I’m sure there’s at least one person here who’ll know this firm in the Northern Territory of Australia and who once drove their Mack B61’s…
This link is to the Australian Trucking Association NT site,
atant.asn.au/contributions/L … Story.html
nice pic sheeter, is that the driver having a wash i wonder?
Somebody call me?? 
.
Oh what memories that picture brings back Dave, both the truck and the
situation. It looks like a Buntine outfit except when I was there the colours were
green and white and that Mack appears to be all white. Also we had mainly 40’
tandem trailers and tandem dollies but as Lloyd Hunt, the bloke in the picture I
assume, was about 5 years before me things might have changed. Certainly
Noel had up to a dozen motors when I was with him.
Having said that the picture evokes memories of several river crossings like
that but in the larger rivers (or this one if it was taken in the middle of the ‘dry’
season) the whole train would be in the water before climbing up the bank the
other side. And yes, that will be the driver Mal. It was heaven in the heat of
those tin coffins to park in the middle and just fall out of the cab. You can see
why it took quite a time to cross a river if there were half a dozen of us in
convoy, because we all had to wait on the other side in case someone wanted
a pull out. Come to think of it that is a body (rigid) truck in the picture. The only
one that was there in my time was driven by a walking ghost, George, and I
shared the truck with him a couple of times. Very scary to watch him staring for
mile after mile with vacant eyes emptied by rum and pills. His, and the boss’s
double drive ‘R’ series, were loaded with termite mound ballast to give them
traction when pulling the rest of us up the slippery banks.
Note the canvas water bag hanging on the nearside mirror arms. This cooled
the water down until exchanged for the one in the cab which was then refilled
from the trailer water tanks (each had a 40 gallon although I can’t see any in
this picture) and hung out to cool.
The cross bars on the top of the crate were close enough to allow us to swing
down like gymnasts to kick the cows which had gone down and make them
mad enough to get up again. If they stayed down, they died. OK, but some of
these beasts, allowed to roam wild until roundup, mated with buffaloes and I
had one whose horns were at least 5’ wide, the tips of which protruded from
the top of the crate. No job for a slow mover.
Nice site Dave, but did you note the deliberate mistake? Under the picture of
the Outback Transport Foden it says ‘Shell Mack Roadtrain’ 
.
I was a little disappointed not to have known personally any of those
mentioned, although some, like Ted Stiles and Bob Dodds I knew by
reputation. Lastly, the red cabover Mack with a piggybacked trailer looks very
much like that of an ex Buntine driver who bought his own and then subbed
out to Noel. He came into the yard with his brand new motor and bathed in the
glory as we crawled all over it. The first sleeper I had seen in the flesh I think!
BTW thanks for the email. I did reply but it may have got lost by Wanadoo. See
your PM for details, if you didn’t get it, I will repeat.
Salut, David.
im glad you confirm it was the driver david, i know thats where i would have been in the same situation, aus is pretty hot aint it!