<<Rewind 2012: ‘A.J’

In-depth

12 June

Prologue:

Go to a truck show just about anywhere in Victoria, an ATHS or HCVC get-together over the years and there, tucked away in some corner would be A.J. with his beautifully unrestored Kenworth S2. Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder because some would say that this truck would be the roughest, rustiest rig they’d ever laid eyes upon. Some would even comment uncharitably that the truck was unloved. Nothing could have been further from the truth . . . .

. . . . . . .

AJ’s S model was the second one in Australia.

“I believe that Cameron’s, Bloomfield's or Cold Storage brought it into the country originally. That old South Road legend, Ruffy Doyle was the first person to drive it. I met Ruffy on the road to Alice when I was heading to the reunion in 2010. I was asleep inside The S2 when Ruffy pulled up in his camper bus and dragged me out. He said that he used to drive it when it was new. Then he and Mum (wife, Dot) followed me up to Alice. They took me in and fed me and welcomed me into their family. He made the best moonshine you've never tasted. We were mates till the day he died. When I heard of his demise I had to take the truck to his send-off to pay homage to a great bloke.”

How long have you owned it AJ?

“I've been looking after her for the last 20 years. I picked her up from the Berwick Bus depot, which is gone now. The last time she worked she was doing asphalt. That truck has some stories to tell. I still get looks of disbelief when I drive past. People say, ‘What the hell is that?’ and I answer, its history, that's what it is!”

So when you found her, she was just languishing?

“Yep. She was in the back of the depot with a for sale sign on her. There was a number on the sign and I didn’t know whether it was the price or the phone number. It didn't matter – I had to have her.

“When I got her home there was two weeks of no talking. You see, I'd paced out where she was going to go and only one tree had to come out. I sneaked her around the side of the house but the missus came out and she hated it!”

What's your background AJ?

“I’m a mechanic by trade. I worked for a brickworks for 15 years but I always loved trucks. I first saw this when it was tarted up in the Cold Storage green and I thought, Wow! I've gotta have a piece of this. Thirty years down the road I got that very truck that I saw back then.

“I remember the first time I saw this was quite a few years ago now and I was taking a photo of it. What I really liked was the history that it displayed. I rubbed the paintwork back so you can see that history. As I rubbed the surface the colour it was before was there, and the colour before that and the colour before that all the way back to its origin.”

“I did that deliberately so folk could get some feeling of the life the old girl has led. She spent some time working as a tipper down at Cann River. She was brown and white and orange then. She changed colours that many times I'm surprised she doesn't have a complex.

“She was beaten to death and covered in asphalt when we met up. A mate of mine worked for Silvandale Transport who had cranes. For half a dozen stubbies he came around and took the box off the back. I went around to Roy's Wreckers in Kilsyth and got the oldest turntable I could find, buried in some blackberries down the back – steel fabricated rather than cast.”

So what year is she?

“1962. The rego says '66 but Vic Roads, or the Motor Registry, as it was back, then didn't know what the hell it was.”

So you've never had any urge to strip her back and do her up?

“I had big ideas when I first got it. I was going to do a couple of days work a week with her as a tipper but one thing leads to another and situations change. So I put her in the backyard and pull her out now and then as a toy.”

How reliable has she been?

“I've replaced a couple of hoses. The original ones were too long and the spring rubbed through them. That made a bit of a mess. Coming back from Alice I blew a tyre. A mate had given me a bodgy re-cap as a spare before I went up and that got me home all right.

“Oh yeah, I lost five cans of beer on that trip. The old girl was shaking that much that she wore holes in them. She bucked and kicked the whole way. I let the tyres down a bit but that didn't help. In that whole trip I used $1500 of fuel and a gallon of oil which I reckon was pretty bloody good. The only reason she's got these (mudguards) on is because the Alice trip took me across three states and I didn't want to have my arse kicked.”

How many miles do you reckon she's done?

“Oh nothing works so I haven't got a clue. The only thing that does work and is accurate is the fuel gauge.”

I've liked this truck since I first saw it.

“You'd be amazed Kermie how many people do. She's got character.”

**Cameron’s S2. Unknown if this is the 1st or AJ’s 2nd**

I gather you won't sell her?

“Glenn Cameron came up to me a couple of months back and wanted to buy her and do her up as a gift for Ed. I told him the old man had approached me years ago about buying her but he approached me wrong. If he'd said it the right way, I would have given it to him for nothing. "Oh, don't tell me that," said Glenn.

“So I am going to drive it into the ground and enjoy every bit of it myself. When I go she's coming with me so they'll have to dig a bloody big hole!”

. . . . . . . .

Footnote:

I last saw AJ in 2019 at the Alexandra Truck Show. Given the police had decided to check every truck leaving the event on the Sunday – no matter which way they headed out of town – AJ decided to kip down for the night. Unfortunately, the next day a rogue copper pulled him up and threw a pink slip on the S2. No sense of history those blokes!