My family operated the Cooladdi mail service for almost 70 years, running a number of vehicles of various makes over that time. I am fortunate enough to now own two of those trucks and, having restored them, can keep a piece of my families transport heritage alive.

Born in 1905, my grandfather, William Brooks, started his working life as a drover out the back of Blackall, in Queensland’s central-west, about 100km west of Charleville. In 1936, he took on the Cooladdi mail run contract, starting out with a 1926/27 Dodge, running under the name W. Brooks Mail Contractor, a service which would continue to be operated by the family until 2005, only outlasting my grandfather William by five years, when he passed in 2000 at the age of 95.

In 1947, the Cooladdi store, which operated as the general store, post office, bank, fuel depot, and boarding house for the school’s teachers was purchased by my family. They also ran the tea rooms at the railway station when the trains came through.

In the late 1940s/early 50s, my grandfather and his two sons, my uncles, Cedric and Bill, ventured into carting stock, under the name W. Brooks & Sons, for many years before relocating the livestock transport business from Cooladdi to Charleville in 1968. This business still carries on today as Brooks Bros., operated by my uncle Cedric’s sons, Clive and Darryl. William moved to Charleville in 1972, but still continued to run the mail out at Cooladdi.

I had started a mechanical apprenticeship in 1970 with the Chrysler dealership in Roma, where I spent a little over two years before moving on to Austral motors in Brisbane for nine months. From here,
I relocated to Warrego Motors, the Ford and Toyota dealer in Charleville, before finishing out the final nine months of my apprenticeship working for myself after having taken out the lease in May 1974, on the Charleville, Golden Fleece service station, with my father, Dave, and brother in-law, Paul Jones.

After my father and Paul left the service station business, I carried on by myself until May 1977 which was about the time that I got married. It was then that I started up my own mechanical repair workshop in Charleville, a business that I would continue to operate until 1986.

Moving on from the mechanical business, I went to work for my grandfather and uncles, doing mechanical repairs and driving stock trucks. I would stay here until 1993 when I moved to Gladstone, taking up work in a spare parts business.

I remember the Morris from my childhood, having ridden in it many times on the mail route and general cartage runs. It had been purchased new by my grandfather and was one of a number of Morris Commercials used on the service, and even now, I can’t fathom how they used to get three grown men inside it. 

Although my grandfather had wanted to give me the truck, it had to go through the clearing sale process at the property in 1984, at which I was the winning bidder, paying $34 for the Morris. It then sat outside on the property, exposed to the elements, until 2007, when I picked it up and took it back to Gladstone.

By this stage it was pretty well in a dilapidated state, sun-beaten but fortunately, no rust, and definitely in need of a rebuild. I gave it a clean and proceeded to strip it down, and although body-wise, it was in good condition, mechanically an overhaul was well overdue as it had been sitting for so long. With it down to the chassis, I was trying to work out what parts would need to be secured, and the overriding thought was...where to start?

Throughout the process, I had half a dozen jobs on the go at any one time as I waited for parts. I ended up buying another Morris which was all rusted out so I was able to take what I needed from it and ended up with a spare motor and a few other bits and pieces.

The Morris runs a 125 cu. inch, 4-cylinder overhead valve motor, with a bore of 3.14” (80mm) and a stroke of 4” (102mm) which produces 42bhp @ 3,250rpm, which is good for 65km/h flatout. After I honed out the bores, I fitted new piston rings, as well as renewing the big end and main bearings. I also reraced the 4-speed plus reverse gearbox and the differential. 

While on the back end, I overhauled the rear drum brakes with a good clean and new linings. The lever handbrake which operates on the rear drums also received attention at this time, so I could make sure that all the linkages worked freely. I also cleaned, and replaced a couple of broken leaves and reset the rear springs.

One noticeable feature of all of my grandfather’s trucks prior to the use of roof racks, was the caved-in roof of the cab. Immediately when he got a truck, he would stove-in the cab roof as this was where the rolled-up tarps would be stowed. The panel work of the Morris, although virtually rust free, still required work, as would be expected from many years on the poorly maintained, often unsealed roads of the era. 

Along with the roof, the rear cab mounts were broken and there were cracks in the cab and guards. These all required panel beating, before I welded the cracks with the mig and painstakingly worked the steel panels by hand, wanting to use as little bog as possible. I then applied the 2 Pac industrial paint, with the finished colour as close to the original as possible.

The radiator which is still the original, has withstood the test of time well, with the core only receiving a good flush. The grille on the other hand, required plenty of patience to be straightened before a powdercoat finish was applied.

I set about renewing the entire wiring harness to the Morris’ 12 volt electrical system which wasn’t too hard as auto electrical is part of my trade. It was made easier as the electrical system of the Morris is stock standard, with a 12 volt generator, minimally appointed dash, a single-speed driver’s side-only electric wiper, and sealed beam headlights. 

When it came to the upholstery of the original seat and hood lining, I did this myself as I am the type of guy who will have a go at anything. I had a mate in Gladstone who was an upholsterer, and he would come around and say, “Do this”, or “This is what you do”. I think that the end results have come up really good, and with the windscreens and plate glass from the donor truck installed, the cab was now finished.

It was now down to rebuilding the tray which was not re-useable, but I managed to build a replica exactly as the original was. My grandfather used to make a wooden box which he would put on every truck, but the one on the Morris had fallen off a long time ago. If I come across a good picture of one of his boxes, I would like to make one for the truck. My other truck, the Chev, had the remnants of one but not enough to confidently build another.

Eventually, my labour of love had all come together, with the restoration as complete and as close to original as I could get – the Morris was put back on the road in 2010. It had taken three years and cost me about $4,500, but it was all worth it to have a piece of my family’s history restored and preserved for many years to come.

Unlike the Morris, I have no recollections of the Chev from my childhood, as it was driven by one of my grandfather’s employees most of the time. Through family, I have been able to gather part of its life with us. My grandfather had picked it up at a surplus auction in 1946 after World War Two, from where he took it out to Cooladdi and worked it on mail, fuel, and general cartage duties. It was kept for around 15 years before being sold on – and probably another couple of times after that. Many years later, my uncle, Bill, came across it on a property and purchased it, taking it back to his place in Charleville. I eventually bought it from Bill in 2011, but left it on his property at that stage.

My wife and I had moved to the Hervey Bay area in 2014, and it wasn’t long after that when I retrieved the Chevrolet from Charleville. Although I have many years of mechanical experience, getting started on the Chev’s restoration was a little slower due to not knowing a lot of people in the Hervey Bay area, which meant accessing bits took a little more chasing. I soon found it wasn’t such
a big problem, as it turned out that the area has many skilled and competent individuals and a rich abundance of collectors/restorers, and parts for the Chev are still readily available out of the US.

I got into the restoration, removing the bonnet and guards before lifting off the cab, which like the Morris would require the roof being popped back out. Reducing the truck down to
a rolling chassis, there was no evidence of cracks or twists in the chassis as I would have expected, considering the chances of it being overloaded on a regular basis. The same could not be said for the front axle which I had to have straightened up in Bundaberg.

Now is probably a good time to mention that the restoration of my 1942 Chevrolet model 4408, 1½ ton truck was not going to be strictly authentic. I was wanting a little more road speed out of it, which in turn would mean having to make a minor alteration to its stopping ability. The power was still to be supplied by the 216 cu. inch, in-line 6-cylinder engine which produced 29.4hp, but the cylinders, with a 3½” bore x 3¾” stroke, required a rebore. The pistons were fitted with new rings, and the Babbitt bearings were exchanged for Slipper bearings. To take care of any engine heat, I exchanged the original radiator for one of aluminium, while the original was being re-cored. As I wrote this article, I have been told it is finished and ready to be picked up. It will be fitted back into the Chev in the near future.

The original 4-speed transmission has been discarded with the 6-cylinder motor now turning through a 5-speed overdrive gearbox taken from a 1942 GMC truck, which now gives the Chev a road speed of 90-95km/h. This extra turn-in speed is why when I overhauled the hydraulic brakes, I went one step further and added a power booster to the braking system. 

Work on the cab, bonnet, and guards was moving forward with no surprises. Of course, there was the roof which took some effort to push back out, and there was a fair amount of surface rust, both inside and out. But with time on my side, and doing the work myself, I was able to use minimal bog, and got the panels smooth and sitting flush in alignment before applying the finish coat.

It all came together well. I had renewed the wiring harness, adding indicators while I was at it. Although the instrument panel is no longer original, as the speedo was gone, I have managed to replace it with one of the same size and shape from another vehicle of the same vintage, a GMC, which I then fitted with all new gauges. The cabin was finished off with a rubber floor mat and all new glass, except for the rear window which is the original. 

The Chevrolet would have originally had a tray with rounded corners, but it had been replaced at some time during its working life. With a lot of sanding and elbow grease, I did manage to salvage the timbers which I re-used on the tray. I have left them in a natural state at the moment as I want to see what they will look like when I make gates for the tray sides.

It took nearly five years, but I finally got the Chevrolet registered and on the road in July 2020.

With two of the family’s heirlooms now finished, it is time to start my next project, a 1930 Ford Model A ‘Woody’ panel van which I parked in a shed and put up on blocks 45 years ago. 

*Lance Treadwell

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