[hilifta]

Hilifta’s Australian Adventures.

Like all holidays it comes and goes far too quickly.
But on the whole the weather was kind and I managed to get an awful lot of photos, almost 2000 in total, aircraft, trucks and motor racing.
I spent a couple of afternoons on the outskirts of Bathurst, and the same on the container terminal approaches in Sydney.
As my son was working down at Port Kembla, I went down to Wollongong/Port Kembla for a day and oohed and aahed at the huge trucks that live around the steel mill.
I was very surprised at the amount of quite old trucks still on the road in Australia, early Inter S-Lines, wendy house Volvos, early Scania’s and even an old bullnose Merc from the 60’s. We seldom see anything this old in Enzed.
At the end though, I was heartily sick of white anonymous trucks with no sign writing at all. White is obviously the Aussies truckers colour of choice.
Booring!!.
It took some getting used to the sheer size of the 27metre B-doubles, and several times I was caught out by not being far enough back. Another thing that annoyed the hell out of me was concentrating on the front of the truck when shooting and cutting off the rear. I had to give myself several wacks over the head for doing that! (You won’t see those ones!). This usually happened when they were moving. I’m more used to shorter objects, and ships which are very long but don’t tend to move very quickly.
Still, live and learn, have to do better next year!.
I made an effort to try and see as many Mack Magnums as possible, but they really are quite rare. I shot 7 and saw 4 others that I was unable to shoot, and that was it. I did ask several times why they did not succeed in Oz. Apparently the engine Mack used was considered a little underpowered and a bit troublesome. It was just a bit too different. It was also considered by the longhaul drivers to be a bit “gay”. You had to be a bit of a poofter to drive one!!!. This rather interesting point of view was put to me by the owner of the only Renault Magnum that I saw. According to him they (longhaul drivers) only want big hairy arsed Kenworths and Western Stars etc . An interesting point of view from a rather colourful guy to say the least. (He raced a Porsche).
Outside of Bathurst there were many 27metre B-doubles heading to Sydney. These have to be separated to go over the Blue Mountains as only the 19metre version can cross intact. There are only 2 roads across the Blue Mountains, and the second, the Bell Line Road, is a real goat track.
I met a number of really helpful guys who were quite prepared to talk, and even move their rigs in to a position to photograph. It was fantastic, great blokes. .I was allowed into the yard of Murrell Freight Lines in Wollongong to photograph their fleet. They even closed up the curtains on a B-double so I could shoot it!. They have a stunning colour scheme, black with signwriting in yellow and orange.
I went to the Australian release of the new Kenworths at Sutton’s in Sydney. As expected the “new” is really only a bit of a re-style, but it does look good.
As I was walking back from this I walked past the old Tempe bus garage which has been closed for almost 20ys, and found that it had been re-opened. As I was looking in the gate, the deport boss came out, asked if I’d like a look around. I said “yes please”, he signed me in, gave me a hi-viz jacket and then gave me a guided tour of the place!
What more could you ask.
And then, to cap it off, he gave me the hi-viz as a souvenier.
I was very surprised, and quite rapt.
But it wasn’t all roses though, I had a corrupted memory card and lost almost 200 photos, a real bummer.
For anyone interested in models, Exclusive Collectables have done some 1/43 scale B-doubles in several schemes, with Iveco Stralis and a conventional Freightliner tractors. Two are V8 supercar transporters, one in Triple8 colours and a Freightliner in DJR, Jim Beam colours. They are huge, over 1 metre long, but extremely impressive. This year they have bought out a 1/50 version, which is much more manageable. They have only one so far, a Stralis in Team Vodafone colours. Cost are $150 Aud for 1/43, and $90 Aud for the 1/50 version.
But remember if you buy one (or two), you might have to move the missus into a tent in the back yard!!.
Spotting.
All the Bathurst photos were taken on the approaches from Sydney and from Orange.
On the Sydney approach you can stand back far enough to get trucks in both directions, but traffic is heavy and be prepared to miss photos.
In Sydney, a great spot at the container terminal, is at the intersection of Foreshore Drive and Botany Road. There are also trees to give you some respite from the sun. BUT, make sure you have water, sunhat hat, not cap, and sunblock. I walked the length of Foreshore drive, photographing as I went and it took me about 40mins to walk the full length.
As well as container trucks, there is a wide selection of other trucks, as you will see from my photos.
At Kembla, I did a lot of shooting at the entrance to Blue Skope Steel’s re-cycling plant. Plenty of trucks and NO cars. Again some trees which is a real blessing.
I have almost finished editing and cataloguing all the photos and should start uploading some at the weekend, my next days off.

The trip ended in a flight home on Emirate’s very latest A380, only in service for 2 weeks. What a magnificent aircraft, (and service).
Emirates for me every time.

Regards/Mike (hilifta)