Perkins

Tom Humpphries who owned daly Waters hotel used to come to Alice and cart his own beer, another victim of the big dipper in the Alice hills

Kew Dodge and a Commer on th alice/darwin road, People in Darwin got tired of Swan lager again prefering VB and fruit and vegetables were available from SA so traffic increased steadily, Ted Stiles had a Commer traytop and Jimmy Burnett had a Bedford tray, hard to believe there could be money to be made with such small trucks but at 25 quid a ton seemed to be feasable, getting off the thread of Perkins, but will continue with the Perkins :-/R6!!! losing track, story of my life, Oh, to be out in the desert again, the deep red sand and the sky. all I ask is a strong truck and a track to steer her by, but enough poetry.

My old mate Ernie Warner on the left, great times together on the road, notice we took great care of the mailbags when tying down!!!

And lastly, this old truck, Ernie on the left, and I drove for yonks, I believe we had a temp gauge but not sure, speed limited, we were big iron in the day!!!

...nice pics Ron .. as you can see, we're all sitting here pretty much speechless....fantastic stuff

...just get your arse back over here and get back up the track....it'll do your soul wonders.....cheers mate

Even the Diamond "T"s met their match on some of the jumpups, just so steep with too many trailers.

not to question what you are saying looks more like a Federal than a Diamond T still all very intresting to me love to learn things all the time thanks for the photos and keep them coming Paul [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

getting off the thread of Perkins, but will continue with the Perkins :-/R6!!! losing track, story of my life,

Ron ol mate,

You can get off track any time ya like cos when ya get off track we be gett'in more infermayshun on ya exploits.

Keep post'in them thar pics ol mate. [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Regards, Buc.

Kew Dodge and a Commer on th alice/darwin road, People in Darwin got tired of Swan lager again prefering VB and fruit and vegetables were available from SA so traffic increased steadily, Ted Stiles had a Commer traytop and Jimmy Burnett had a Bedford tray, hard to believe there could be money to be made with such small trucks but at 25 quid a ton seemed to be feasable, getting off the thread of Perkins, but will continue with the Perkins :-/R6!!! losing track, story of my life, Oh, to be out in the desert again, the deep red sand and the sky. all I ask is a strong truck and a track to steer her by, but enough poetry.

Surely my eyes deceive me. Is that "Express Freight " written on the front bumper of the Commer. Those two words associated with a Commer pulling a bogie trailer would have to be the best definition of an oxymoron ever. But having said that, it is a smart looking unit.

Detective, yes you detected right on, in the mid '90's I took my bride to Brissie, bought a little Toyota van and took off around the country, seats folded down to camp in and drove up the centre to ease my soul! I met her when I was carting scrap metal from Darwin to Adelaide in the late '50's, gave her and her mate a lift from Alice down, took 6 days, didn't pass a Jimmy or a White. She was from London town, lifted my lip and checked my teeth, gums and eyes, figured I would make good breeding stock. Driving up the South road you could see bit's of the old road, HRH said the old road had much more character and was more romantic, I made no comment, stuck in a CD, cranked up the A/C and thought, thank (bad word) we were on the bitumen. the country has changed but the bush is still there, did not recognise Alice, went off the track to Newcastle Waters to the Junction Pub (pictured) where barmaid Lil Finnis worked eon's back, she asked me to take her mate's Charlie Hoskins ashes to sprinkle along the Murranjia where he spent many years carting out West, The old girl was having none of that, carting a jar of someones ashes around the country!! I though I would drive a little up the Murranjia for old times sake as I used to cart out to Wave Hill and Nicholson stations for a bit, not so! big sign up saying Aboriginal land, keep out, million dollar fine, said another bad word and continued up the road, pulled into a campground near the low level crossing at Katherine, big surprise! old mate Doug Foster was camped there in his motor home, he and his wife Marty stayed with us for a week in Florida when they were travelling around this country, oddly enough, I had received a letter from a stranger in Oz asking me where he could buy a motorhome, Doug wanted to sell his so I said, here you go, the guy bought it, that was wierd, of all the campground in the country it was amazing the we met at the same place, Doug managed Buntines for years, The campground owner told me a trick, join the Darwin Yaught club, $15, and you can camp as long as you like with good facilities and beer garden, right on the beach!!, while in SA I visited where I started out in life, lived off the Murray and the land during the depression, no money but well fed, no toys but lucky I was a boy otherwise I would have had nothing to play with!!

This is where we camped at the club, could drink and not drive!!! right on the spot, on a side note, The Martin Bros were the first to bring brand new trucks into the NT, 1948 Ford Thorntons powered by Hercules diesels, they only ran out west to Wave Hill and VRD, took all the sheet metal off as soon as they got them as the Murranjia would have taken them off anyway, they had a garage just North of town alonside Kurt Johannsens and Bill East's machine shop, example of a Ford Thornton belonging to Ted ward of Banka Banka, don't know if it worked out or not but seemed a good idea, I tried to write all this down. :