A Spanner in the Works: The Extraordinary Story of Alice Anderson and Australia’s Only All-Girl Garage

by Loretta Smith

This is Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls meets Australia's Sweetheart meets Amelia Earhart. It's the real-life story of a daring Australian woman who did something extraordinary - then met an early, mysterious end.

From the end of the Great War and into the 1920s, Alice Anderson was considered nothing less than a national treasure. She was a woman of 'rare achievement' who excelled as a motoring entrepreneur and inventor. Young, petite, boyish and full of charm, Alice was the only woman in Australia to successfully pull off an almost impossible feat: without family or husband to back her financially, she built a garage to her own specifications and established the country's only motor service run entirely by women.

Alice was also an adventurer, and her most famous road trip occurred in 1926 in a Baby Austin she had purchased exclusively to prove that the smallest car off a production line could successfully make the 1500-mile-plus journey on and off road from Melbourne to Alice Springs, central Australia.

However, less than a week after her return, Alice was fatally shot in the head at the rear of her own garage. She was only twenty-nine years old. Every newspaper in the country mourned her sudden loss. A coronial inquest concluded that Alice's death was accidental but testimonies at the inquest were full of inconsistencies.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Australia, Book Club, Historical

366 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2019

About the author

Loretta Smith is a Melbournian, born and bred, and she loves a good adventure story. Always a reader, avid writer and sometime songwriter/musician, her bedside table brims with books half devoured and her laptop is filled with short stories, long stories, tall and true. Yes, she is a Gemini. More recently her passion has been discovering remarkable women whose stories are yet to be fully told—those women overshadowed by their men, lost to history or simply ignored. So many stories are to be found and so many reflect extraordinary achievements against incredible odds, the stuff of any adventure worth telling.

'A Spanner in the Works' is her first book.

Reviews

[ALPHAreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I am one of Loretta's agents, so OF COURSE I love this.

But there is a reason that this is the first adult non-fiction manuscript I chose to represent; because Alice Anderson's story is feminist and subversive, it confronts the erasure of women (and LGBT+ women in particular) from history head-on and ... it's just a bloody good, rollicking read!

I've been saying it's a real-life Melburnian cross between Phryne Fisher, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - complete with glittering celebrities, motoring symbology, and a tragic end to the magnetic character at the hubcap of it all.

[Craig Hingston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a motoring enthusiast since I could say the word “Car” so how is it that I never knew of the amazing Alice Anderson? What an amazing visionary with passionate self-belief and endless energy!!! How tragic that she was taken from us so young. I dare say if she had lived longer she would have been a pioneer in aviation and many other fields. Read this in one session.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alice Anderson was a young woman who took on life in a bold manner and was not afraid to live outside of the expectations society placed on young women at the time. She was an adventurer and a trailblazer. Though her life was sadly all too short her achievements were great and thanks to this book she is not a forgotten name in history.

[✰ BJ's Book Blog ✰Janeane ✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am ashamed to say that before this book, I had never heard of Alice Anderson, her all-ladies garage or her adventures.

What a wonderful, adventurous life did Alice Anderson lead. She is the kind of woman that I would love to have been friends with.

Smart, professional, and oh so ambitious - I feel like I have done nothing in my life compared to what Alice did in her short life.

And to do it all with none of the technology we have today makes her feats even more amazing.

Ms Smith has written Alice's story in a way that makes you feel like you are one of Alice's "garage girls", that you are living in the 1920s and are drawn into all the escapades.

I really enjoyed learning about Alice, and feel that her story needs to be out there again.

*copy received from Hachette Australia for an honest review*

[Jillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was sick of reading biographies and memoir for book club, but this book caught my attention in a recent review in the Australian Book Review magazine and I just knew I had to read it. The life and times of Australia's first female car mechanic is fascinating. A thoroughly good read.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love it when authors uncover forgotten people whose contribution to society has been lost in the ensuing years. Loretta Smith's biography of Alice Anderson who owned Australia's first all-female garage ('A Spanner in the Works') takes us back to the 1910s and 20s when Alice founded a motor service that included driving lessons, tourist tours, chauffeuring and repairs. Never one to be limited by society's expectations, Alice was forthright, a true pioneer and, by all accounts a jolly, happy and loved boss. The story follows Alice's very early childhood; at least a quarter if not more of the book is devoted to her father and his struggles and the family's peripatetic life, which I found to be irrelevant and slowed the pace of the book: I couldn't wait to read about Alice's career. The story finally perks up and I enjoyed the description of Alice's travels in Central Australia. The ending is a sad one, and the following Epilogue traces the final demise of Alice's garage. It's certainly a story worth telling. Well-written, it vividly evokes the times when women were seen as subservient to men, and when it took courage to go against the mainstream. Alice is no longer forgotten.

[Leah Veritay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, a massive thank you to Loretta for bringing Alice's story to life. It's crazy to think that we're only finding out about Alice in such detail now, almost a century after her death. This was a fantastic read and even though it was chronological, it didn't take away from Alice's development as a pretty phenomenal woman who just wouldn't take no for an answer. There's an astonishing quote from the solicitor of the Automobile Club Victoria belittling women drivers. Now if that doesn't light a fire in your belly, I don't know what will! What Alice managed to achieve in such a short time as a business woman, pioneer and entrepreneur is something to not only celebrate (Melbourne needs to look at creating some kind of event) but to also take a whole lot of inspiration from. For Alice, as a woman living in the early 1900s, to have achieved such success in a male dominated industry, it is quite simply, awe-inspiring.

[Janie Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a fascinating look at both Alice's life and the historical and social context of it. In a book group, we discussed Melbourne society at the time, our own memories of what life had been like for women of our mothers and (later even in some ways our own) in that period. We talked about the hardships she had endured, as well as about her determination to succeed and adventurous nature. Her parents were interesting too, in the way her father was obViously brilliant but hopeless too and casual in just giving her the vehicle, to solve his problem. Her mother was long suffering but still managed to keep up standards.
It was a real snapshot too, of an education available for some girls.

[Louise Grogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Anderson is a national treasure.
Thank you Loretta for bringing this amazing story to us.
Your passion for the story is obvious given the research and detail you have gone into.
Being a Melbournian especially enjoyed references to local areas.
A Spanner in the Works should be on secondary school reading lists. Keep our history alive

[Lesley Shears · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating glimpse into early 1900s Australia and the changes brought about by the introduction of the motor car, it is also the story of a gutsy young woman making her own way in the world at a time when women's place in society was changing.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to write a turn-the-page biography while sticking strictly to non-fiction, but Loretta Smith succeeded beautifully with her story of Alice Anderson, based on amazing, dedicated and diligent research. The author writes well and I've also heard her speak engagingly about Alice at an event organised by Family History Connections/AIGS in Melbourne.

After reading this book I wished I'd been a child of the 1920s, when women could aspire to something more than what was dished up to us as our destiny during my girlhood in 1950s Australia. This book should be in every library and on the reading list for everyone interested in the place of women in Australian society.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story and Smith tells it with gusto. Much more a popular history than an academic one, Smith brings Anderson to life on the page, and shows us a different kind of Melbourne in the process. It is easy to forget that between the wars, a different kind of world seemed possible in some city milieus, and while the book focuses on Anderson's professional achievements and is careful not to overstep the evidence, the exhilarating glimpses of a queer subculture poke through pretty clearly. Fun and fascinating.

[Christine Yunn-Yu Sun · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written biography illustrates how a person experiences the events in their life. It presents a comprehensive and captivating story that reveals their values and visions. By analysing how that person’s views and actions are assessed by their contemporaries, it highlights not just their character but the characteristics of their time.

A case at hand is Loretta Smith’s superbly-titled book, A Spanner in the Works, which tells the extraordinary story of Alice Anderson and Australia’s very first all-female garage.

Alice was born in Malvern, the well-to-do suburb of Melbourne, in 1897. Her father Joshua Anderson, together with John Monash, offered civil, mining and mechanical engineering consulting services across Victoria.

After a series of reckless business decisions and failures to secure work overseas, Joshua relocated his family to Narbethong in 1907. Here, in isolation and poverty, Alice learned to be resourceful and resilient, always ready to take on life’s challenges.

As automobiles became increasingly popular in Australia, Alice’s father launched a transport service between Healesville and Alexandra in 1915. From the mechanics working there, the girl quickly obtained driving skills and knowledge of motorcar maintenance and repair work.

In 1916, at the age of 19, Alice became the first woman to singlehandedly drive an automobile over the Black Spur. She proceeded to launch her own motor touring business, using a 1914 Hupmobile – a birthday present from her father after he failed to pay it off – to drive families across the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges.

Highly innovative and entrepreneurial, Alice was the first woman in Australia to provide a private motorised service to the public. Having become a fully licensed mechanic in 1918, she launched Miss Anderson’s Motor Service in Kew, an inner suburb of Melbourne, It was an all-women garage, which sold petrol, repaired cars, taught driving, and offered 24-hour chauffeur service.

In 1920 there was one car for every 55 people in Australia, and by 1929 it was one for every 11. As women became increasingly interested and involved in driving, Alice shared her experience of learning to operate, maintain and repair cars via newspapers and magazines. In Australia, she was by far the most authoritative voice on women and motoring.

In 1926, Alice was sponsored to drive a Baby Austin from Melbourne through South Australia to Alice Springs. Soon after her triumphant return from the 2,400-kilometre-plus journey, her life was tragically and violently cut short. She was only 29

The book is a celebration of Alice Anderson’s legacy. In vivid details, it portrays not only the inspirational life of a pioneer, but how she stood out at a time when much of our society was still uncomfortable with the idea of women being free and independent in the public domain.

Whether or not you subscribe to the common view of the early 20th century that “women drivers lack the nerve and judgement of the stronger sex”, A Spanner in the Works is a worthy read. Not just a biography – it is a brief history of motoring in Australia. Highly recommended.

Extra Reading: “Pioneering female mechanic Alice Anderson back in the spotlight” by Carolyn Webb, The Age, September 18, 2015. Here is an image of Alice Anderson sourced from the University of Melbourne Archives via this article.

Note: This book review was originally titled “Biography of female entrepreneur a worthy read”, and published under the title “Entrepreneur biography a worthy read” by Ranges Trader Star Mail, June 6, 2022, P.26.

Update August 17, 2022: Here is further reading on Miss Anderson’s Motor Service, written by Sarah Matthews at State Library Victoria, August 5, 2022.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fabulous biography of an almost forgotten Australian woman who should be an acclaimed National Treasure. Alice Anderson was the first woman in Australia to open her own automobile garage and the only one to have an all female workforce - the Garage Girls.

In the 1910s, through family vicissitudes, teenage Alice Anderson became the epitome of the Australian bush women, possibly outdoing the then popular Norah Linton from "A LIttle Bush Maid", the initial book in the classic Billabong series by Australian journalist/authorMary Grant Bruce. She could ride, shoot, fence, care for stock, come up with ingenious repairs/improvements around the house and farm, etc. Following their engineer father, with her family she had lived in New Zealand, England and Ireland, before returning to Victoria in Australia. Despite having a complicated educational history of her own, in her teens she began to school her younger siblings so well that her younger sister received a full three scholarship to a Melbourne Grammer School for Girls. At the same time her Protestant faith flowered and deepened.

After many other firsts, by 20, and in the androgynous 1920s, she had opened her own successful garage. The 'flapper' androgyny of the time plus the revolutionary change in womens' wear and employment during WWI, led to much speculation regarding Alice's own sexual orientation but there is no doubt that she supported friends and employees who were semi-public lesbians. This was not a crime as male homosexuality was, but was definitely considered seedy and outside the pale. Alice managed to walk the line whatever her private affairs were, using the new possibilities for publicity to her advantage.

One of the things that struck me in reading this story, was that all the work that Alice did in the 20s to give women the possibility of independence and a life that was not predicated on marriage and dependence on men, was undone in succeeding decades to the point that we basically started from scratch in the 1960s. Maybe her legacy was the knowledge that without legislation to keep us safe, all could fall away in a lifetime.

I found this very readable, lots of citations (so we know the writer didn't just make all this up) but they don't interfere with the story. At the same time, we hear lots of stories of women who believed that they could be independent and important in the evolving Australia in ways we rarely hear about now.

Highly recommended.

[Shreedevi Gurumurty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Elizabeth Anderson, born Alecia Elizabeth Foley Anderson (8 June 1897 – 17 September 1926), was an Australian businesswoman, garage proprietor, designer, and mechanic. Anderson was the owner of the first all-women garage workshop in Australia. Her parents were Irish born engineer Joshua Thomas Noble Anderson and Ellen Mary. She grew up in a bush house in Narbethong, a small town in the rural Melbourne, where she learned to hunt, fish, horse ride, and had her first contact with driving. At 18, Anderson started a part-time job as a clerical worker and, alongside, took groups on weekend touring trips. By 21, she settled in Kew and became a full-time worker for her tourism business. A year later, she acquired a block in Cotham Road, constructed a brick garage, and founded the Alice Anderson Motor Service enterprise. Inaugurated in 1919, Alice Anderson Motor Service was the first all-women garage. The services offered included vehicle repair, chauffeuring with garage-owned cars, interstate touring trips, driving classes, and petrol stations. In addition, women could take educational programs on engine technology, and participate in a mechanics apprenticeship. On 7 September 1926, Anderson was found dead in her workshop in Kew after a day's work. The coroner's report suggested that she accidentally shot herself while cleaning guns, and family and friends dismissed the possibility of suicide. Anderson was involved with several social clubs and associations like the Lyceum club, a club for prominent and influential women in the fields of arts, sciences, and contemporary issues. As an advocate for women in garage work, and female independence, she published press articles and contributed to motoring columns. Despite the fact that Alice had a limited formal education due to family finances, her life proved that one's experiences is an education in itself. She worked toward her goals despite familial and societal issues. She was very enterprising and barrelled on ahead to the next thing. Because of this book, I'm going to take cars and driving more seriously.

[Veronica Schwarz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story of one of Australia's forgotten heroes, Alice Anderson. At the beginning of the 20th century, the automobile was growing from a novelty to a familiar part of life. All things to do with it were considered in the male domain. One woman's passion blazed a trail of female liberation as she became first driver, then chauffeur, mechanic and tour guide. She was light hearted, adventurous and extremely competent with a car engine or a dangerous situation. She set up a service garage and employed only women, teaching them, housing them, befriending them. In the 1920s, following World War 1, women's role had a momentary flash of change with the rise of hemlines and the widening of acceptance for adventure and change. It was exciting, refreshing and brief. Following the Depression and World War 2, women were manipulated and pushed back into rigid feminine roles and, with the death of Alice Anderson, her all-woman garage declined and was forgotten. All things to do with the automobile once again became the realm of man.

[Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this book. I found out about it through my local library, as Loretta Smith was due to do a book talk there about it. So I bought a copy and then sadly due to the pandemic, the book talk could not go ahead. Alice Anderson was such an amazingly inspiring pioneer for women, being the first woman mechanic in Australia. I was surprised that I had never heard of her, considering the magnitude of her achievements and talents as a mechanic. She seemed like a plucky and courageous woman. I also loved reading about Smith's descriptions of early Melbourne and surrounding country Victoria. I actually learnt a lot about early Melbourne and the building of iconic Victorian roads, such as the "Black Spur".

Anderson set up her first garage in Kew. I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I love historical fiction and so really enjoyed reading something a bit different.

It's my favourite book that I read last year. A bit of a hidden gem really. Read it for sure! :D

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me wish I lived in 1920s Melbourne and had a fierce gang of female friends like Alice and her crew. There were so many women who were the ‘first’ Australian woman to...that I wanted to be apart of such an adventure. Alice Anderson created a life full of adventure and freedom for herself and enabled other women to come for the ride. While the depression, second war and prevailing attitudes eventually triumph and snuff out the progress these trailblazers made, I am still grateful that Loretta Smith has preserved this story is such a well researched and written book. Feminism, History and Melbourne- my three loves all in one book.

[Samantha Battams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this extraordinary tale of a significant historical figure. Quite an amazing early life and intriguing woman. I felt the book gets better as it goes along, and ended with a great mystery. Was amazed to find out that her venture to the Northern Territory was supported by pioneer aviator Captain Harry Butler's business (subject of The Red Devil, which I wrote with Les Parsons) - Butler & Nicholson. It occurred a couple of years after Harry Butler's death.

[Babette DiBella · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story regarding an Australian pioneering woman in the 1920's, who challenged societal norms through charm and wit.
The concept of an all woman mechanic garage is a novel idea, and one that I imagine would flourish even in the 2020's!
I found the moving back and forth between the 1920s distracting, especially as the overall gist of the book was linear.

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read (given that I volunteer in PROV and deal with a lot of material from this time - 1920s)
She was certainly a strong character. A lot of name dropping in the story, with which I struggled.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written book about an extraordinary woman; just enough detail about life in that era without bogging the story down. The author has done a wonderful job of bringing Alice to life, such a tragedy that her life was cut so short.

[Nicole Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a meticulously researched and beautifully written book about the life of Alice Anderson. Loretta Smith brings Alice to life for the reader and documents all that she achieved in her short life. A fascinating read of a time long past. Highly recommended.

[Denise Tannock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very inspirational lady.

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as audiobook.

Alice Anderson should be a national treasure! Her story is fantastic! So inspiring. I think I would have liked her as a friend!

[Donna R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alice, a woman with substance, vision and drive. Great story.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so much!

[Marion Brownlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating to read about the career & life of Alice Anderson

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

bring back to life, a forgotten pioneer , a strong intelligent woman , whom was forgotten by history.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

How fabulous were the women of first wave feminism. Such a shame we don't have many women mechanics 100 years later. A very interesting read about the power of persistence and resilience.