If you haven’t heard the name Burt Munro, allow me to make the introduction. Herbert “Burt” James Munro was born in 1899 in Invercargill in Southland NZ. Burt was passionate about motorcycles and spent twenty years completing his 1920 Indian motorcycle, which he would test-drive on Oreti Beach. He set his first speed record in Aotearoa in 1938, and set seven more.
As depicted in the excellent 2005 movie ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’, Burt travelled to Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah to compete in the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials in his Indian motorcycle. He attended Speed Week ten times and set three world records: in 1962 (178.95 mph); in 1966 (168.07 mph) and in 1967 (190.07 mph).
Burt married Florence Beryl Martyn in 1927 and they had four children. He died in 1978 at the age of 78 and is buried in Invercargill.
After the success of ‘The World’s Fastest Indian,’ the Southland Motorcycle Club created the Burt Munro Challenge, which began in 2006.
Some people associate my ‘Protect Endangered New Zealand Sea Lion’ campaign with Burt Munro. This is an incorrect assumption. Burt Munro test-drove his motorcycle on Oreti Beach in Southland; my campaign targets beaches in the Clutha Region (Otago), for the purpose of protecting endangered New Zealand sea lions/pakake and yellow-eyed penguins/hoiho. Since the 1970’s, vehicles have become faster, larger, and more powerful than in Burt’s time. Since the 1970’s, Aotearoa’s population has significantly grown; in 1970 the population was 2.811 million: compared to 5.127 million today. Tourism has significantly increased; pre-COVID, tourism was Aotearoa’s biggest export industry, contributing 20.1% of total exports.
Times have changed, and evolving with the times, does not diminish Burt Munro’s legacy or the respect one has for him.