Old NT trucks

Would like to wish everyone on this site a great 2011 and for keeping it going with such interesting stuff. I'm glad some of the pictures of NT trucks on truck-photo.net were of interest, if I had a working brain I had intended to put them in the proper sequence, it was a unique time in the Territory during the late 40's and early 50's, there was probably only about a dozen or so semi's operating in the state, mostly lend-lease Chev's and Ford's. Southern operators cleaned out all the good stuff from the auctions after the war except for the Diamond "T"s and Federals, too slow for the big smoke! People came from all over the country and piggy-backed 4 0r 5 at a time down to Alice, that was my brothers job. Everyone used McGrath 24' round nosed semi's, way overloaded of course. At the first big jumpup going North it was at Barrow Creek, 3 or 4 would be waiting there until it got dark and cooler, then one would go and we would hear the engine getting slower then start to pick up and we knew it was over the crest, then the next one would go, we would go last as we had the BIG GARDNER!! and could unhook and pull one over if needed. The work ethic was non-existent then
,laid back, 25 quid a ton to Darwin so everyone was making a few bob, no big outlay for equipment!! 4 0r 5 of us were waiting for the Ghan to arrive one saturday, Les O'Neil who owned Australian Blue Metal was there telling us he had bought into Co-ord and his son Dennis was going to run it starting from the ground up, we all rolled our eyes at that, with our daggy old trucks and he with about 4 BRAND NEW Fodens with BRAND NEW trailers, we thought we were quids in with BRAND NEW tyres! In the early 60's I did my mandatory 2 years on the Hume (and lived) The only bright spot was going through the check point at Maroulin they thought I had a KB6 with a bogie trailer, when They checked my old KB8 it had a high GVW so was legal. Ticked them off! Life on the road, what stories there are out there untold, need some young journalist to gather them all up like Jack Maddox

Thanks for that ol mate!
really appreciate the history..
keep em comin if ya like
regards
chocs

What a great read we need few more stories like that and reminded of a bloke I saw on the Gibb River rd WA in the early 70's .
He was traveling long there with a road train over many miles had lost quite few drums (44's) of Av Gas when I caught up to him and told him and he just fixed the load and was on his way you wouldn't get way with that these days . Dave

Ronhorse, about to give your grey matter a bit of a work-out.

Heading north from the Alice there was a bit of a jump-up, I think it was near Barrow Creek ???? and over to the east of the jump-up was a compound/depot for a truck company. It was of the highway about a mile or so, this company had a lot of Mack rigid's with dogs, all working on cattle. Think they were from the Isa originally and this was only a sub depot.

Heres a pic you have posted of one of them

www.truck-photos.net/picture/number2055.asp

Now for the big question, who owned these trucks ?

All the above is from the dim dark past, would be about the middle of the 60's, I just would like to be able to remember who's trucks they were.

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

Greenie, it was Wrights Cattle Transport, so I guess it was Helen Springs.
Regards Jeff.

Guys, if you haven't already, check out Ron's pics on the net. They really are fantastic. Just a glimpse of the past. Thanks very much Ron! Oh, and tell us some more stories!
Cheers and thanks again,
Richard

Here's the pic to go with ronhorse's post at the top of the page.These are the lend-lease trucks being piggy backed to the railhead at Alice from the Darwin disposal auctions.
At Tennant Creek,1950.Pic from the late John Ryan,Noel Buntine's business partner.

Thanks cenTRpede for John Ryans picture, really neat, he and Noel Buntine were a great pair of blokes, real gentlemen, knew them well. Noel worked as a checker over at the railway station on Saturdays checking the perishables off the train, Old mate Doug Foster ended up managing his operation, Doug got a Rhodes scholarship to study cattle transport here in the U.S. and stayed with us for a couple of weeks here in Florida. When I was in Canada working in the 60's I was interested in the way they put turntables on the back of their semi's to hook another one making it a one man operation, Doug took the idea back to Oz and I believe that's how the B doubles came about