The ROADBOSS crew have been travelling far and wide to bring you some truly epic stories for our upcoming third edition – including as far north as the Artic Circle!
In his first contribution to the magazine, new team member Steve Brooks braves 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 – head 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.
Somewhat in between, Steve Brooks and photographer Ashleigh Wilson travel 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.”
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 June 2024!
