The 2016 Harden Truck and Tractor Show

Although the Harden Truck and Tractor Show is one of the newest events on the trucking calendar, its laid-back country style attracts visitors from far and wide

 

Now in its third official year, it was inevitable that the twin New South Wales towns of Harden-Murrumburrah would host an annual truck show.

After all, Harden is the birthplace of Ken Thomas, founder of TNT.

Indeed, it was the Harden Historical Society’s commemoration of Thomas’ 100th birthday in 2013, including the launch of David Wilcox’ biography on Thomas — The Truckie Who Loved Trains — that was the catalyst for the first official Harden Truck and Tractor Show in 2014.

In conjunction with the celebrations, the Harden Historical Society invited the newly-formed Harden Historic Truck and Tractor Club to organise a truck show.

“We did that, and that was such a success we decided we’d have a truck show annually,” club president Kevin Sharp says.

The Harden Historic Truck and Tractor Club was formed in 2011 with 10 members.

“We’re up to about 26 members now, so we’ve grown steadily,” Kevin says.

The 2016 event, held on March 20 at the Harden-Murrumburrah showgrounds, attracted an impressively diverse array of trucks, tractors, coaches and stationary engines.

The trucks, many bearing historic club plates, came not only from the Harden-Murrumburrah area, but also from Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst, Queanbeyan, Bega, Sydney and the NSW Central Coast.

That was despite competition from truck events in Oaklands, Penrith and Kyabram in Victoria the same weekend, not to mention other community events held nearby.

“We’ve got the Stockinbingal Fair near Cootamundra, they’re reopening Temora railway station with steam trains there, there’s a fair on over at Boorowa, and we had the Chinese festival in Young yesterday,” Kevin says.

“But we’re happy with the roll-up we’ve got here.”

 

 

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