Kenworth celebrates 50 years

PACCAR, or more specifically Kenworth, is marking its 50th year of manufacturing trucks at its plant in the Melbourne suburb of Bayswater.

At the same time, the company is celebrating its 70,000th truck built at the site.

“PACCAR built the Bayswater facility in 1971 to design, engineer and manufacture Kenworth trucks - a unique and high-quality product that has become an icon of Australian trucking,” said Managing Director of PACCAR Australia, Andrew Hadjikakou.

As part of the celebrations, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, Assistant Minister for Road Safety and Freight Transport Scott Buchholz, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister Kevin Hogan, ATA Chair David Smith and ATA CEO Andrew McKellar toured the facility.

It all started in the late 1950s when a couple of adventurous truck drivers visited Kenworth’s factory in America and, before long, fully-built Kenworths were being imported to Australia.

What was so special about these trucks was that they were not being produced on a mass assembly line. Instead, each one was being custom-engineered to individual specifications. In 1970 a Kenworth manufacturing plant opened in Bayswater, Victoria and in March 1971, the first Australian-made Kenworth came off the line.

That Kenworth a K125 was at the plant today as we celebrated its 50th birthday.

At the time of the first run of Kenworths, merely 100 people worked at the Bayswater site and the facility could produce just one truck per day.

Now there are more than 1300 people working at the facility and it can pump out 21 new trucks, both Kenworth and DAF, per day.

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At the celebratory event, Mr Hadjikakou praised his workers and the suppliers, of which there are about 70 employing some 6000 workers, and he especially singled out Preston Engineering the company that is the supplier of the chassis rails for the Kenworths.

“I want to thank our extended PACCAR family – our suppliers whose world-class quality products allows our own to shine.”

“There is one supplier I especially want to mention, our chassis supplier Preston Engineering who are a partner of PACCAR since the very beginning 50 years ago. To the close family, Greg the father and brothers John and James, thank you for playing your part in making our trucks the world’s best.”

“This an immensely proud day for PACCAR Australia it’s a day to celebrate and a day to reflect,” said Mr Hadjikakou.

“The 50th Anniversary and the build 70,000th Kenworth. It could be a happy co-incidence, or maybe it was just meant to happen this way. Both achievements would have been unimaginable to those who clocked on half a century ago.”

It was fitting that the first K125 to roll off the line was present at the event.

Also present was J. J. Hurley, the son of the founder of Brown and Hurley, the country’s largest Kenworth dealer.

Mr Hurley regaled the gathered staff and guests with a history of his company and amused us with a very humorous story that we’d best not retell here.

He then went on to symbolically receive the keys to the 70,000th Kenworth from Mr Hadjikakou who had reserved the significant vehicle for Brown and Hurley.

Mr Hurley said the 70,000th truck was unfortunately stuck n the floods of northern New South Wales and could not make the event, but he said that the truck would not be sold but would perform ceremonial duties for the company and would end up in the Brown and Hurley museum in Kyogle, where the company started.

A fitting place, we think, for a very significant Australian truck.