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, this rally would centre on locations around the UK that featured low-speed, lightly-trafficked roads.

It was called ‘Creepy Crawly’ because of the typical 25-35mph causing speeds of these vehicles.

The UK Creepy Crawly Rally became an instant success and has been run in the UK ever since. Naturally, that encouraged Aussie veteran car enthusiasts to emulate their Pommy mates and there are now several ‘Creepies’ run ever year in the eastern states and in South Australia.

The Crow Eaters (SA residents) took emulation a step further back in 1988, when The Vintage Sports Car Club of SA conducted ‘The Down Under London to Brighton Run’ for Veteran Cars and Motorcycles, based on the UK’s London to Brighton Run.

Owners of pre-1919 veteran cars in the VSCC found a London Road in the Adelaide Suburb of Mile End South. The Mayor of West Torrens Council acted as the ‘Lord Mayor of London’ for the event. The Mayor of Holdfast Council, responsible for the suburb of Brighton, presided over the assemblage of vehicles at Brighton. Thus began a tradition which has prevailed ever since.

NSW 2025 Creepy Crawly Rally

The rain god smiled on the 26 entrants and backed off a persistent deluge that has given parts of the Australian east coast more rain this year than has fallen since records began.

Mercifully, for the veteran vehicles that rolled out of their trailers in Moss Vale, the rain eased and then disappeared for a couple of days.

The chosen route for their short road journeys was on the B-roads of Southern Highlands, where the greatest hazards were soggy edges and countless potholes. One of the advantages of leisurely travel is ample time for the driver to avoid holes!

We caught up with the convoy at the scenic Fitzroy Falls lookout and grabbed some photos. We then did a closer inspection of some of the vehicles back at the Moss Vale Village Caravan Park.

We’re planning more detailed reports on some of these wonderful machines.