Legacy is a funny thing. No matter where you look you can see the influence of the past on the material of the present, and it’s the same in road transport.
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Wherever you look in our great industry – on the road, in the workshops, at truck shows or anywhere in between, it doesn’t take much to see it.
That legacy can sometimes be obvious.
Iconic 1960s Kenworths chewing up tarmac in Australia’s red centre can be seen through the new, modern trucks gracing the Outback Way, the historic legacy is clear as day.
But it can also be seen in the hard work of a driver who has been hauling for 40 years or more, or the memories people hold in the trucks and trailers of yesteryear.
Ben Guest is one such driver who knows a thing or two about legacy, and he’s continuing the legacy of the first truck he bought – a 1968 Mack R600 – through to his brand-new Mack Trident.
Meet Fred 1 and Fred 2.
“Fred 1 was the first truck I ever drove,” Ben says.
“In 1977 T&FS Woods bought it from Wentworth in Sydney. It was basically just doing float work with their earthmoving and heavy haulage business.
“Then it was working as a float for the Narrabri shire from 1982 to 1983, and it was carting cottonseed from Ashley to Cargill in Narrabri.
“It would also pick up cottonseed meal from Narrabri and take it to Gurley Station.
“Then from 1983 it was pretty much doing single tipper work at Moree for Woods’, and it had a removable body tipper they used for cut gravel.
“They had a sale in 1988, and we bought her, and we bobtailed it home from Moree to Narrabri and we bought one of Barry Williams’ old gravel tippers.”
Fred 1’s journey started well before it was purchased by T&SF Woods in 1977, almost a decade in fact. After all, it is a 1968 Mack.
It was through the help of J.T. Fossey Dealer Principal John Saint those first nine years of Fred 1’s journey has been uncovered.
Initially, Fred 1 was sold on December 1, 1968 to Austen & Butta Limited (A&B), and even featured in an edition of the ‘Mack Trucks Bulldog Bulletin’.
Founded by Dick Austen and Angelo Butta in 1949, A&B started with a Studebaker truck hauling coal in open cut mines near Lithgow, before the company grew to become public in 1970.
The 1970 Annual Report states the company’s operations spanned northwest of Newcastle in Muswellbrook and Singleton, down through Sydney, west to Lithgow and south into Moss Vale.
That existence, carting cotton, coal and gravel all over the regions of New South Wale, is not easy on a truck. It was a tough gig, and it remains a tough gig, both for the truck itself and the driver operating it.
Fred 1, however, made it out the other side of that difficult existence, and is now used as a farm truck. Its longer haulage days are well behind it.
“I was talking to a few fellas that used to drive it, and it was doing big, hard days – especially driving that cottonseed from Ashley to Narrabri,” Ben reflects.
“It’s a fair few kilometres to be going from Ashley to Narrabri and back again, and hot too in that summertime harvest.
“It only had a little fan on the dash that only really circulated the hot air. It was like a hot water bottle you could almost put tea leaves in to make a cuppa.
“There’s definitely no power steering in it, when we were driving around harvest time, especially carting rocks and things, you had to be careful you didn’t hit a rock because the steering wheel would spin out of your hands and just about break your arm since it’s about two-feet wide.”
Although the bright yellow Mack has just been a farm truck for the past 20-plus years, for almost four decades it was almost impossible to miss travelling around the Narrabri region and rural New South Wales.
It has been deregistered since 2001, but that legacy Ben has built with the truck – and from its time before his ownership – still rings true.
So much so, in fact, that Ben has paid homage to his first truck with his latest purchase which he has, quite brilliantly, dubbed ‘Fred 2’.
The funny thing is, though, he didn’t even name Fred 1, but Fred 2 will be doing similar work to its namesake with Ben still behind the wheel.
“Woods actually named it Fred,” he says. “The Flintstone Mack.
“What I’ve done now is turn two trucks into one, basically. Fred 2 has a removable body tipper, and that’s essentially the same as what Fred 1 was doing.
Fred 1’s legacy
“It’s dual purpose and I can either tow a road train or the body tipper, like Fred 1.
“Turning those two trucks into one gives you the ability to do things yourself, and it’s harder to get parts and drivers so you need to keep updating your gear.”
So why, almost four decades after his purchase of Fred 1, and almost 60 years since it rolled off the production line, has Ben elected to continue the legendary truck’s legacy through this new Trident?
Ben has by no means purely been a Mack operator over the course of his career in transport. By his own admission he’s had Kenworths and IVECOs over the journey, in addition to the constant that has been Fred 1.
“Mack is just something to me that sounds like a tough, tough truck,” Ben laughs.
“I’ve had other trucks in the past, but we’re so far so good in the new one.
“I see them all over Australia, and they’re Australian made.”
“Slim Dusty also sings about old Mack trucks, and he’s the sound of Australia.”
Ben’s journey with Fred 1 may be coming to a close, but the bright yellow truck is still just as popular as it ever been. It even made an appearance alongside Fred 2 at the recent Tamworth Volvo and Mack Truck Show, even though it didn’t walk away with any of the awards.
But while that door may be closing, the door is opening for Fred 2 to continue on the legacy of Fred 1, and even though Ben is only taking the first steps of that journey, he’s excited for what the future holds in his brand-new set of wheels.
“We’re sitting at a bit over 1000 kilometres on Fred 2 at the moment, so we’ve got a little while to go,” Ben laughs.
“If I can get as many miles and have as many stories out of Fred 2 and I have Fred 1, that would be pretty amazing.”
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