ROADBOSS’s bumper third issue is now out jam-packed full of epic yarns on the icons, leaders, innovators and colourful characters that form the backbone of Australia’s road transport industry.
For the latest issue the crew travelled far and wide to bring you some truly amazing stories – from Alice Springs in the heart of Australia to as far north as the Artic Circle!
In his first contribution to the magazine, Steve Brooks braved minus 20-something Celsius temperatures to bring you the story of Swedish operator Stenvalls, a long-established and family-owned timber processing company.
In the middle of winter in the frozen forests of Sweden’s Arctic Circle – where, he writes, “the cold snaps breath and bone, the slightest breeze slinging icy pinpricks into any sliver of exposed skin” – he takes readers inside “a world of white, where Arctic loggers live, work and play”.
There he joins 23 year-old Johannes Korkeaniemi – born and raised in the family log harvesting and haulage business – as he witnesses the ‘young gun’ loading his own load of logs from the cab of a truck-mounted crane on a 750 hp Volvo FH16 coupled to a five-axle trailer loaded near enough to the legal gross of 74 tonnes over the combination’s 24 metre length.
“From any angle, it’s an industry of vast proportions yet for one small family operation, it’s much more than a business. Like so many others, it’s a life,” Steve writes.
At the polar opposite, Harrison Hunkin – along with videographer Jake Ashe and photographer Thomas Wielecki – headed way out west in the blistering heat to meet up with ‘The Bush Trucker Man’ Jeff Fulwood.
It was their first encounter with the man that’s crossing the width of Australia for charity and in memory of his mate.
Like a jockey “encouraging” its mount down the final straight, Fulwood – with his arm out of the window – cheered his 1943 Chevy Blitz up the red dunes of the Simpson Desert.
The ROADBOSS crew joined Jeff on day 35 of his pilgrimage – one man, one swag and a Chevy Blitz is an amazing sight alongside the cascading dunes of the outback.
Heading further west into the heart of Australia, Harrison and Corbey Bartels – along with photographer Alastair Brook – headed off to the Finke Desert Race, Australia’s toughest off-road race.
They joined a DAF semi-trailer, three Ford F-150s, and a Baja-winning race ute rolling in convoy from Melbourne to Alice Springs – 2,300 kilometres through the heart of Australia – with one goal.
From the rolling hills of South Australia’s Riverland to the parched red dirt of the Northern Territory, they helped transport the Ford Ranger Raptor racing ute to the starting line of the Finke Desert Race.
Marked by bulldust-filled whoops that swallow entire cars and gruelling weather that spans four seasons in a day, Finke is a full-speed race against the clock, and each other, some 226 kilometres from Alice Springs to Finke (Aputula) – and back again.
Obviously, trucks are crucial to getting the Finke Desert Race teams to one of the world’s greatest offroad races.
As the race teams rolled into town, ROADBOSS also caught up with some of the competing teams about their transporters and the journey to the Red Centre.
Somewhat in between, Steve Brooks and photographer Ashleigh Wilson travelled to the northern NSW town of Woodenbong, population 500 or so, to catch up with Michael Smith.
The 40-something, he writes, epitomises the self-made success stories hidden within the world of trucks and machinery. Often tucked away in quiet little towns, he says they are the stories of men and women who build remarkable enterprises from little more than the drench of sweat and an inherent capacity to simply crack on, have a go and critically, stay focussed.
The son of beef farmers, Michael Smith showed an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. As a 12 year-old he started selling eggs in the local district, quickly growing his flock of fowls up to 600 birds.
By the age of 18 a childhood fascination and natural affinity with machinery saw him buy a well-used D7 dozer which he put to good use clearing country on his parents’ property and soon after, working in local plantation forests. Not much later the ‘dozer was followed by an excavator and by his 20th birthday, Michael Smith’s future was firmly forged in diesel and dirt.
Today, MJ Smith Group boasts around 60 staff and 20 sub-contractors and a highly utilised equipment fleet of trucks and construction machinery focused on earthmoving, road building, civil construction and heavy haulage projects in the northern NSW and South East Queensland.
As Steve tells the story, his is a truly amazing story of resilience, determination and an uncompromising work ethic based entirely on the pursuit of quality fuelled by a deeply etched credo which espouses, “There’s money in sweat.”
Back in the city, editor Graham Gardiner and photographer Sam Thies spent a day with Tony Chance, an owner-driver with Brisbane-based All Purpose Transport.
At 67, the truckie finds himself an unlikely pioneer in arguably the greatest transformation in transportation since the shift from horse and cart to the automobile: the shift to electric vehicles.
A veteran truck driver with more than 41 years behind the wheel, the owner-driver is leading the charge to decarbonise the nation’s trucking industry, having clocked up some two-and-a-half years and over 60,000 kilometres in one of the first battery-electric trucks to hit the road in Australia doing local IKEA deliveries for Brisbane-based All Purpose Transport.
One of 15 EV drivers critical to the company’s drive to achieve zero-emissions deliveries for the Swedish homewares retail giant by 2025, Tony concedes that while he cops some ribbing from his mates, he takes it all in his stride.
“All the guys in the office give me a hard time, but I tell them it’s great training for when I get my mobility scooter!” he quips.
Rounding out ROADBOSS’s third issue, Cobey travelled across Victoria to document a paddock-to-plate journey with charity kitchen FareShare.
From cutting celery in Boneo, to sharpening his knife skills at its kitchens in Abbotsford, then out on the road with drivers to deliver meals – he followed the food to find out what goes into running the nation’s largest charity kitchens.
Over several days Cobey discovered there’s a lot more to the operation than throwing ingredients in a pot and waiting for a kitchen timer to ding-a-ling when it’s ready. There’s also a sizable freight task attached.
Like just about every industry, even the countless charities operating in the shadows to deliver food, clothes, services or shelter to those in need of a helping hand rely on road transport in one way or another!
To ensure you don’t miss out on these cracking yarns – and many more – subscribe to ROADBOSS Magazine here. The next issue is due out September 2024!
