Car Queen travelled in during Tasmania tour on display

Launceston car collector Ken Silver parked his 1946 cream Packard out the front of the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania in Invermay on the National Day of Mourning.

Mr Silver said the Packard had belonged to Mrs Rod O'Connor, who was a friend of the Duke.

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The O'Connors owned the Connorville wool property in Cressy in the state's North, where the Queen and Prince Phillip spent an evening during their Tasmanian tour.

It was from the back passenger seat that the Queen experienced Launceston's greatest marvel.

"The evening that they arrived out there, Mrs O'Connor brought the Queen and the Duke into Launceston to see the newly lit Cataract Gorge," he said.

"They couldn't use the royal cars because everyone would have known about it, so they used Mrs. O'Connor's car."

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It was only recently that Mr Silver learned of the car's touch with royalty.

He bought the car in 1990, from a man who had kept the car, dismantled and recovered it, and advertised it in The Examiner.

"I never bought the car knowing any of that," Mr Silver said.

"I'm a member at the Veteran Car Club ... and the older hands at Cressy told me, more than one ... 'Oh, yes, I remember that car, that's the car that took the Queen to the gorge', and, and so on, and I heard the story so many times," he said.

"I believe also it was noted in The Examiner a few days later that the royal couple had been spotted in Mrs O'Connor's car."

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Mr Silver said it was extraordinary to find out.

"It was interesting, because I did know the property, and I was a schoolboy during the royal visit, and I stood there with the flag and waved to the Queen when she came by, so I knew all about it, I had a book about the Royal Tour, so it wasn't really a complete surprise to me," he said.

He said only two of the cars had ever come to Tasmania, and the other one was sold to a collector, and eventually caught fire and burned.

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Mr Silver said the car had attracted a crowd of curious locals, driven by an interest to know about the late Queen and her visit to Launceston.

"It's been interesting and I've learned quite a bit from it too," he said.

Mr Silver said he hadn't used the car for two years.

Having owned the car for three decades, Mr Silver said it was a shame it took the Queen dying for people to have an interest in the story.

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