Anyone on here trucking around Aussie?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Im currently doing a bit of travelling round Austrailia and Asia. Im in Sydney at the moment after already doing Singapore and Melbourne but ive been spending too much money on trasnport so i need to cut down my costs a bit. Does anyone on here truck up and down the gold coast?? as i eventually want to make my way up to Cairns stopping off at places in between, if you wouldnt mind me hitching a ride??

Time isnt a factor to me as i have no timetable to stick to, i simply wake up, do what i want in the day and stick my bag over my shoulder when im ready to move on. So would really appriciate it if one my fellow truckers down under could help me save a bit of dosh on transport. :grimacing:

2

There’s a big truckstop down near Mascot, within spitting distance of the airport. Loads of trucks leave there heading up towards Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, the Gold Coast and Brissie. If you want a lift you could do worse than head out there and ask around… It’s not far out of the CBD!

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lol youre in for an eye opener if you get a spin up that coast road in a fast truck

i didnt know there was a truck stop in mascot but then again i never go out that side of sydney much.

if youre facebook, its your best chance of lining something up at short notice, bar actually approaching truck drivers, theres really hardly any truck stops in sydney anyway, if i was you id get the bus to the caltex service centre at wyong or the BP beresfield (newcastle), you’ll be more spoiled for choice if you wanted to go door knocking.

but facebook i think is the way to go, join as many aussie trucking groups / pages as you can and just ask the question, someone might know someone that knows someone thats near where you are, but some companies wont let drivers take passengers, and some drivers dont want to take passengers etc

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beattun:
…i didnt know there was a truck stop in mascot but then again i never go out that side of sydney much.

Well, it’s been a while since I was there. And now you come mention it, maybe it wasn’t a truck stop as such. It used to be Vaughns yard, and it was literally just across the road from the airport. Burrows Road South rings a bell! ( g.co/maps/8k458 ) It’s possible it’s now something else, or someone else’s yard… There were probably 30 trucks a night heading north when I was last there…

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EastAnglianTrucker:

beattun:
…i didnt know there was a truck stop in mascot but then again i never go out that side of sydney much.

Well, it’s been a while since I was there. And now you come mention it, maybe it wasn’t a truck stop as such. It used to be Vaughns yard, and it was literally just across the road from the airport. Burrows Road South rings a bell! ( g.co/maps/8k458 ) It’s possible it’s now something else, or someone else’s yard… There were probably 30 trucks a night heading north when I was last there…

That’s Vaughns of Moorabin by the way…

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not disputing it for a second mate cos ive no idea to be honest, the only work i ever did around there was fedex in alexandria and darrell lea chocolates in kogorah, sometimes id come in from brisbane and come around the top and down past the airport, but never knew about any truck stops, the only sort of proper truck stops i know in sydney are uncle leos and potts hill, and to my knowledge theres really no others

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Well there ya go beattun, I don’t know uncle leos or potts hill!

When I was heading back to Melbourne I used to head out to a place at Camden and have a stop there and the next one at Wodonga. But that was when the Hume ran north from Yanderra, Bargo, past the scales at Tahmoor, up to Picton, over Razorback to Camden then turned right at Narellen. Now it looks like there’s a whole new Hume Highway all the way from Yanderra up to Casula… and it looks pretty straight as well!

It was a good few years ago when I was there though…

Do you travel mainly between Queensland and Sydney, or do you head down the Hume at all? If yes, is there still the weighbridge at Marulan? There used to be a big Caltex truck stop at Wodonga as well…

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ah now see youre before my time with the old hume, im only trucking out here the last 3 years, its freeway from the bottom of penant hills road to tarcutta, bit of single lane there, then dual lane to holbrook, bit more single lane to woomargama, then dual carraigeway / freeway all the way to melbourne (even geelong if you so wish).

the caltex wodonga is still there, Wimpys, not a busy place but one for those in the know, 24 hour good food.
I highly reccomend you look up www.nearmap.com, its a good mapping site with dates you can look back through to see progress. Failing that, google maps will show you the road anyway.

The marulan weighbridge is still there and you have to go over it 24/7 although its not always manned, they love me there i must be flagged or something.

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Yeah, well when I started driving the Hume I used to cross the wooden bridge at Gundagai - which I don’t suppose is in use anymore, but if you go down the main street, the bridge used to be at the end of that. And there was a ■■■■ fine milk bar in the main street as well.

Good to hear the Caltex at Wodonga is still going. They used to make the greatest steak sandwich I’ve ever tasted.

Those were the days. I used to pick up McCains chips in Ballarat and take them over to Perth, up to Sydney and Brisbane. After tipping in Brissie I used to head out to Cunnamulla to pick up loads of kangaroo meat for processing into pet food in Melbourne.

And the last time I was on the Hume, I got stopped for speeding in the middle of the night on a dead straight bit of 4 lane, without another vehicle within 10 miles of me…

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to answer your other question i used to do melb-adel-syd-bris in any order that was seen fit, but now im on a set express run (NQX) Melbourne - Sydney, and back with various stuff, usually TNT, or our own depot freight, 5 a fortnight, home every second day and every weekend. Out Sunday afternoon, home tuesday morning, back out tuesday night home thursday morning, back out thursday night home saturday morning (usually about 3am with a bit of magic logbook work). Then not back out till the Monday night about midnight, back home wednesday morning, back out wednesday night (midnight) and then finish up home friday morning and not back out till sunday afternoon!

Pretty cruisey although sleep in sydney is at a premium, i get about 14 hours home every second day and still pull in just shy of $1600 after tax, i might whinge about the hours but when you put it into perspective to what i used to do and what you blokes probasbly used to do, its cream.

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im an irish expat by the way in case you didnt know

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beattun:
to answer your other question i used to do melb-adel-syd-bris in any order that was seen fit, but now im on a set express run (NQX) Melbourne - Sydney, and back with various stuff, usually TNT, or our own depot freight, 5 a fortnight, home every second day and every weekend. Out Sunday afternoon, home tuesday morning, back out tuesday night home thursday morning, back out thursday night home saturday morning (usually about 3am with a bit of magic logbook work). Then not back out till the Monday night about midnight, back home wednesday morning, back out wednesday night (midnight) and then finish up home friday morning and not back out till sunday afternoon!

Pretty cruisey although sleep in sydney is at a premium, i get about 14 hours home every second day and still pull in just shy of $1600 after tax, i might whinge about the hours but when you put it into perspective to what i used to do and what you blokes probasbly used to do, its cream.

Yeah, when I was doing Melb-Syd regularly I was doing about 5 a fortnight, but even then it was tough going, and I don’t expect it’s got any easier. Five times Melb-Syd a fortnight is a lot of Kms!

IPEC used to run MAN rigids pans averaging about 70mph doing their express work, although TNT were pretty big even then. The express guys were doing changeovers at Albury/Wodonga, and at that time you could have a different licence for each state, so if you got banned in one state you simply used a different licence. And log books… don’t get me started about how we filled them in. Is Linfox still around. I can remember when Linsey Fox was still driving!

There were a lot of accidents at a place called Little Sydney Harbour bridge as I recall… it’s almost certainly still there, but I guess the Hume goes around it now! Problem was the express boys coming up from Melb didn’t want to give way to the guys coming south from Sydney. It was one of the reasons they started doing changeovers in the middle.

What are you driving? That Kenworth in your profile pic? And is $1600 a week good money down there? That’s just over £1000! You’ve probably seen all the threads on here that complain about money… and I reckon driving in Oz was quite a bit easier than trying to make a mile over here!

I can’t believe how much trucks cost down there. Like $250,000 for a 2nd hand five year old Kenworth! That’s crazy money…no matter how good the truck!

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FB11 whilst in Sydney you should climb the coat hanger and check out Kings Cross. That’s an education in itself.

Jetboat around the harbour & an evening cruise on the gov. operated boat is good too.

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Cheers for your replys fellas, the Greyhound bus out of Syd actually stops at the caltex truckstop so i think thats what im gonna do.

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Driveroneuk:
FB11 whilst in Sydney you should climb the coat hanger and check out Kings Cross. That’s an education in itself.

Jetboat around the harbour & an evening cruise on the gov. operated boat is good too.

Hey mate, im staying in a hostel in Kings Cross at the moment. Not much different to Kings Cross at home to be honest :laughing:
Few things im going to check out today, but i already done the bridge a few years ago as a teenager.

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FarnboroughBoy11:
Cheers for your replys fellas, the Greyhound bus out of Syd actually stops at the caltex truckstop so i think thats what im gonna do.

Sorry beattun and I sort of hijacked your thread FB11… Hope you have a good time and watch out for those “King’s Cross Girls!”

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EastAnglianTrucker:
and watch out for those “King’s Cross Girls!”

Not of all which are what they seem. :wink:

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Driveroneuk:

EastAnglianTrucker:
and watch out for those “King’s Cross Girls!”

Not of all which are what they seem. :wink:

Too true mate!