The Geelong Classic Truck and Machinery Show is a highlight in the calendars of truck lovers Australia wide and, despite the Saturday’s oppressive heat and the Sunday’s bucketing rain, the 2025 edition was yet another smash hit to add to the list.
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The success of this show, like many others, should not just be measured by the number of trucks on show and people through the gates. This year’s show had 2000 attendees and 100 trucks, but the true success lies in the community surrounding the annual event.
Robbie Skidmore and the wider Skidmore family are near fixtures of the show and, once again, they rolled in with a convoy of impressive trucks and tractors – 15 in total – to catch up with the region’s trucking community in earnest.
Despite being a staple of the show, Robbie says it’s more than just an opportunity to show off some of the most impressive vehicles in his family’s collection. The real gains to be made from the event are the chance to reconnect with the community and spend quality time with friends and family.
“We had two road train loads,” Skidmore says. “We actually took, I think it was seven trucks and eight tractors down for the weekend to Geelong.
“It helps that people like to see the trucks!
“We’ve always supported Geelong; it’s something we’ve done every year, and we’ve made a lot of good friends out of the show down there.
Robbie has been around trucks all his life, as his father used to run a transport company.
“He had nine trucks at one point in the early 2000s,” Robbie says.
“As soon as I could get my truck licence I did, and kept stepping up through the ranks.”
Robbie says the Geelong show is great for people who like both vintage trucks and shiny ones.
“It just turns into a good catch up and a mateship thing,” he says.
“It’s great to see people you haven’t in a while.
“It’s also a good way to remember some of those we’ve lost along the way, who have passed away.”
Robbie and his family headed to Geelong on Friday afternoon, getting in early for a weekend of fun.
“The old man took his F350 ute down with the fifth wheeler on it, he also drove one of the trucks down, his partner drove the ute down, and my brother drove one of my trucks down as well,” he says.
Among the trucks taken by the Skidmores to Geelong were a 2016 K200 Kenworth and an ex-Greenfreight 2010 K108, both of which are used to haul grain, machinery, hay, and just about everything in between.
One truck that was notably absent from the Skidmores’ 2025 display, though, was a vehicle owned by Robbie that made headlines around Victoria just over a decade ago – his 1980 SAR Kenworth.
The former Eastoe’s Transport truck went missing from the site of Robbie’s father’s business in Sebastopol back in 2013, where it was eventually found in a ditch near Wallan after being used to smash through a fence.
It was found with an empty toolbox and fuel tank, and the radio had gone missing.
At the time, Rod Skidmore estimated the damage to be in the range of $4000.
“I would have been about 13 when that happened, so it was about two years before the first Geelong Show,” Robbie says.
“The whole reason we actually found it back then was because of social media. We posted it all over and got so many leads.
“Then, we got a phone call from the police on the morning we were setting things up for my sister’s birthday. The truck had been found, and we drove it home.”
Since the truck’s kidnapping, it has remained a firm favourite of the family’s, despite blowing up on the way home from its first Geelong show.
It’s currently in the process of being repaired, with parts of the vehicle currently spread out over the workshop floor.
“I’m trying to find the time to restore it,” Robbie says. “There’s bits and pieces everywhere.
“These days everyone’s time poor. It’ll get fixed up, but in the transport industry you either have lots of time and no money, or lots of money and no time.
“When it’s back together I’ll probably take to Geelong again. Actually, I definitely will.”
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