Part 1.
I advised the
forum about a week ago of my return from
places far north and said that I would let you all know what I had done when I had a bit of time.
This is quite a story so I think I will break it up into several posts to make it a bit interesting and not so long winded.
My recent trip was based around the Beadell Ration Truck Preservation Project arranged by the Toyota Landcrusier Club Vic (TLC).
This project aimed to remove the Beadell burnt out ration truck located on the
Gary Hwy about 700 kms west of
Alice Springs where it has laid since it caught fire in 1960 and to move it 30 kms further down the road to the Kirriwicurra Aboriginal Community.
The story of this truck and many others is told by Len in his various books and makes for a great read.
The now owners of the truck are the
Kiwirrkurra Aboriginal Community and it was this community that was keen to move the truck closer to their community so that it could be preserved in some order and used as a tourist point for the community.
The Beadell family and Lens Bulldozer driver Doug Stoneham who incidentally is the last surviving member of the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party were also in support of this project as a means of trying to maintain something of the truck for the future as it was slowly being vandalised and concern was raised about future damage caused by future road works.
Doug Stoneham accompanied us on the trip and is one of the nicest gentlemen you could ever meet, the stories he could tell were just fabulous, 8 years as Lens bulldozer driver working on virtually all of Lens roads as
well as his work at
Woomera and the Emu and Marralinga atomic sites is a fascinating story.
And to say I discovered something unusual in regards to Doug on this trip is the most amazing understatement, more on this later.
I departed
Melbourne with my 14 year old son Andrew also known on this site as Bigfoot and drove over to
Peterborough SA to drop into visit
young Willem and his lovely lady Judith.
I meet Willem and developed a friendship with him during the EO
Little Desert Trip earlier this year.
Had a great night with them both two of the nicest people you could meet.
Had PP juice with my Ice Cream (Outstanding) Judith is a one of those old style
home cooks, does everything herself, just bloody magnificent hospitality.
After leaving Willems place later than expected on the Saturday, a warm bed and a cooked breaky not to mention the great conversation which just went on and on kept me there later than anticipated.
We travelled to
Woomera to have a look at the town, Len Beadell’s grave and the museum / historic centre.
Well worth the effort very interesting to say the least if you have not visited
Woomera then make sure you do it..
From
Woomera we travelled in one hop to Alice to meet the rest of the TLC group.
This consisted of 10 Trucks and 17 bodies all told.
I might add that this was my first trip with TLC despite 4wding for a number of years I only recently joined this club.
One night in Alice to get all the equipment together and the trailers organised to carry it all 700 kms west and we were off.
20kms north of Alice and a left turn onto
the Tanami track and the first mishap.
The trailer towed by our trip leader decides to depart from the tow vehicle, no big deal just jumped of the ball, not a good indication of things to come though.
After re attaching the trailer and wiring the catch down we set off again, 450kms later down the
Gary Hwy the voice on the radio announced that the trailer had lost a wheel, Wonderful I always hated towing trailers (I do it for a living) all this did was re confirm my dislike for them.
Same trailer that jumped the ball, this time it snapped the stub axle on the left wheel right at the base of the thread, the wheel disappeared into the scrub, now we had a real problem. We found the wheel about a 100 meters into the scrub.
After a lot of discussion and suggestions it was decided to go into the Liebig Aboriginal community and see if they could be of any help.
And very helpful they were, they happened to have an old trailer and kindly allowed us to borrow one of its axles.
The only problem was it was to short for our trailer.
Bush ingenuity prevailed and we clamped it parallel to the existing axle leaving the left wheel sticking out about a foot outside the left side guard of the trailer, after reducing its load we set off again the following morning after camping near the Liebig community.
Next stop WA and the ration truck.
I will leave it there for the moment and will add the next post with part 2 in the next few days so just hold your breath as the story gets better.