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. :

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!!

Towing a loaded trailer can be a bit tricky with no weight on the truck! :'( :-[

Wild thing, you make my heart sing!

Just some of Jim's Fodens, think I've got it thanks, this was when I was running the south road buying produce in Adelaide to sell in Darwin, the other one was at a bore on the Barkley, can't get that one, says it's already copied, wasn't that interesting anyway but thanks for your offer of help

I give up!! >

These bores were our only place to freshen up, like, wash a T shirt, a pair of shorts and hang the on the bullbar, dry in one mile, HaHa the limit of out wardrobe!

Taking gear across to Mt Isa with Jim's Fodn

My mate Jim Burnett in Darwin bought a Commer Superpoise with the "new improved" engine, it lasted about 3 months when climbing the 120 mile jumpup coming South the engine started knocking, unable to stop as it was too steep he kept going until it blew itself apart and locked up. It seemed a lot of them did this so they recalled them and installed a high pressure oil pump. this seemed to cure the problem. I drove this truck for about 8 months for Jim, for some reason it didn't like me, I carried a bag of wheel bolts as they were always breaking off. Pulling into Tennant late one afternoon I parked outside the movie theatre, no curbs then, just flat ground, noticed 3 broken on the nearside drive, went and had a few beers to get in the mood to change them, with the hub off and tools and bit's spread over the ground, covered in grease, a crowd gathered to wait for the theatre to open, all watching me doing my thing, very embarrasing! Len Kittle standing there probably thinking I'm glad he doesn't drive for me, actually, I got on very well with the brothers, helping each other on the road, I struck Jeff coming South with his Maple Leaf with 12 tons of copper ore, the spacer ha collapsed on his trailer, I only had a few bags of mail on so swapped one of mine to get him into town, all 24 foot Mcgrath trailers.
Same truck, Mad Mick Miller and I were taking a load of perishables up, loading all day and tired as we neared Aleron the lights kept getting dimmer and finaly died when I pulled into the pub, went in where they had a big fire going, ordered a beer and called Jim, said the generator was shot and would leave at daylight, no you wont he say, I'll bring another prime mover up, he had a Foden, got there, said let's have a look, loose fanbelt!! I had dismissed that as the engine never overheated, but was just so cold it didn't need the waterpump working, tightened the belt, Bingo! bright lights, told us to bugger off while he went in for a beer by the fire!
Another time just South Of Barrow the road had sunk and as I went over it the chassiss twisted putting the fan straight through the radiator, made it to the top of the jumpup and sent word to Jim in Alice I needed a new radiator, the next night asleep under the trailer I awoke to hear a siren screaming up the hill, pulled to a stop by my truck with the siren dying down, I walked over to the car, a Packard Clipper, the man say, " we are looking for a man named Dingwall in connection with an asault on a girl in Alice, I say, I think he is over in Isa, the laughing inside the car and when I looked in here was Jim, they had decided to have a bit of fun with me, man's name was Hans John Earlenson, always into something illegal, aka John the log, another time pulling into Aleron, just a narrow dirt track, another truck was coming out so moved over with one wheel in the soft sand, the small trucks had a reduction box halfway down the tailshaft to get up thr jumpup's so gave it huge torque, the effort was too much for the tailshaft and gently twisted it into 2 parts and fell on the ground, got towed into the pub, a car was parked there going South so put the 2 pieces in his boot and told him where to deliver them, couple days late no word, found the car in the Police yard and the driver in jail as it was stolen!! Got one back on Jim one day, he was a heavy drinker and missed a cog on the Barrow jumpup, just sitting there holding the brakes, I was in the Foden behind him and crept up with the bullbar, he didn't know and no mirrors, I started easing him forward up the hill, in his drunken state thought his savior had arrived! when we got to the top and saw me instead of God it was a bit of a let down, he traded it in on a Federal with a Gardner 5LW, now, there was a truck!!

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!!!

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!!!

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.

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

There were no trucks going to Mt Isa as they were fed by rail from Queensland, just this Inter D30 for passengers and mail from Tennant, the action started when the Mary kathleen uranium mine opened up and they prefered VB beer!