Truckie genes

Reading the stories of how guys got into long distance driving transport, it looks as though genetics played a large role as most had fathers or grandfathers working in the industry, either that or the strong yearning to breathe free, independence and freedom are an addiction, incurable except by marriage.
Some of us, it seems to me, lived our lives like candles in the wind, never knowing where to turn to when the drought set in. Our own father (Big Daddy) and his bro' Jack, left Scotland at an early age ferrying goods between the U.K. North America and Australia, according to Cardiff records, Jack "failed" to rejoin his ship in New York, my father favoured Australia and failed to rejoin his ship in Melbourne. Unfortunately for him the year was 1914, the Australian military promptly put him in uniform and sent him to France for the duration of the war, according to Canbera records, in the transport division, hey, maybe drove an AC Mack, being British probably a steam driven Foden!
After being demobbed in Melbourne went up to a soldier settlement called Moorook on the river Murray, eked out a living with an old truck cutting and carting wood to the steamers for fuel that plied the Murray at that time, this was during the deppession when a Policeman fined him for having an unregistered truck, ( probably no logbook either!) So the Police attitude hasn't changed in the last 100 years as far as road transport is concerned, all heart!!
It never occured to my older brother and I that we would not become truck drivers into long distance work, he started off piggybacking trucks from the auctions in Darwin to Alice after the war, paving the was for me to escape from school and joining him working for Len Tuit on the Alice/Darwin mail and passenger service. Our father is burried in the old Darwin cemetary, depending on how many beers I have had, or who's buying, I would lie and tell people he was killed fighting the Jap's when they came in 1942, usually good for a round or two. He worked for the DCA at the Parap aerodrome as a vegetable surgeon, I said sounds good, what do you do? peel spuds he said, Governments tend to give everyone a flash title, I told my new in-laws what he was but not what he did, they were immpressed! During the '80's and early '90's my brother had a M.A.N with a reefer semi carting margarine from Adelaide to Perth up untill he died, it was coloured purple with an extra radiator up behind the cab for extra cooling, someone on the forum may have seen him. I retired on disability being declaired "socially incompetent" I have some pictures of my dad carting logs but are packed as we are shifting camp, part of the Federal wittness program for testifying against "Honest" John Kennelly.

great stories ronhorse...thank again ...are you having to shift camp now ?..or were you talking about back then....seems to be a bugger of a thing to be doing, with a bit of age on a bloke :'( :'(

all the best and cheers

great stories ronhorse...thank again ...are you having to shift camp now ?..or were you talking about back then....seems to be a bugger of a thing to be doing, with a bit of age on a bloke :'( :'(

all the best and cheers

Age or no age it's still a bugger of a job.
Love the story too, sounds about right.

love ya stories ron, don't stop em, all the old truckin is a classic, but theres' somethin' special about the outback stuff. thanks.....jk

No worries on the moving, just rent the donga out, sell everything on craigs list, loaD personal stuff on the little dog behind the ToYOta and hit the road. Met my wife on the road when I was hauling scrap metal from Darwin to Adelaide, buying hardy produce and hawking them around Darwin, spud's one quid a bag in Adelaide, 5 quid a bag in Darwin, better than freight, my wife and her mate needed a lift to Adelaide from the Alice, took 8 days to get to Pt Augusta, digging myself out of sand drifts and repairing tyres etc. Ran out of fuel one night, bought 3 drums of fuel in alice, after filling up was bleeding the injector pump, smelt funny, looked on top and they had sold me kerosene! Knew a couple of guys on interstate who ran on Kero adding one gallon of engine oil to each drum, so though WTF, no option, the old Gardner ran sweet as ever.
So we have been on the road ever since except puting our 3 daughters through school in Virginia, US. Then off again, been an interesting run, bit hairy at times then I retreat to that dark place in my mind.
I first saw a turntable on the back of a semi in Canada in 1960, thought it was a neat idea, one man operation, much easier than hooking up a trailer, it was standard there. My mate Doug Foster who managed Buntines cattle operation, won a Rhodes Scholarship to study cattle transport in North America, saw the way they did it and took the idea back to Oz, called B,doubles, he and his wife Marty stayed with us in Florida for a week when he retired, dead now :'(

Ron

So which direction are heading this time would be great to here about some of your non truck adventures around the US as well, im sure the administrators of the forum wont mind as it will complete the journey from then to now.

Trevor

Yes please, Ron, we'd love to hear more of your stories.
Why did you end up in America?
Funny you say you sold produce in Darwin, my dad had the same idea. We took a load of cars from Melbourne to Brisbane, then re loaded in Brisbane for Darwin. Dad's great idea (like Ron's) was to leave one car off the truck, and load that space with spuds and onions etc, and we hawked them around Darwin- but blokes like Ron must have beaten us to it, and we couldn't sell them. So we spent a few days on the side of the road with a sign out trying to sell them, but I think we brought most of them home with us.
Dad also thought that he might as well get another car on the old 1418 as well, so he had a towbar welded on the back of the semi, and put the tandem car trailer on with a car on top. Sort of a funny little road train! then we snuck out from Brisbane VERY early on Sunday morning, up and gone before the daylight..
Old mate (named Roy Fixter, anyone know him?) who came with us had the same idea, except his rented trailer buggered up the wheel bearings somewhere way out west and took a bit of sorting out.
We also met a bunch of young yahoo's that were heading to Darwin in their old Corona for an adventure, they were broken down, so we hooked up their car behind the tandem trailer, and towed that from Katherine to Darwin too!
We bought the old Corona from the young blokes, and that came home with us too. That car became the "model" to use for size when building car frames, it also became my test car, I learnt to hoon round and round the loading ramp at the yard in North Geelong when no one was! around! Until someone yelled at me from the target head office next door, then I got scared and put it away....
It was all awesome stuff for a young fella like me!
Cheers
Richard

I learnt to hoon round and round the loading ramp at the yard in North Geelong when no one was! around! Until someone yelled at me from the target head office next door, then I got scared and put it away....
It was all awesome stuff for a young fella like me!
Cheers
Richard

Richard

Was that the yard at the rear entrance opposite the saleyards.

Trevor

Hi Trev,
No, it was on Thompsons road, right behind the BP, and next to the Golf View Hotel.
It seemed that because it was right next to the pub, it was to obvious for anyone to knock anything off! In those days car stereos etc were hot property, things were actually worth money (unlike now when everything is throwaway)
I can't remember who owned the yard, but there were some characters that operated out of there-
Johhny Winter, in a plastic cab Atkinson, Kenny Irwin, (in the RTHOF, he had a Scania 141 (hated it) then a Seattle Kenworth (loved it), towed anything and everything all over Australia, always with a beer in the hand, Johhny Stevens (Honk), I've put a pic of his Louisville up before, an actual Grey Ghost Kenworth, that was towing a semi tipper, but I can't remember who owned it, bloke called Ewan Farquerson, good bloke but ROUGH!
and so on...Spent a lot of time there as a young fella, I did!
Now the yard is a factory I think, target is still there, Pub is now the Sphinx, and the BP has gone..
Cheers
Richard

Well Richard..ya sound like one of them ol blokes we used to talk about!
Kenny Irwin had an 88/89 Volvo.
The Ghost KW belonged to Mario? Brumniach (spelling?)
Ewan Farquerson had a Louie in later days..
If im on the right track it was Reynolds and or Halls yard.
Halls had the paper trucks from memory.
I think i can remember Reynolds had an old Atkinson towing a fridge van..
The rest is just becoming a blur ..

Hows that for starters..

chocs