Bet the dog enjoyed running around the Rock Dave, I'm sure he left his mark! I know I did, Everyone in the world should have a dog, as the famous philosopher Pluto said, "Anything above the reasoning of an old dog is a waste of time, yeah things have changed at the Rock, anyone could just wander in and go where they wanted and free of course, It is perhaps a blessing the Len Tuit could not see what the Rock developed into, I'm glad I was with him when we first explored it in 1950, he could not get it out of his mind, kept talking about it and worked hard to get the pig headed government to see the benefits of opening it up. When we were there I took several students out from the Rock with two blacks who would show them their hunting and spear throwing skills, at lunchtime I gave them some flour and they lit a fire to make a damper, I also lit a fire (whites only!) and thought I would make a damper also, big mistake!! theirs came out a light grayish brown, mine came out black as a dog's guts and runny inside, the other students, rich kids from Sydney, all snickered at this, we were all the same age, 16, that night the blacks put on a corroberee in one of the caves, sitting on the groung banging away with sticks and chanting, ones that were standing around kept tugging on their dicks like a habit, made me realise why our arms evolved to the length they did

His last truck, an R700 at Prouse Gap in the NT

Me left and Ben with two of his Flintstone Macks, why did the call hem Flintstones?

Did anyone here run into a guy named ben Powell? Known since I was a kid, super guy, Here he is going to Perth with Gene gregory's made up K6 semi, to get work for their trucks, Ben had the Commer, dead now but trucked a lot between Alice / Darwin and around South Australia, posting a couple more that may be recognised.

About 2 months after the school expedition I was given the job of taking 7 retired lady school teachers out to Ayers Rock, a bit irresponsible looking back on it being only 16 years old but thats they way len Tuit was, I used this 30cwt bedford bus we built in our workshop, put blitz tyres on the back to help in the sand, we were gone for 2 weeks and were very lucky nothing happened, they were a great bunch even climbimg to the top of the rock, loose shale still on it, very steep so they went backwards pushing on their hands on the steep parts, I came up behind them in case they needed any help, ladies all wore dresses in those days and fortunately all were wearing underwear so I was not subject to any sights that could have traumatised an innocent young lad,
. I didn't trap Dingo's as it may not have appealed to them, rigged up a shower with a 4 gallon kerosene tin with nail holes all over the bottom, filled it up at the spring and pulled it up over the branch of a tree, someone holding the rope, I offered but they declined! On the way back I pulled up out of a creek bed and there was a big old aboriginee and his wife with the usual few dogs, she had a dress, he had an old army shirt and nothing else!! gave the ladies a sight

Did anyone ever see this truck around? believe it was in Melbourne, has a Bedford cab on probably an NR Mack Lanova, I thought it was really neat, only in Oz!!

We should have been so lucky!!!

Another blitz we converted into a bus, 4 wheel drive, 2 44 gallon drums on the front for water supply and weight over the front drive axle for traction.

No too pollitically correct!!! wouldn't fly today with the word Police

Me on the left, Len Tuit on the right, coffee jar next to my right foot contained about 7 names of people who had been before us

Hey, onetrack, you a mine of information Mon, thank you.
I drove this blitz with supplies out to ayers rock in 1950 when we took a mob of kids from Sydney out there, with his back to me is a famous explorer C.P Mountford, on the bumper are dog skins that I had trapped at the Rock, I would go out of a night , open a can of fish and nail the lid to a log and lace it with poison, the next morning the dog would only be about 50 feet away dead, I would skin them under the nose and ears, along the back and tail , I would get 2 quid bounty at any Police Station which was a weeks wages for me at that time.

This was th '78 one I rebuilt the engine updating head bolts
, gaskets etc, ran perfect and I really enjoyed driving it until on the intertate a water leak developed in a hose and the idiot lights showed nothing so smoked the whole engine, so hot it actually caught on fire, bummer!

Bought this one in '75, last ones made, top of the line broughm, GM finaly got it right but was too late, the public wouldn't touch them, next few years had a street value of about $100! Americans hate diesels with a passion, for example a Toyota pickup diesel had half the retail value of a petrol one, I realize this is about cars but thought I would throw it into the mix anyhow, (don't bar me from the forum!!)

Onetrack, great stuff, there is more information on this site than anyware, awsome! I am 14 hours behind youse guys, Florida U.S. so get up in the morning to read all the comments, makes my day, always good for a laugh as well. back to GM diesels, I love these big old detroit irons, (no air bags needed!) First one I bought in '75 had a 500 inch petrol engine in it, largest one made, 1980 bought the first diesel, a coverted 350 Olds petrol engine, did it too cheap but I loved the smoke and noise, wonderful fuel economy but a disaster, with 8 cylinders plenty of pep.

What's the scoop on GM 2 strokes, I know they were built before the war and their big advantage was all the parts were interchangeable and what's the difference in 53, 71, 92 series? They must have made millions of them. The only one I saw was when kurt Johannsen was putting a 6/71 in his Diamond "T" We were pretty impressed, had a piece of 6 inch bore casing for the exhaust, when he left town we scooted out into the hills to listen to him swapping cogs going through the hills, music to our ears!! His mate Daphne sent me this photo of them both at alice where they restored it and he and son Lindsay took it in the parade, must have been a real kick for him, died not long after. The U.S. military used a lot of them in boats, tanks etc, Jack Kennedy had a PT boat powered by 3 Packard V12 petrol engines, bet that was fun to drive, no smoky diesels for ol'e Jack