Henry Hampden Dutton, with Murray Aunger, decided to cross from Adelaide to Darwin by car, in 1907. The car was a 20hp Talbot with 4 speed gearbox. Aunger was a talented mechanic whose skills would be well utilised throughout the trip. The Depot Sandhills north of the South Australian border posed no great difficulty with the specially fitted Stepney wheels.

Sandhills were not the only problem posed for this pioneering attempt. There were of course no made roads, only wagon or animal transport tracks. Gibber plains of wind polished stones, rocky gorges and river crossings were encountered and once into the tropics heavy mud bogged the car irretrievably. Dutton and Aunger tried again the following year with another car, and on the way north, collected the Talbot which had been abandoned on the previous crossing and which was just as they had left it. On the second attempt they successfully completed the first north south crossing of Australia by motor car.