Koroit Truck Show 2023

Last weekend, the 2023 Koroit Truck Show rolled into town and we sent Kermie there to meet the people and see the trucks involved in this important event on the show calendar…

Truck shows are special for a variety of reasons. They bring dollars into the town, they raise funds for charity, they enhance the industry’s connection to the public at large.

They’re also a great excuse for a day or a weekend away from the daily toils of truck driving and a chance to get together with like-minded folk.

Some arrive and spend hours polishing up their pride and joy with little, if any, hope of winning an award, but that doesn’t stop their efforts.

Others go to extreme efforts to present their truck in the best light. The Cornwill family, for instance, have been known to jack their trucks off the ground and turn the wheels until all the tyre logos sit aligned at the top. Just one of the reasons why their trucks are multiple award winners.

The Koroit Truck Show this year – returning after a Covid enforced hiatus – was book-ended by two very special trucks, and for very different reasons.

One, belonging to Derham Transport deservedly won truck of the show. The other which wasn’t on the winners list, was a labour of love between a grandad and grandson and for that reason alone was equally as special. By coincidence both trucks happened to be Macks.

The Koroit Truck Show has risen to prominence by giving back to those truckies who attend. Gate takings are passed on to charity but the cash and product obtained from the (many) sponsors of the show are passed onto the winners of the various categories.

This year, that amounted to some $40,000 and I would venture to suggest that no other truck show comes close to this figure. Along with cash there were steer tyres, rims, fuel vouchers, cleaning products, oil, AdBlue – the list goes on.

In 2019 Dave and Andrew Derham won Truck of the show with their classic 1984 Kenworth K100. This year they also arrived with something new.

Well, not exactly new, although you would be hard pressed to believe that it had not come off the showroom floor that very day.

The truck in question was a 1989 500 V8 Mack Value Liner. This old truck was so ‘new’ that the guys had only managed to get it registered the day before the show.

In a past life the truck had been pulling road trains and was in a poor state of repair when the Derham’s took her on.

“Steve got hold of her and virtually rebuilt it,” said David, the family patriarch, referring to Steve Thomas who also rebuilt the K100.

“Every nut and bolt,” added Steve who has spent the last two to three years bringing the truck back to its former glory. Steve is Andrew Derham’s mate and, “He’s the Man!” according to Andrew.

The truck has been named ‘Stayin Alive’. This in reference to Dave who’s at an age where he’s cognisant of his mortality and kept asking Steve if he would still be alive when the truck was fully restored.

The truck runs an 18 speed Road Ranger and is still road-train rated which would no doubt have meant a bumpy ride to Koroit, running bobtail. The Mack carries even more significance when you compare it to the prime movers pulling road trains today.

As with the exterior the interior of the truck is brand-new.

We asked David whether this truck (and for that matter, the Kenworth) was his hobby or Steve’s or Andrews or whether it was a family affair.

“Well, it’s my truck, and I can tell you it’s my money. It is Steve’s job. He had the truck and was going to do it up anyway. We decided that instead of just tidying it up, we would go the whole hog and do it properly.”

The truck has a PTO on it, “so we can pull a tipper with it, which we will do on occasion. It will sit around for most of the time, but on a sunny day we will pull it out and give it a decent run. It’s there to be called on whenever we should have need.”

It was a no-brainer to all who attended Koroit that The Derham’s Mack won Koroit’s Truck of the Show in 2023, picking up $1000 cash, $3500 worth of goods and a monster trophy. (It also won in its age category, with their K100 KW being the runner-up).

Graham Ryan may be considered unusual, in that he is a fan of the Leyland product. He turned up at Koroit with two Leyland’s, possibly so old they were built before the marque got into bed with the Prince of Darkness, otherwise known as Lucas.

The first of his products is a 1925 Leyland Cub originally bought by Holmes in Koroit and used as a milk pick-up truck. It was one of the first of its kind, replacing the ubiquitous horse and cart. Graham found it some 20 years ago under a shed flattened to the chassis, so he rebuilt it from the ground up.

“It was absolutely cactus. No cab, nothing. Rust had eaten through the mudguards to the point where they were nothing but an outline so it’s been fully rebuilt, including the all-timber, canvas roofed cabin.

“When they came out from England there was just the one metal sheet which was the firewall at the front, the steering wheel and a box of parts. Holmes bought it and drove it home from Melbourne sitting on the chassis rails.”

When asked what attracted him to this vehicle Graham replied in one word: “Madness.”

Across the way from the Cub is Graham second Leyland – a Buffalo. The Buffalo came into Australia to work on the bauxite mines in Queensland. It had a top speed of 25 miles an hour until someone else bought it, changed the ratios in it and added a bit of a sleeper cab. It then ran all over Queensland in it.

“Like the Cub it wasn’t good when we first bought it, having been rolled over and all twisted up. We went away from the traditional colours with this had a bit of fun painting it blue and yellow.”

Graham lifts the bonnet of the Buffalo and says, “There’s technology for you. A bolt or a pin on the side of the road and you’d get going again. There’s a lot to be said for the absence of computers (and Lucas?).

“The family business had Leylands for many years. Furniture vans, prime movers and such. They did us well, so we still have them. We like to keep these trucks. It supports the transport industry community and keeps the history alive. We need to do that because this plenty who want to put it (the industry) down.”

Graham’s father started the business 74 years ago and Ryan’s Transport continues to this day concentrating in general freight.

The other ‘bookend’ to Derham’s Mack was as mentioned, another Mack. This one didn’t win awards and sat modestly at the back of the showgrounds – although still attracted plenty of attention.

The 1978 R600 belongs to 19 year old Rhys Sheppard, given to him by his Grandad, John at the age of 8. An ex Aztec truck, it runs a 285 Mack engine, a duplex ‘box with twin sticks and a camel rear end.

“There is a story behind everything on this truck, whether it be the spider chrome rims that Grandad bought for my birthday one year or the twin sticks we fabricated from an LTL that we found on Gumtree. We had to remake all the piping, the mufflers are only fdour-inch so I had get them expanded to put the big tips on them.

“The interior is original, as is the paint with its cracks that I call history. This truck has never been off the road. It has never been stripped back or sandblasted. This truck has been done up in its working clothes.

I worked six months straight with Grandad, 13, 14 sometimes 17 hour days without a dollar put in my pocket so I could have the rims on the front of the truck.”

A second-hand bumper on the front looks pretty good as do the Mack 100-year mudflaps which were the last in stock. Then there’s the twin extended snorkels Rhys put on. Together they give the impression of a much loved truck that has been driven across three generations.

At Koroit, Rhys got dad, Tony to take grandad away for a coffee. Upon their return the covered truck was unveiled to reveal a gleaming strip of chrome now attached to the bumper and sitting between those Mack 100-year mudflaps. The cut-out (and backlit) wording reads: ‘Just my Grandad and me’.

“Grandad just stared at it for 20 minutes I reckon,” said Rhys with moistened eyes. “That sign represents so much more than the truck. I owe him so much.”

Grandad would be pretty proud to have Reese as a grandson. “If I can make him proud of me that’s all I want.”

The doors will bear Rhys’s and Grandad’s names and Grandad’s fingerprints will be airbrushed onto the truck. This young man may have not won a trophy but he certainly gets the award of the show from this writer.

Of course, between these two bookends were a couple of hundred trucks deserving of an award for just turning up. Whilst the Cornwill’s didn’t win the major, they nevertheless took home three category awards. Many others were recognised for their excellence. Here’s just a few….