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Vintage Whine
4 min read

This heavy duty tow truck was built up by four men who took on the job when a suitable unit wasn’t available commercially at a fair price. A 1948 KB Inter chassis mounts a GM 6-71, Road Ranger box, Rockwell 5500 lb. axles. Fuso front end with Leyland steering. The cab was lifted off a 630 Diamond, but the grill is custom made out of refrigeration tubes! Ian Castles simply calls it “Critter.”

The region of Yarra Glen, Victoria is well known for its wine products. Grape vines cover the hills for miles around and wineries dot the landscape. On Sunday 9th November 2014 another vintage wine could be found. The whine of turbo chargers, superchargers or just tired old transmissions as just over four hundred vintage and classic commercial vehicles rolled into the Yarra Glen Racecourse for the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club thirty-third Annual Display.

Des Walker’s 1950 Diamond T log truck is a prime example of the quality of truck restorations today. The Model 520 has an American Black 308 cubed petrol six, five speed box and two speed Eaton diff.
One of the most looked at trucks was Ted Jones’ 1953 Mercedes C 4500 although it was still under restoration. Originally it worked at lnverell N.S.W with a unique three way tipping body. The factory 4.6 litre diesel six put 90 Hp through a five speed box and two speed diff.
DAKTARI is what Ian Glasson calls his 1965 Datsun 1300 Ute. It was his first car in 1975 and was later sold to a hunter of feral animals around The Grampians National Park. Ian found it on a farm and has rebuilt it.
These little English Ford Anglia and Prefect utilities once served in towns all over Australia as garage service units, carrying builder’s goods, delivering hardware, tradesmen vehicles and the like.

This was their first show at Yarra Glen, and the green grass and shade trees was a welcoming sight as opposed to the harsh asphalt of the previous venue. The amenities were centrally located and su ited catering, traders and show goers well. The only wrinkle seemed to be some parking issues, but no doubt that will be ironed out for next year.

Moving the show away from the suburbs could have been a gamble, but they we

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