Murray Aunger drove an open topped Dort motorcar across Newcastle Waters on the way to Port Darwin in the Northern Territory in 1922. This was one of three Dort cars on an expedition to assess a route for a railway to run from Adelaide to Port Darwin. Aunger had no choice but to take the cars through the flooded waters almost totally submerged. Amazingly he had all three cars running smoothly within 30 minutes.

The expedition consisted of Murray and Cyril Aunger as mechanics, Thomas McCallum, South Australian politician, H Crowder, and SA White, the noted naturalist and explorer. They would make the crossing to Port Darwin in 30 days, and return to Adelaide by a circuitous route through Cloncurry, the River Darling, and Mount Gambier, in all covering 8800 kilometres.

Murray Aunger had made the south-north crossing previously in 1908 with HH Dutton in a Talbot car, so was familar with the difficulties of the route, and the total lack of made roads.

Davis, Pedr Wheels across Australia: motoring from the 1890s to the 1980s Hurstville, N.S.W.: Marque Publishing, 1987

Linn, Rob Nature's pilgrim: the life and journeys of Captain S.A. White, naturalist, author and conservationist Netley, S. Aust.: South Australian Government Printer, 1989