Deals On Wheels Australia – September 2019

However, there’s also a buying segment

who just want a cheap truck in running order

to use on their farm. I remember seeing an

old Bedford “fire tanker” on a farm that had

just enough boards left on the tray to support

a massive water tank, which was so heavy on

the poor chassis rails that a clear bow could

be seen in the middle of the ancient unit. The

seat was an old milk crate.

On the supply side of things, John says a lot

of older farmers might have bought a truck

new 50 years ago or more and can’t part with

it, whereas a lot of the younger generation

and corporate farmers are more likely to just

want to clear everything out of the shed.

John describes himself as an “artist at

heart”, and enjoys what he calls these

“sculptural” objects. “A truck could be as ugly

as sin but sometimes they’re more beautiful

when they’re ugly,” he reckons.

GOOD PLACE FOR A SPELL

Uranquinty sits between Wagga and The

Rock on the Olympic Highway, which runs

for more than 300km from Cowra in mid-

western NSW to just short of Albury in the

south. It’s a popular route for trucks doing

line-haul between Melbourne and Brisbane,

and Melbourne to Sydney via Wagga.

During the afternoon of Deals on Wheels’

visit, we saw many B-doubles belonging

to big north-south refrigerated players

The famous International

brand once dominated

global truck and farm

machinery manufacture.

This bonneted beauty was

built in the late 1950s

View from the highway

• a reminder of rural
  trucking days long past

bj

lptural

he calls these

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