y first job out of school was unloading
wheat trucks and loading wheat trains
at the silos at The Rock, a lovely small
town between Wagga Wagga and Albury
in southern NSW.
It was 1980 and nearly every farm truck
which trundled in was a small rigid built in
the 1960s, with a grain bin perched on the
back. Unloading involved opening usually
very stiff old side chute doors.
So it was quite a novelty and a relief when
the very occasional semi-trailer tipper
turned up.
Fast forward several decades and of
course the grain game has gotten much
bigger in every way, but on country roads
you can still see the occasional ancient old
rigid with a grain bin or livestock crate on
the back, usually poking along much slower
than everybody else would like.
And of course there are plenty of them
to be seen nicely restored at vintage truck
shows and hot rod meets.
But it’s rare to see a single collection
in “original” condition like these 20 old
classics. Deals on Wheels spotted a group of
old trucks in a paddock while on the move
between Wagga and Melbourne in May and
went back for a closer look more recently.
Ironically, this truck “graveyard” is bounded
by the highway and a local road that leads to
the local cemetery.The aspect that stands out is the absence
of Japanese trucks – they didn’t start their
domination of the rigid market in Australia
until the late 1970s or so.
Instead there are long-gone American
truck brands such as Dodge, Fargo and
Ford; and extinct Brits like Austin, Commer
and Bedford.
There were no air-bag suspensions to be
seen on any of these old bangers, which
were often horribly overloaded in their
heyday. And there were even a couple with
spider wheels, something you never see on
rigids these days.WORKS OF ART
This set of vintage trucks has already been
sold to a single buyer for parts by Wagga and
Uranquinty general antiques dealer John
Gilfillan, with a new batch expected to arrive
from farms and clearance sales soon after the
time of writing. Both pick-ups and deliveries
can be organised via tilt tray or low loader.
John says nostalgia is a big factor in the
antique trucks game, and his favourite type
of buyer motivation.
“If someone started driving a truck when
they were 18 or 19, they want it in their
backyard when they hit retirement age,” he
says. “Another group are farmers’ sons who
remember the truck on the farm when they
were growing up.”M
This 1940s jalopy
keeps an eye out for its
mates160