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- Martin Taximeter (c. 1960s)
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- Red Top Taxi Service model car
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- Female taxi driver P. Morrison (1961)
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- Silver Top Taxi Service
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- Yellow Cabs of Australia postcard (c. 1927)
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- Female taxi driver P. Neicho (1968)
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- Advertisement for Arrow Taxi (c. 1970s)
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- Husband & wife taxi driving team B. & V. Batrich (1984)
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- Schmidt taximeter (c. 2000s)
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- Female taxi driver G. Leahy (1966)
In the Driver’s Seat: A history of Victoria’s female taxi drivers 1918–2008
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne, Victoria
Australia
Research
In the Driver’s Seat will explore the rich social history of female taxi drivers in the Victorian taxi industry, utilising the State Library of Victoria’s unique and extensive collections.
Very little scholarly research and writing has been undertaken about the Victorian taxi industry to date – an industry that not only provides transport service, but also plays an integral role in the life of Victorian communities. In particular there has been a complete absence of studies on female taxi drivers from the State of Victoria or for that matter anywhere else in Australia. This research project aims to address this significant gap in Australia’s social history.
Throughout the history of Victoria’s taxi industy, taxi driving has appealed to a wide array of women for a diversity of reasons. For many women it provided a good fall-back position during difficult economic times or in-between jobs, while for others it presented important entrepreneurial opportunities to establish a business. Melbourne’s first female taxi driver was a solicitor and barrister who was dismissed for alleged professional misconduct. She became a taxi driver in 1918 and drove for a while before eventually returning to practice law. Some women approached the taxi business as a family concern and as such shared driving the taxicab with their husbands. Others took on the taxi profession with a great entrepreneurial vigour, gradually investing in a number of taxi licenses, which enabled them to diversify their business interests and investments.
As a recipient of the State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowship (2009-2010), Christine Eid will undertake this study at the library as well as record and archive oral histories of past and present female taxi drivers, providing important source material for a book manuscript.