Record numbers for Gympie event

Gympie showgrounds were overflowing with trucks and industry supporters as they gathered to remember Matty Hillcoat, celebrate the trucking industry and raise money for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

I have been wanting to attend the increasingly popular Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies Day Out for a few years now. I missed it in 2017, 2018 and 2019 due to an uncontrollable V8 Supercar addiction (the Bathurst 1000) and then I missed it in 2020 and 2021 due to the world going pandemic crazy and everything getting cancelled.

However, 2022 saw the return of the Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies Day Out and I made it to event on October 8.

It was the fourth running of this increasingly popular day and I obviously wasn’t the only one pleased to see it back. Record crowds and a record number of trucks rolled into town to show off their rigs, relax for the day and raise such much needed funds for a very important cause.

John Bentley, Micquala Thomsen and Korby ‘Mullet’ McPherson from Gravel Empire Holdings drove from Hervey Bay with their tip trucks

For those of you unaware of the Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies’ Day Out, let me bring you up to speed. First let’s talk location. Just north of Brisbane in the heart of the Wide Bay-Burnett Region you will find the town of Gympie. The Gympie area is famous for it’s nuts and it’s Gympie Muster Music Festival. Random fact here, Gympie was originally called Nashville. I’m serious, up until 1868. It had been named after James Nash, a dude that discovered gold there.

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Gympie is also a town that has been the victim of repeated with catastrophic flooding over the past few years. Like all tough country towns though the community bands together and keeps fighting on. It’s this kind of community spirit that will segue me into the motivation behind the Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies’ Day Out.

Unfortunately, the story behind this fantastic fundraising event is not one anyone would like to experience. In 2011 Dan and Kristine Hillcoat’s second son Matty passed away in his sleep. Matty was just four months old. This bright bubbly young boy was one of over a thousand kids per year that die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) worldwide. It is every parent’s worse nightmare and there is no way I could ever comprehend that kind of experience.

Greg Ryan was lucky enough to be piloting Bernie Tobin’s 1956 LTL Mack. This unit deservedly picked up the Best Vintage 50-plus award

The same year that Dan and Kristine lost Matty, a Geelong-based charity called River’s Gift began. Started by a family that went through the same nightmare as the Hillcoats, River’s Gift is now Australia’s solely SIDS focused charity and the leading source of funding for SIDS research.

Dan and Kris aligned themselves with the charity and participated in much needed fundraising events. In 2018 they decided to organise a truck show as a means of raising much needed funds for SIDS research.

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Dan Hillcoat has grown up surrounded by trucks so it seemed a logical avenue. The difference with this truck show was Dan and Kris wanted it to be more than just a truck show, they wanted to make a whole day of it. They wanted to get the community involved, not just the trucking community but the entire community.

The inaugural show back in 2017 roped in nearly 60 trucks and raised over $22,000. This year saw in excess of 150 registered for judging, raising more than $90,000.

Demolition trucks don’t get much nicer than the Benz and Fuso of Allcoast Group. Zac Weir (second from left), seen here with Briee Jordan, drives the 2017 Benz. Shaun Danger (right) drives the brand new Fuso, whose owner is and Joe Macarlino (second from right)

With the explaining all done and dusted, does anyone care to hear how the show was for me? Well, firstly full credit to Mother Nature because it was an absolute pearler of a day for the show. My assistant and I arrived nice and early in order to be well positioned to check out the trucks rolling in. Unfortunately, access was denied as the big horsepower units weren’t able to enter the Gympie Showgrounds until the four-legged horsepower variants had finished with the racetrack.


RELATED ARTICLE: Living the local life in Gympie


Once we were in though there was plenty of on-track action. I admit it took me a while to separate myself from the large consortium of gleaming trucks, but when I did I was not short of entertainment. I spent a fair bit of time watching the ladies and gentlemen of the tractor pull club doing their bit. There was a couple of young ladies that were really ‘givin’ it the jandal’ (which translates in Australian to ‘putting pedal to the metal’).

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If trucks and tractors weren’t enough there was a massive collection of old machinery. That area seemed to be an attraction for the more senior attendees. It seems if a machine doesn’t have Bluetooth capabilities, then people aren’t interested.

At the other end of the spectrum the young ones had oodles of opportunities to have fun. Under the big tent there was a constant stream of entrants completing colouring competitions. The very flexible and funny Crackup Sisters had several performances. It was a kids show but it was still worth checking out. Those ladies were great for a laugh.

John Carrol and Tristan Carrol with their amazing rebuilt project – a 1987 Mercedes-Benz

Back outside the tent there was literally a carnival going on, with all manner of rides and games. You could make yourself sick in a variety of ways. I can’t not mention the pig racing either, if only because it was one of the more disappointing aspects of the event. Try as I might I could not find any app taking bets on it, nor could I find any of the vendors willing to roast the losing pigs. Sure, the kids had a ball naming them and watching them race, but I made no money and ended up with no bacon either.

While the trucks were the centrepiece of the show, for most of the day they are the static displays. That was until around 3pm when the inside of the showgrounds opened up.

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When the first show started the idea was for the trucks to do a parade lap around the racetrack so the crowds could hang of the fences and wave to all the truckies. That was great when the show started. With the large number of trucks this year though, the racetrack was nowhere near long enough for this. In fact it was bumper to bumper before half the trucks made it in.

I’m not sure which ingenious truckie took the reins, but the parade started a kind of Archimedean spiral, allowing all the trucks to get a turn entertaining the crowds. The spiral eventually fell apart and the grounds look like the setting for the world’s most expensive demolition derby before the group was parked up in the middle for plenty of selfies.

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While I had to pull the pin and return home to try and catch the Bathurst 1000 Top Ten Shootout, the Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies’ Day Out carried on well into the night. Many truckers hung around to enjoy a relaxing catchup and participate in the light show as well. I was a bit disappointed I missed the prize giving as the trophies are another feature that makes this day stand out.

All in all, I’m extremely glad I finally made it to the Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies’ Day Out. I’m not just saying that because the Top Ten shootout got rained off. This event is still very young in the truck show world and it has the potential to become one of those must-attend events.

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There is something for everyone. It’s a family friendly event raising funds for a very important cause. I can’t wait to attend next year’s show and, fingers crossed, by then they’ll have a bookie and butcher on hand for the pig racing. 

For more on Matty Hillcoat’s Truckies Day Out, grab a copy of OwnerDriver magazine’s December 2022 edition from the regular outlets and selected newsagents.

Photography: Warren Aitken

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