New book 'Inter to Iveco' chronicles Aussie truck history

This is the fourth truck industry title by Colin A. McKenzie, a former Chief Engineer of the Truck Division of International Harvester Co. of Australia, and one he describes as a “labour of love”.

The book provides an overview of International truck models since the early 1900s, along with Australian-produced examples and specification summaries from 1952 onwards.

Featuring prominently is a chapter dedicated to International’s Army 4x4 and 6x6 Program which ultimately led to the development of the venerable AACO and ACCO models. The ACCO nameplate lives on today and the model forms an important part of Iveco’s current truck line-up. 

According to the author, International Harvester was an extremely important company in Australia, responsible for many years of innovation and wide-scale manufacturing employment.

"I thought this story was one worth sharing and needed to be documented for the future," Mr McKenzie said.

"International Harvester was established here in 1912 as a distributor of agricultural and truck products with local manufacturing of agricultural equipment starting in 1939 at Geelong, and truck production in Dandenong in 1952, this facility was bought by Iveco in 1992.

"Having spent some time at Iveco during the writing process, it was pleasing to see that there was still a good deal of Australian engineering taking place at the facility – the operation was still working with the same intent as when it was started: manufacturing to suit the local market."

McKenzie said the 18-month writing project was a "labour of love" but had been thoroughly enjoyable, and he was pleased to have copies of the book at both the National Library of Australia and the Melbourne Library.

Iveco is celebrating the publication Inter to Iveco by giving away 10 copies of the book to the first 10 people to send a photo of their ACCO along with a few accompanying words about the truck. For your chance to win, sends entries to ivecotrucks@imab2b.com