Gemma, who is fairly new to wheels herself set off to Peter Kittle's to
find out what happens when you put ...

Women on wheels

Attending a 'Women on Wheels' course was not what ..I had expected. We weren't used as crash test ```dummies, nothing was blown up and we all came out in one piece! What did happen was that we were split into three groups and we moved our way around to each different section of the workshop. The focus of the course was basically understanding how a car runs and what goes where.
Things such as checking your oil and water, knowing the difference between front and rear wheel drive, tyres, batteries, engine parts and daily vehicle maintenance and checks. The seminar ran for two hours, with the occasional "yee hahs!" being heard from across the room as yet another participant successfully changed a tyre!
The professional way the mechanics went about explaining what goes where and what is used for what, really impressed me. They answered all questions really well.
I think for the women who attended the course, it was informative and interesting, with the mechanics readily answering even the most irrelevant questions which we'd been dying to ask all night, "So how much money are all the tools in here worth?" and "What's the average age of a retired mechanic?" The answer to that question was actually really surprising - out of every fifteen mechanics in Australia, only one will still be working after forty years of age!
The most useful thing I learnt was changing a tyre and getting some sort of grasp as to what actually happens under the bonnet of a car. I also came out with a really snazzy certificate that I can proudly show off!
Living in the Terrritory, I think its a really good idea to take part in something like this. If you break down in the middle of nowhere, these skills could well save your life. It's good to see that Peter Kittle Motor Company will be conducting these courses on a regular basis and I urge all women in Tennant Creek take the opportunity to go.

After the workshop I asked participants Vasi Danbury, Linda Koehn and Julianne Walford to share their views.
Vasi: I think it should be for everybody whether you're an expert in cars or not. It's good practical skills to have and some sound knowledge.
Julianne: I disagree, I like the fact that it was just for women because the questions that most of us asked, I don't think we would have asked if we'd been surrounded by a group of guys.
Linda: They could compromise by having a men's night and a ladies' night.
Julianne: Oh yeah, but I do think women-only nights are a lot easier. I thought it was a good introductory lesson and I think people have benefited from just that. But in the next one, I'd like to be able to do it on my own car and have a more hands-on approach, like actually changing oil and brake fluid and whatever.
Linda: I agree. I enjoyed last night. I knew lots of bits and pieces anyway and I think a bit more in-depth as a secondary unit type thing would be good.
Vasi: In my group, I was the only one who changed the tyre and it would be good if perhaps some time was set aside for everyone to get a chance to change the tyre. On different cars too, because some of us drive smaller cars and some of us drive bigger cars. So you have the experience because a lot of people don't actually have the experience of changing tyres.
Perhaps at a further night you could use your own cars, then you can identify the different parts and the different way that your car works, compared to the new cars that they used on the night.
I think when you looking at Territory driving in particular, you're going to look into things like defensive driving, which is something they might want to think about doing in the future.
Jullianne: It would be good if it progressed to defensive driving.
Vasi: This was basic maintenance, just being able to check things and if you're going on a long trip, to make sure that the spare tyre is pumped up.
Linda: Some people weren't even aware of where the jack was in their car, so I think people will actually go and look for them now and think, "Oh! there is a jack included." I've never seen mine.
Jullianne: I think it would have been good to have had a couple of older cars too because I mean they're improving the cars so much. I mean, the oil filler was labelled and this and that was labelled. In my car none of it's labelled. I don't know which is the brake fluid and which is the clutch fluid unless I ask somebody.
Vasi: Quite a few people in my group were saying as they were looking over the bonnet that they didn't know some of the information they had been given out. Like how you're supposed to run the engine for a while like in a diesel for a couple of minutes before you check the oil because then it's a more accurate reading - things like that were really good.
Jullianne: It was an excellent introductory course to maintaining cars, I think.
Vasi: The information that Shane Murdoch gave us for underneath a vehicle was excellent. I'd never seen underneath a vehicle when it was hoisted up until last night. He pointed that this was the CV joint and this is the axle, muffler, all that sort of stuff.
Jullianne: It was good but I thought that part probably had too much. It was an overload of information you couldn't really understand. I mean you're never going to be in a situation where you have to do that in your own car, actually be underneath the car. It didn't have much relevance as did the other two sections.
Vasi: But he pointed out that you could identify the noises coming from the car and if you can identify the noises coming from your car, you're going to feel a bit more comfortable going into a service station and saying there's a noise coming from the front right hand side for example.
Jullianne: Congratulations should go to Peter Kittle, it was a free seminar and it got a lot of people there.
Vasi: I'd also like to congratulate the guys who took on the groups, they were obviously shy and embarrassed but I thought they handled the situation quite well. And to them I hope I didn't ask too many embarrassing, well basic questions for them, but not so basic for me!