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Lambrettas have been imported into Australia since late 1949, with the model B. This makes us the first English speaking country to be able to take advantage of the World's Finest Scooter. Australia has a large Italian decent population, and rumour has it that there are some very old Model A's here, but they would have to be personal imports.
Initially, Lambrettas seem to have been coming in through Perth, in Western Australia, but there were a number of distributors around Australia, reflecting our seemingly national distrust of anything that even smacks of Federal.
The 1950's saw two monotube racers being imported, both of which exist today. one of which re-surfaced for the first time at our 60th anniversary celebrations in Sydney in October 2007. Also, a team from Winterbottom's, in Perth, took a word record for distance in 24 hours, and won a gold medal from Innocenti for the effort.
In the Mid 60's Lambretta seemed to loose its way a little, and the imports seriously dried up, with new machines being canabilised to keep existing machines on the road. This seems to be born out by the rarity of original Australian Import SX200's and other models of that era.
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By the late 1960's, Lambretta Concessionaires, of UK infamy, took over the Australian national distributorship and based themselves in Sydney.
They introduced the GP and Luna range to Australia and there seemed to be some excitement from the press. Unusually, both ranges were introduced with indicators, ready for the expected national requirement. The GP's were even used by Australia Post and there are a few examples of "Postie" Bikes still around, although few are in their original livery. By 1971, though, it was all over from the Italian Factory.
Through the 1970's and 1980's we have examples of the Spanish Lambrettas being imported through Paul John's Scooter Centre of Perth, and the SIL built Lambrettas also being imported through into the 1990's.
Today, there are still Lambrettas being imported by a couple of shops, or by private individuals. Obviously, these are all now second hand. We seem to have become a source of machines for the Luna range, though, as we seem to have had a high proportion of these radical machines.
2009 sees 60 Years of the World's Finest Scooter in Australia and, especially considering our remoteness, the marque is still going strong. Recognised for the beautiful machines that they are.
