Road train driver

Ian besides his rig

Distances are just mind boggling in outback Queensland. From Windoorah I drove to Diamantina National Park. On that 350 kilometre trip I passed no towns and went through 3 stations (a station is an outback farm, sometimes hundreds of thousands of hectares in size). I saw not a single car or person during that 5 hour drive, mainly over gravel/ dirt/ mud roads. Once at Diamantina I met quite a few people!

For the last 22 years Ian has been a fuel tanker driver in Northern Queensland. His current run takes a week, picking up a load from Townsville and then driving several thousands of kilometres to deliver to extremely remote outback farms. Places can be hundreds of kilometres apart and sometimes you don't see a soul for days. He drives this road train (truck and two trailers, a good 50 meters long) and says he never gets sick of it. Always something else to see and always nice to have a chat with the people he delivers to.

I was at the Diamantina National park ranger's office to interview the ranger there who has a Dutch wife, when a call came in on the two way radio at about eight in the morning. It was Ian, trying to deliver to Davenport Downs, about 70 kilometres further,  the (late) afternoon before. About 15 kilometres past the ranger's office he stopped his rig in front of a major boggy area in the road,  to see if he could make it through. He thought he could give it a go but he would need a good run up to keep momentum. But he also knew that he would have to reverse the road train about a hundred meters for that. Not a good idea. It was getting dark and he decided to spend the night in the truck on the spot. He had tried to get in touch with the manager of Davenport Downs, to no avail. So, the next morning he tried Diamantina on the two-way. The ranger, Mark, said he would come and have a look. I could come too!

The bog he was in front of happened to be the bog I got stuck in myself only days before. I felt quite relieved that I was not just stuck in a silly little bog but that a road train had stopped for it! Ian said he always gets rid of one trailer at Diamantina before he continues to Davenport but this time he did not. He wish he had, because then he could have reversed his truck for the run up through the bog. Not this time... (you try and reverse a truck with two trailers!) It was decided that Ian came back with us to Diamantina to ring Davenport by landline (no mobile reception out here!) and to get them to get a grader to pull him through.

 the bog with my car coming out  at '4500 revs in two low' just days before...

The ranger was rather busy on the phone so I gave Ian a cuppa and had a wonderful chat with him. He was shivering and I lent him my coat and made him a cheese sandwich. Ian told me about this new place he once had to deliver to and he was given some directions before he went: once you're on the property, just follow the most travelled track. Simple. Ian said that he stopped at a fork in the road. Both tracks seemed really well used... He chose one. Only to find out that after a good 50 kilometres that track ended up at a bore (a pipe coming out of the ground with valves that delivers artesian ground water to the surface to be used as drinking water for cattle)... He turned and told the manager afterwards that on a farm people visit their bore more often than that they would go to town." Ah, I didn't think like that... the manager agreed...

Finally, after some phone calls to Davenport Downs it was clear that a grader was on its way and would be there around noon. Ian got dropped back of at his truck to wait for things to come.

Next morning Ian drops in on his way back to say all went ok. A front end loader had arrived later that afternoon and had made a track for the truck around the bog so it wasn't necessary to pull the road train. He only needed to reverse a bit to be able to get around. At Davenport it took Ian four hours to offload the fuel delivery so he stayed the night there.

To my question what his favourite places were on his run he thought for a moment. Then he smiled: "I only managed to break down once at Glenormiston. The view from the homestead verandah there is just magnificent. They have this enormous man-made lake you look out over and it's just a delight to sit there." Ian gave me a few hints for nice places to visit or camp later on my travels. I followed his advise and jeez he was not wrong!