Aloha Wanderwell: The first woman to drive around the world

It was 1922 when a 16-year-old Idris Welsh met self-appointed ‘Captain’ Walter Wanderwell. Within days she had adopted the stage name ‘Aloha Wanderwell’, and had taken off for an adventure by car.

After five years of driving a pair of heavily modified 1917 Ford Model Ts, tasked with translating and filmmaking along the way, Aloha became the first woman to drive around the world, as recognised by Guinness World Records.

“Our worst experiences were in the heat of Portuguese East Africa, where we were among natives who had never before seen white people, far less a car,” Aloha told reporters when she arrived in London, The Brisbane Courier reported on January 21, 1930.

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“They proved quite friendly, however, our real enemies being hunger and thirst. At one time we were fifty kilometres from water, and if our cars had broken down or our tyres punctured on the rough veldt we should have starved to death; but our Dunlops gave no trouble, and we eked out our precious petrol supply ‘til we arrived at comparative civilisation.”

She had just driven through 43 countries, covering nearly 100,000 kilometres in the process, and marrying the ‘Cap’ on their travels through the US in 1925.

The Wanderwells eventually presented a Model T to Henry Ford for use in the company’s museum.

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Tragically, in 1932, her husband Walter Wanderwell was murdered in California while on his yacht, one day before they were scheduled to leave on another adventure. The crime was never solved, but garnered widespread media fanfare.

A year later Aloha remarried to cameraman Walter Baker, and the two set off on a worldwide adventure in their V8-powered Ford Phaeton, showing their films and providing lectures along the way.

After 30,000km, and with 75 badges attached to the Ford, Aloha arrived in Perth with her husband in early May, 1936, telling the local Sunday Times they were planning to travel down the coast of Western Australia before heading east.

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“I have been told that the jarrahs and gums In the south-west are equal to the Californian redwoods, and I really must verify this. I also want to see some kangaroos," she said.

“I am very eager to cross the continent, and am looking forward to the journey across the plains. We are going to Melbourne and Sydney and probably as far north as Brisbane and then home, which we haven't seen since last September.”

Aloha wrote a number of feature stories for Australian Ford News during her time in the country, as they travelled across to Melbourne and as far north as Townsville, before returning south to Lismore, telling a local newspaper they would be visiting New Zealand before returning to the US.

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While she is best known for her motoring adventures, Aloha reportedly spoke 14 languages, and is credited with producing 12 films, in which she was cinematographer, screenwriter, director, and editor, including Australia Now.

Aloha spent the rest of her years living in the US, working in radio broadcasting and print journalism, before passing away on June 4, 1996, aged 89.

You can watch footage from Ahola’s travels in the video biography above, or learn more by visiting her website, curated by her family, by clicking here.