That’s right, Volkswagen Australia developed its own model specifically for the local market way back in the late-1960s.
Volkswagen formally assembled Completely Knocked Down kits of its Beetle in a factory situated in Clayton, Victoria from 1954 up until 1976, which spawned a unique model named the Country Buggy.
Using a combination of parts from the Beetle and its Kombi, Volkswagen began work on the Country Buggy for initially the Australian Army in the early-1960s before offering it to the general public.
The needs of the military called for an amphibious, four-wheel-drive vehicle tough enough to cope with the Australian environment.
Designed by Volkswagen Australia’s then-Managing Director Rudi Herzmer and Engineer Cyril Harcourt at the Clayton factory.
Given the development name Kurlerwagen, drawings for the project were completed in 1964, with a prototype completed late the next year and testing occurred through 1965-1967. More than 50,000km of testing was completed by Engineer Paul Kochan.
Required to be approved by the German Head Office, two Country Buggies were sent to Wolfsberg along with Herzmer. Soon it was discovered, Volkswagen in Germany was developing something similar to become the 181 and the project was given approval.
The Melbourne Motor Show provided the first public viewing of the Country Buggy in March, 1967 ahead of production in July, though showroom sales were delayed until April 1968 due to resolving problems revealed in testing.
Despite the military requiring the Country Buggy to be four-wheel-drive and amphibious, the final version was neither of these, so were not both by the Australian Army.
Hitting deep financial trouble in 1968, Volkswagen Australia’s manufacturing methods changes significantly leading to the end of Country Buggy production.
After only eight months on sale, 842 Country Buggies were sold and 459 were sent in CKD form to Singapore, New Zealand, many small pacific nations in addition to the Phillipines.
Technical specs of the Country Buggy included a Type 1 chassis, an Australian-designed body featuring no doors, a sloping nose and interestingly an exhaust fed through holes in the body underneath to prevent bottoming out.
Suspension was traverse torsion springs and trailing arms front and rear, with portal axles, rear hubs all sourced from the Type 2.
A Volkswagen air-cooled, four-cylinder, boxer engine was offered in two configurations.
Other options included a soft top, front towing eyelet, power take off and a limited slip diff was planned for future iterations.
At a cost of $1598, it was probably a bit ahead of its time due to the popularity of SUVs in the current marketplace, but in the Phillipines it proved an absolute winner.
Called the Sakbayan, the Filipino offering was slightly different and was produced up until the 1980s.