Rod Hadfield, one of Australia’s best known hot rodders, created the “Fire Chief.” Photo from Hatfield’s Hot Rods Facebook fanpage.

Living in southern California, we often think of ourselves as the center of the hot rod world. Yeah… we can be conceited and short-sighted that way, especially when our east coast friends like Bobby Alloway and Goolsby Customs cranking out some beautiful rods weekly.

Occasionally we pull our heads out of the sand long enough to realize that our international friends in Canada, The UK, and Sweden also have a great hot rod scene. Many times they send us photos and invitations to some of their popular events. If our publisher gave us a travel budget, you can bet that we’d go for at least a two week trip and hit some of the shows.

Hadfield’s T-Coupe. Photo from www.clubhotrod.com.

There is one continent that we simply don’t give enough credit for their vibrant hot rod culture. Australia has long been a haven for rodders and car enthusiasts. We wanted to take a moment and cheer on our mates from down under.

Aussies are as hard core fans of motorsports as there are anywhere. From land speed racing to drag racing, supercars to burnout contest, you can find anything in their unique environment. The only thing that you will not find is a lack of passion. Australians are passionate about cars. All cars.

Australia has a national highway that runs the perimeter of the country’s coastline, and is isolated from other countries which necessitates the need to design and manufacturing of their own vehicles. Two of the country’s foremost automotive brands stood out as the “us” and “them” car groups for allegiance. Australian auto enthusiasts fell into the Ford or Holden group, with support for the brand stronger than anything else know in the automotive world.

Norm Longfield’s cherry red T-bucket. Photo from Australian Hot Rodder Facebook fanpage.

Kustom Kulture Australia is one of our favorite blogging sites for all kustom culture, not just Australian customs. With some of the neatest and most interesting amateur photography compiled with local show coverage and car features, a reader can get lost for hours within their posts.

Australian Hot Rodder covers mostly modern custom and hot rod builds in a country of very talented hot rod builders. We’re not talking Mad Max type builds either. Most of these builds would be claimed by any country’s hot rod culture and probably capture many awards wherever they went.

Rod Foote’s 1932 Ford roadster. Photo from Australian Hot Rod History.

Being curators and enthusiasts of hot rod history, the site we most enjoy that covers Australia’s hot rod history is Australian Hot Rod History. The site provides a great mix of legendary hot rod events from the past, car features of historical hot rods and where they are now, and some current events or cars that have historical ties to the past.

Going through the articles in the Australian Hot Rod History site is like perusing through a who’s who magazine of Aussie rod builders. When you are looking for the Boyd Coddington or Chip Foose from the southern hemisphere, you’ll find Rod Hadfield, Eddie Ford, Barry Fletcher, and Peter Swift.

Barry Fletcher’s 1930 roadster, which was originally outfitted with a three-carb Y-block shown here in 1962. Photo from Australian Hot Rod History.

So today, we lift our heads out of the southern California sand and give a nod to our hot rod friends in the land of the southern cross. Carry on Oz, pedal down.

Fletcher’s Model A was one of the first Australian hot rods to be fitted with a small-block Chevy. Photo from Australian Hot Rod History.