Ayers Rock Sept 1950

g'day ronhorse and all .. ian lovegrove, (as ronhorse may know) drove for ivan weiss' northern transport and included the peterbilt conventional ivan bought new in 1965...

from all accounts the peterbilt did a lot of bush work, and only on single trailer operations to a lot of the far flung outposts in NT and SA as well as whatever else...and these men were very careful of tyre pressures when on the highway...then off...

the truck survives in dismantled state, with very little to show for harsh work, and is a testament to the care that can be shown on bush operations....

thanks once again ronhorse....cheers

Hey, Detective, Ian Lovegrove was a real straight arrow, one of the nicest guys you could meet, his father was Police sergeant and Ian did his mechanic apprentice ship with the Goverment workshop, worked for Len Tuit taking tourists out bush, then joined Ivan Weise (Spooks) .as partner with Northern Transport and did all the mechanical work as well as driving out West.
Laurie O'Neil imported a Peterbuilt for them, Drove Ivan nuts as the truck sat on the ship for a week with a banner "built for Northern Transport" when the wharfies were on strike. Ian was the stable person behind the bussines, they were both pilots and bought planes building up a srvice to the stations when one of their crew dobbed them in for breaking some Government rule, not hard to do!! Ivan ended up shooting himself in the head and Ian went to SE SA to live where he passed away, a sad loss, he was a good mate, my wife and I always stayed with them when in Alice.

thanks for the info ronhorse .. i think spooks ended up at borooloola (NT) before ending it all and the stories i've been given of ian and ivan came from bruce mc donald who was a peterbilt salesman early in the piece (from 1964 ..and operated his own as well) and went on to become a pretty big operation in SA and NT with autocars etc. under the banner of mc donalds tpt.

...cheers