Typical bore where we would throw a hose over the side of the tank and shower and do our laundry, ie, T shirt and shorts, hang them on the bullbar, dry in half a mile!!

This was a real problem during the wet season, this is old mate Michael (pretty Mick) O'Larenshaw went through the bitumen, the road had very little foundation so we always camped on top of a hill both not to sink and to get rolling. I hit a soft spot one rainy noght and broke a stub axle and dived off the road, trailers blocking the road, Ted Fitzgerald, (Everready Ted) had a Ford with a Cadillac engine in it, used to lie about how fast it would go, reckoned he could get around me and tore the spring hangers right off, strong engine!! The Kittles Bedford is the one tried to pull me up Churchils head.

Stopped as I saw a two shilling piece on the road. On this trip Ernie Warner and I came across an abandoned miners truck, we picked up several sticks of dynamite, fuses and detonators and on the way up we would stick the dynamite in old drums, light the fuse and run like hell, shoot the detonators with a rifle, wonder we never blew ourselves up, provided a bit of fun on the trip.

We used to just rope the mailbags on, I don't imagine the Post master general would be too keen on the today!! never lost any though

Waiting at larimah for the train comming down from Darwin, I used to deliver the Northbound mail to the rail car and box car, then wait 4 days until it returned with the southbound mail, just like Kurt Johannsen did before the war, I used to take the door off in the summer for a bit of a breeze . One night while I was there a head man from a tribe of blacks camped nearby asked me to take them up to another camp about 20 miles up the road, so I went to their camp and they all jumped in the back of the semi and I took off, when I let them off I turned around, lit a fire and boiled the billy, figured they would be a while, an hour later they came belting out of the bush shoutin Go Go Go, so I took them back to their camp. Next day the Pub and Pist office were buzzing about some blacks were seriously injured up the road in a big fight, everyone wondering how the perpetrators got in and out so quickly, the blacks said nothing and I certainly didn't so it remained a mystery.

This is one of the 3 trucks I used in the last days of the mail being carried by semi, Len Tuit had ordered a new bus and large trailer to incorporate both passengers and mail, so we kept these 3 going until the bus was ready, two 5 cylinder Gardners and an Inter k6 petrol motor. It was len Tuit who nicknamed me horse, though I was built more like a kangaroo dog, (the ribs part anyway!), I used to leave Alice after unloading the mail off the Ghan on Saturday afternoon, head off to Tennant Creek to catch the coach leaving for Mt Isa, didn't always make it!! Used to stop halfway on top of the Barrow Creek jumpup for a nap, just used to lie down on the ground and sleep until uncomfortable, then drive on, one night I must have rolled to the edge of the bitumen probably 'cos it's warmer. Bob Foster and Don Merz came up the hill with one of Fleetowners road trains and saw my truck and me asleep so pulled up right over the top of me, waking up looking at the sump of an 8 cylinder gardner thumping away was a trip!

Forgot to post the last picture of the old truck showing how worn and weary she looked, Thank's feller's for the kind words and interest in the pictures, it's a real pleasure for me to get out these old pictures bringing back so many memories, all original photo's, don't know how I still have them, black and white, the chemicals they used back then seemed to keep the detail, much clearer than on the computer, if anyone wants a particular one I can always email one or by post.

We often gave ringers (stockmen) a lift as they had too much gear for the Passenger buses, as they usually had a bit of experience we would make them drive the truck on the long flat boring bits!

Me with my favorite truck, I was about 17 at the time, thought I was a wheel !!!

Came back good as new, new KB grill and all, Len Tuit and I took it up to Darwin on it's first trip, pretty proud of it new paint and all, I am amazed at the loads we made her pull, must have been only rated at 3 or 4 tons, small Eaton 2 speed diff, yet we never had the first bit of trouble with the drive train, Tuit liked to get away at times so he would take me to Dawin and the fly back, used to come back on my own which suited me though one day I got a bit scared as I was plugging away up an upgrade and came acrosss a huge brush fire that they burn off the high grass with, I had 2 trailers of high octane fuel for daly Waters aerodrome so hoped I didn't have a leaking drum!!

Back in the yard we decided as it only had a couple of hundred thousand miles on it , it should be repaired so sent it down to Adelaide, after all, a truck of that high value needs to be kept!

An inexperienced driver used Angel gear to get up speed and it got away from him, killed his mate Harry Harker sleeping on top of the load, could not take the bend at the bottom of the 120 mile jumpup.

Shell oil asked us to do an econmy test for their fuels so modified the prime mover for wind resistance, (actually ran into a mob of cattle so wasn't any trouble!!)

When we got a "proper" coach, we re-engined the K6 with a Gardner 5LW oil engine and went seriously into freight, crossing the Daly waters creek when it was running you had to get it straight first time with trailers behind, , duals half off the bridge

Leaving Alice going out through the big dipper pulling the mail trailer, if there were few passengers we left about 2 rows of seats vacant and loaded the rest of the space with freight, leaving the poor buggers staring at a wall of spuds or whatever, the demand for freight capacity was growing fast, how we got into freight bussiness.