“congrats Oily on reaching 3million views …well deserved for this excellent thread”
Thank you Geraint 
Cheers
Oily
Thanks to Buzzer, robthedog, Ray Smyth, Punchy Dan, Dennis Javelin and ERF-NGC-European for the pics and all the craic
ERF-NGC-European pic is New Zealand, two more NZ livestock from the Rod Simmonds Collection a gentleman I wrote to way back when I started this thread.
Oily
oiltreader:
Thanks to Buzzer, robthedog, Ray Smyth, Punchy Dan, Dennis Javelin and ERF-NGC-European for the pics
ERF-NGC-European pic is New Zealand, two more NZ livestock from the Rod Simmonds Collection a gentleman I wrote to way back when I started this thread.
Oily
Thanks Oily! And congrats on the 3 million! 
Congratulaions on reaching 3 million postings Oily.
Cheers, Leyland 600
This one for Buzzer to pass on to his mate Rinus
I have posted this before on the HH site.
Thank you Buzzer ,the first old timer I know nothing about but the old Diamond T road train of empty drums belonged to Kurt Johanson who many believe was the father of road trains here in Oz.
His truck which was named Bertha is now fully restored and lives at the Australian Hall of Fame in Alice Springs .
Just as a foot note we used to get 10dollars per mt drum returned to fuel depots when i first went to the Kimberly in the early 70s I doubt if the price was that high in Kurts day, and at that time exploration was starting to gain momentum and the the exploration companies used to leave mountains of drums at times where they had main camps I went out a couple of times and loaded a couple of hundred drums which i usually returned to the local depots quite a good little earner at times.
Dig
DIG thanks for the info and vid couple more for you here one modern one a bit older plus some UK motors, Buzzer
Buzzer:
DIG thanks for the info and vid couple more for you here one modern one a bit older plus some UK motors, Buzzer
No 2 in that selection is one of Lord Vestey’s Rotinoffs I think, he seems to have been almost alone in using those in Oz. I worked, at some remove of course, for Vestey before my driving career, during my time as a lowly clerk for Weddels the meat wholesaler in Nottingham and Bedford. No Rotinoffs there. 
DIG:
Thank you Buzzer ,the first old timer I know nothing about but the old Diamond T road train of empty drums belonged to Kurt Johanson who many believe was the father of road trains here in Oz.
His truck which was named Bertha is now fully restored and lives at the Australian Hall of Fame in Alice Springs .Just as a foot note we used to get 10dollars per mt drum returned to fuel depots when i first went to the Kimberly in the early 70s I doubt if the price was that high in Kurts day, and at that time exploration was starting to gain momentum and the the exploration companies used to leave mountains of drums at times where they had main camps I went out a couple of times and loaded a couple of hundred drums which i usually returned to the local depots quite a good little earner at times.
Dig
Indeed KurtJ got involved with exploration too. I recall he mined Turquoise for a while. He also built himself a gas generator to power an old, large station wagon he used. He must have been a real character.
I have visited the Alice Hall of Fame. I saw Bertha before restoration and the Rotinoff (and a lot more too) whilst there. Quite a hike to get there but interesting and worth it.
Spardo:
Buzzer:
DIG thanks for the info and vid couple more for you here one modern one a bit older plus some UK motors, BuzzerNo 2 in that selection is one of Lord Vestey’s Rotinoffs I think, he seems to have been almost alone in using those in Oz. I worked, at some remove of course, for Vestey before my driving career, during my time as a lowly clerk for Weddels the meat wholesaler in Nottingham and Bedford. No Rotinoffs there.
The photo was in an era when Land Rovers were popular in Oz-the 109 in the pic would not have been so unusual. Those days are long gone, sadly. They do not have a good reputation nowadays.
Dipster:
Spardo:
Buzzer:
DIG thanks for the info and vid couple more for you here one modern one a bit older plus some UK motors, BuzzerNo 2 in that selection is one of Lord Vestey’s Rotinoffs I think, he seems to have been almost alone in using those in Oz. I worked, at some remove of course, for Vestey before my driving career, during my time as a lowly clerk for Weddels the meat wholesaler in Nottingham and Bedford. No Rotinoffs there.
The photo was in an era when Land Rovers were popular in Oz-the 109 in the pic would not have been so unusual. Those days are long gone, sadly. They do not have a good reputation nowadays.
I expect that’s true but not always in the past too. When I landed in Darwin in 1967 I got a room sharing with an Aussi who had just battled his way into town from the bush. It was just the end of the ‘wet’ and he was swearing about his Landy that he had had to abandon in the water, it just couldn’t handle it he said. I took it with a pinch of salt, perhaps he was just unlucky and might not have fared any better with a Toyata, but he was convinced, he would never buy another one.
He was a good mate and we stayed together when we both got places in a Government hostel just out of town, but we lost touch when my itchy feet took me to Katherine and Buntines. 
There is something to be said for the internet age, for all the years I spent there I have only one mate still in touch, and Dig of course, who I have never met.
Spardo dont take this the wrong way but I have posted a lot on TNUK on varied threads and you either have driven or worked for lots of the mention companies in the posts, just wondered if you have ever worked out how many different jobs/positions you have held during your time. Lots of us have moved about a bit but you seem to have done it a lot so it would be interesting if you could furnish us all with a brief resume of your career which was obviously varied in lots of different places here and abroad. Me I have only had two or three jobs driving for other people before setting out as an owner driver building my little empire and this year is our fiftieth in the job, my eldest son has got a book published with numerous pictures and a resume of his time and mine, him being brought up with it from birth. Drivers in our kitchen at home collecting running money and papers and having the odd meal to leaving school to washing the trucks & trailers off till he took his class one to driving and now running the company with his brother, that bit is pleasing to me as it makes the struggles me & my Mrs had along the way all worth while now to see the company carry on. cheers Buzzer.
PS. by the way the book is for sale at £20 all proceeds after cost going to Great Ormand Street Hospital which my youngest son is an envoy for and has raised over £30K doing marathons to raise money for this very good cause.
Buzzer:
Spardo dont take this the wrong way but I have posted a lot on TNUK on varied threads and you either have driven or worked for lots of the mention companies in the posts, just wondered if you have ever worked out how many different jobs/positions you have held during your time. Lots of us have moved about a bit but you seem to have done it a lot so it would be interesting if you could furnish us all with a brief resume of your career which was obviously varied in lots of different places here and abroad.
I have always had a wanderlust and a love of geography, which is what brought me first to the Merchant Navy (partly, tradition too, apart from Dad and Brother all the males in my family going back several hundred years have been mariners) then to driving lorries.
It got so that at one point, fed up with having to beat my brains out every time I applied for another job, I did compile a resume such as you mention but that has disappeared long ago. If I ever find it again I will gladly publish it. But till that time I fear it might not be possible.
In the meantime, I have just had a quick count up on my fingers and the provisional total has come to 45, but I know there are more, some only lasted a day or so for one reason or another (a firm called Bates on Nottingham wholesale market sacked me after a day delivering with their Commer because I overtook a friend of the boss in his car at 60 mph. 
'Nobody drives my lorries 60 mph 
’ That in the day when it was perfectly legal), I can’t remember any other sackings, other than a couple of redundancies (Cheveralls and Howses) and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t leave on good terms. Some of the more well known ones are Wimpey, Shell, British and Commonwealth Shipping, Cunard, WhiteTrux, Courtaulds (later Toray), Econofreight, Midlands Storage, Stirlands, Shaws (became Dormers of Leytonstone then managed by Coopers of Wednesbury) less well known (depends where you are) Queensland Main Roads Department, Sydney Radio Cabs, Yellow Cabs and of course Buntines…I suppose that is enough to be going on with, my brain is starting to hurt. When I first put the figure above (now 45) it came to only 19, but memories come flooding back. Not necessarily, in the words of the late great Eric Morecombe, in the right order.
I have lived a very varied life and have loved, almost, every minute of it. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
And of course I don’t take it the wrong way Buzzer, you are not the first, Patrick once posed a very similar question.
I reckon this was a rare example of the Inflatable Ford D-series: the driver needs to get the air back up
Buzzer:
DIG thanks for the info and vid couple more for you here one modern one a bit older plus some UK motors, Buzzer
My take on a Oz Rotinoff abandoned in the bush.
It was taken from a photo published in a Truck magazine years ago,
Good day at the Classic truck show at Gaydon last weekend some new restored vehicles there so a few photo’s.
Lovely Scania 111 from the Ken Thomas fleet.
Eight wheeler ERF
Rare Dodge 300 series
Foden Fleetmaster
Foden eight wheeler
pyewacket947v:
Buzzer:
DIG thanks for the info and vid couple more for you here one modern one a bit older plus some UK motors, BuzzerMy take on a Oz Rotinoff abandoned in the bush.
It was taken from a photo published in a Truck magazine years ago,
Here is a photo I took in 2005 { I think} when the restored Rottinoff made its maiden trip around Alice Springs in the annual parade.
The one in the bush at a station in the Halls Creek area 0f West Aus was used for carying portable yards for use in areas where it was difficult the hold cattle while droving them several days to permanent trucking yards so the portables were erected cattle mustered into them and trucks would go into pick them up with sometimes with the help of a grader or small bull dozer it was on one of these trips I made my first viewing of the Rottinoff shown in the sketch prior to its retirement, I had no knowledge of the truck prior to this or I would have had a closer look but I was lucky enough to be in Alice when the one I photoed was on display, it received its full paint job later that year.
I don’t know if the other one is under refurbishment at this stage or if it is just used as a spare parts department or which was the one I saw on the station.
Dig
DIG:
Another old timer made in Britain at the Hall of Fame Alice SpringsDig
Indeed, the AEC, the original Government Road Train from the 30s. 