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00:01The dry season in the Outback.
00:05It's when the Aussie road train truckers go hard.
00:09You've got to be done, you've got to be daft.
00:11It's good unloading with people that know what they're doing.
00:13I'm pissed off actually.
00:15To bank as much money as they can.
00:18If that doesn't work, then we'll go to plan B.
00:21I don't have a plan B at the moment.
00:23All before the wet season hits and the roads get shut down.
00:53Scotty and Sean are in the remote East Kimberley
00:58on one of the most isolated cattle stations in the world.
01:03They're loading 12 decks of cattle across two triple trailer road trains.
01:08Sean subcontracted part of the load out to Scotty.
01:12I've got the animals grafted up ready to go
01:14and now we're just running 17.
01:16A pin on.
01:18Right on!
01:20Between them, they'll be carting a $640,000 load.
01:27They'll be driving them a thousand kilometres
01:30to another remote station east of Darwin
01:33to be fattened up on greener pastures.
01:37Sean's manning the barriers, counting cattle as they run on.
01:42Scotty sorts them in the crates.
01:46We want to get the animals up there as quickly
01:49and as safely as possible.
01:51Right on!
01:56You can't be scared of the animal.
01:58You've got to be committed.
01:59If you're not committed, you're going to get hurt.
02:04I've never been horned by a cattle or by an animal touch.
02:08The red cattle pod is just in case.
02:11We've been closed but not caught.
02:13It's either a good day or a bad day.
02:18Sean closes the gate.
02:20At four and a half metres high and 53 metres long,
02:23Scotty's monster truck is fully loaded.
02:26How about you get my truck?
02:30Sean rolls his truck into place,
02:32ready to load the final 204 cattle.
02:35They're all Brahmins.
02:37Run it!
02:38Run it!
02:59Scotty and Sean will travel in convoy across some of the toughest roads in the country.
03:03The next 50k to get back to the Richmond is probably going to take us about two hours a day.
03:10It's the start of a gruelling 15 hour day with no room for anything to go wrong.
03:16Because the road is rough and rocky and the shaft edges which cut and slice tyres up easy as.
03:23You can wreck a tyre pretty quick.
03:37Today is going to be a hot day up here.
03:39I reckon I'll get rain up here this summer.
03:42Yeah.
03:46Glenn's navigating the streets of Darwin in his Western Star 6900 road train.
03:53Trying to dodge the morning peak hour.
03:56Should have gone the back way.
03:57It would have been less traffic lights that way.
04:00He's steering his fully loaded triple out of the city.
04:04Heading south to Catherine.
04:06320 k's down the Stuart Highway.
04:09We've just picked up a triple of cement powder in bulk of bags.
04:16So they're 1200 kilo bags.
04:18Basically 25 tonne of trailer.
04:21Don three.
04:2275 tonne.
04:24It was 50 bags.
04:2616 on the lead.
04:27Then on the two dogs we go the same and one extra.
04:29There's a lot worse things to carp for it that way.
04:32The reason why we do do it that way is for weight.
04:37Just that extra little bit just makes the track straighter.
04:40Ride a bit better.
04:41The 75 tonnes of cement powder is worth $24,000.
04:47It's due in Tennant Creek tomorrow morning.
04:50The cement will be used to stabilise parts of the Barclay Highway before road crew lay down new bitumen.
04:56This used to be a really good stretch of highway you know.
05:0215 years ago I know a lot of trucks have been over it since then.
05:06But yeah in sections it's woeful.
05:09The majority of it is **** really.
05:12Considering it's a main highway.
05:14Even the repairs they do to them now they just don't last.
05:18Like the potholes they fixed this year were there last year and they'll be back there next year.
05:23Glen's got to get his load to Catherine where fellow road train driver Dave is waiting to take the powder another 680 kilometres further south to Tennant Creek.
05:40This is a bit rough here mate.
05:42Well for me it's only going to be about three and a half hours.
05:46But Dave probably seven and a half hours down to Tennant.
05:50Just should be there not too bad a time tonight you know what I mean.
05:55Glen and fellow driver Dave both work for Scotty.
06:00Between them they cut everything from cattle and hay to salt lick, cars and building materials.
06:06They could tell you if I'm a good boss or not.
06:09I would like to be a fly on the wall when you ask them that.
06:12Nah look he's a fair boss. He's good like he can be good.
06:19You do your job, he's happy.
06:22His nickname is Grumpy.
06:24You know when he's not in a good mood by the way he walks and it's like everyone just sort of goes.
06:28Disappears.
06:30Back to what you need to do.
06:31Scotty's driving his trusty western star.
06:37Nicknamed the mistress.
06:40And Sean is in his grunty Mack Titan.
06:44We specialised in the dirt work.
06:47Because not everyone can do the dirt work.
06:50You've got the right temperament to be able to handle the dirt.
06:54Scotty's been driving trucks all his life.
06:56He bought his first prime mover 25 years ago.
07:02That's the old one there now.
07:05That was after we'd done it up.
07:09That's after we had it for about, I think two or three years.
07:14That was many, many years ago.
07:16It's all dusted that bastard.
07:18But yeah, that's my western star that we hadn't.
07:25We bought that for 60 grand.
07:27And we subbed for a mob in town here.
07:31We bought our crates and there, went from there.
07:34Yeah, that's it there now.
07:37That was the first truck we ever bought.
07:39Now the owner of four trucks, Scotty knows what it takes to do the tough jobs.
07:45You've got a flat tyre and you've got to jack it up and change it in a 40 degree heat, you know.
07:49If you've got a short temper, well, yeah, you won't last long doing the work we do.
07:54You've got to be able to get yourself out of a fair bit of shit when you get yourself into the shit
07:58and know how to get yourself out of it.
07:59One brown snake on the road here.
08:21Ah, righto. How big?
08:23How big?
08:25Ah, a bit leaner, I'd say.
08:27Looks like it's enough to give you a break.
08:31With two hours of demanding dirt road ahead and a first light delivery deadline tomorrow,
08:38Scotty's hoping nothing goes wrong.
08:45This is the start of it.
08:46Going out to Lejeune and bite some cattle.
08:48Road train driver Brownie is in Kununurra, Western Australia, heading for a cattle station in the Northern Territory at the very top of the country.
09:00So today, one of our customers want to move 800 head of cattle from Lejeune station to Merrifield, which is about approximately 900 kilometres away.
09:09So they'll be for them, it's loading out of Lejeune this morning and handle over to Merrifield and unload them tomorrow.
09:16The wet season is only weeks away and the road trains are racing the weather to get tens of millions of dollars' worth of cattle to higher ground ASAP.
09:26Predicting rain in the next couple of days, so hopefully we'll get away today relatively dry.
09:35The wet season appears to be coming early, so we're almost sort of in the start of wet season, to be honest.
09:43When the rain does come, it'll dump over a metre and a half in just five months, and that means very little work for the road train drivers.
09:56For Brownie, a third generation truckie, this season is a maiden season of sorts.
10:03Twelve months ago, he went from employee to owner, when he bought a Kenworth 509 off his dad.
10:12I've always worked for mum and dad. This has been my first year in business on my own.
10:18I am living the grave. At times, the dream is questionable.
10:24There's a lot of ups and downs to having your own business.
10:27You know, things can go to shit at any moment, and it's all money related. Everything is money.
10:33Brownie's learned that the hard way. His truck's just spent a week off the road having $35,000 worth of repairs done to him.
10:41It actually went with a bit of a bang and a hell of a lot of smoke, which is always a nerve-wracking time until you get quite a more body back when you've gone on there.
10:51You know, it has the potential to be very expensive.
10:54When you're not on the road, not only is it not making money, but now it's costing money, then you get heartbroken very quickly.
11:01Here we are, end of the destination.
11:15Glenn's made it to the depot in Catherine with 75 tonnes of cement powder worth $24,000.
11:22He'll pass the three fully-loaded trailers to Dave.
11:29He'll take them another 700 k's south to Tennant Creek for delivery tomorrow morning.
11:35But it's not going to be a straightforward handover.
11:39I reckon we might end up changing a couple of these tyres.
11:42I see there's a fair bit of wire hanging out a couple of them.
11:43We'll do it now, while we're in the shed, rather than day three, four o'clock in the afternoon pulling over a slow road.
11:53Changing tyres, like, it sort of takes the fun out of it a fair bit, eh?
12:00This late in the season, the tyres are worn from travelling thousands of kilometres on the rough Northern Territory roads.
12:06They're also rolling along bitumen that can heat up to as much as 60 degrees, causing tyres to blow.
12:15Making sure the truck's ready for the next driver is part of the job.
12:20It's good trucking manners.
12:22I think Glenn's been with me for about five or six years.
12:26All right, I'm going to bring that truck around.
12:28Dave's been with me for three years or whatever there.
12:30You trust them with millions of dollars worth of equipment and cattle, so you're always banging off each other, if you know what I mean.
12:39They think a lot like us now, because we've been working together so long.
12:43All right, that's noisy.
12:45Well, I can go home now.
12:47With the changeover sorted...
12:51All right. We're good to go.
12:53Dave's now facing an eight-hour, 700k run into the evening.
12:57Dusk is the most dangerous part of the day.
13:03Without notice, your day can just turn completely pear-shaped.
13:08Brown is two hours into his journey to Lejeune Station, a 450,000-acre cattle property just 20km from the Timor Sea.
13:25There, he'll join a monster convoy of four road trains, racing the rain to collect and cart $1 million worth of cattle to higher ground.
13:37Never had it as a way to want to cart any other form of livestock other than cattle, so yeah, I'm pretty stoked that that's all I can do anyway.
13:45Multi-station owners circulate their cattle from property to property. It's the best way to keep the cattle fat.
13:55The average weight of a Brahmin is about 350 kilos. If an owner can boost its weight by 50 kilos across a load of 800 cattle, they'll create $140,000 of value.
14:11That's why road trains are a critical part of the supply chain, and why Brownie's got a job.
14:19So, we're just going to press a couple more buttons here and get ready for the dirt road.
14:30Brownie's 53-metre, 60-tonne C509 is fitted with a central tyre inflation system, a computer that maintains air pressure in the tyres.
14:41For dirt roads, we let our tyres down to absorb some of the shock and some of the corrugation and the roughness.
14:51With air CTI, I can just press a button and it's happening as we speak. By the time we get to the dirt road, they'll be down and we'll be putting a roll on.
15:00Brownie's dad, Robert, drove a C501, but he used to have to do all the heavy pumping and deflating by hand.
15:17My father had the first C501 Brute off the production line in Australia in 1993.
15:28Here we are, 30 years later, and I've got exactly the same model, just in a 30-year-later variation.
15:38I'm operating the same truck that I travelled with as a kid with Dad.
15:44The dirt out here is nicknamed Kununara clay.
15:49Even a small amount of moisture will stop a road train.
15:53So there's a little bit of water on the road.
15:55You always go through the water slow and steady.
15:57You don't know what's underneath the water.
16:00It could be a puddle in a big hole for all we know.
16:03And then you come along and you drop an axle into a hole, it's never a nice feeling at all.
16:09There's no need to plough through a puddle at 80 kilometres an hour.
16:15Making the hole in which the water's lying in even bigger.
16:21Like, in a sense, blowing it out, that's what we call it.
16:24If Brownie gets bogged now, he'll miss his monster convoy loader.
16:29Scottie and Sean are pushing to the end of 50 k's of harsh dirt road with their $285,000 load.
16:44Travelling well, tyres are all hard, that's a big bonus.
16:52This 14 hour long haul will cost Scottie and Sean $4,000 in fuel.
16:58$2,000 for each truck.
16:59Usually working on about one to one, the one litre to one kilometre.
17:04You get into the hills, yeah, it bumps it up a bit more.
17:08Wings, you get a big side wind or a big head wind.
17:12Yeah, you'll chill, you've got a fair bit more.
17:15And the list of expenses goes on.
17:18We spent over 500 grand in the last 12 months on maintenance.
17:22That's brakes, wheel bearings, tyres, nothing out of the ordinary.
17:26Everyone thinks you make a shitload of money.
17:28Like, well, you turn over a lot of money.
17:31We turn over, like, five, six, seven million dollars a year.
17:34And there's a lot of money, but there's a lot of money to go out too, just quietly.
17:38We use a million litres worth of fuel a year.
17:41$1.70 litres, so that's $1.7 million worth of fuel.
17:48We went through, say, 200 tyres last year.
17:51Had an average of 400 bucks of tyres.
17:53You know, there's 80 grand worth of tyres.
17:54Red Joe's about 200 grand a year.
17:58In those three things there now, you're already at, like, two and a half million there.
18:02You're already at 50% as an outgoing.
18:05Our profits, there's still only X amount of percentage on that.
18:15You've got to say action, otherwise I don't do anything.
18:17In Catherine, Hollywood and Jake are using the downtime between jobs to catch up on some critical truck maintenance.
18:30They're fixing broken lights.
18:32Pretty serious sort of mechanical business going on here now, mate.
18:36Worn suspension.
18:38After putting two new spring packs in this dolly.
18:40And servicing air, oil and fuel systems.
18:44You have to work on your truck, otherwise you wouldn't have a job.
18:48You know, brakes, bushes, bearings.
18:51You're going to need to learn how to do it.
18:55Oh, come on.
18:57There's no mechanic there.
18:58You can't really be a princess at all.
19:01So we just drop that oil out of that, out of the filter and the sump.
19:08So we try and service the oil and the diesel with the oil every 10,000 k's.
19:13Like, oh, a touch over 10,000 for this service.
19:17You try and get them as close as you can, but, you know, sometimes you,
19:20you can't get them bang on 10,000, so...
19:24We're pretty close today, so it's a good thing.
19:27The average family car takes almost a full year to travel 10,000 kilometres.
19:33A road-trained truckie does it in seven days.
19:36This is where you can sort of, you can bang out 8,000 probably.
19:40It's about the average this year.
19:42Um, yeah, 8,000 k's a week.
19:45So it's, you know, it's what, every 10 days you're servicing.
19:49All thereabouts.
19:50This might be a routine service, but the consequences of getting it wrong can be disastrous.
19:57Your truck will stop. Yeah.
19:58If it gets that bad.
20:00If one thing goes wrong with the truck, the whole operation stops.
20:02I just went around to hold because I can, because I'm empty, but I certainly won't be doing that.
20:12I'm not coming back out loaded.
20:14If it was too much of a lean, I wouldn't be doing that loaded.
20:18The road Brownie's on is a total shocker.
20:21But those trails, they're going to lean regards, so you don't need to encourage.
20:31There's been more water in this one than what there has been.
20:34The next bog hole makes the rest look tame.
20:38The three other road trains in the convoy have made it through, but they've also made it much worse.
20:44It's been hard to make a decision.
20:45Everyone's put a lot of different lines through the water.
20:48You've got to come along and try to make the best decision you can as to which line would be the best.
20:55And then once you've chosen your line, that's it.
20:59You can't change the drill.
21:10After seven hours on the road, Scotty and Sean have pulled into the yard in Catherine for a quick pit stop.
21:16They're only halfway to their destination and need another $2,000 worth of diesel to get there.
21:24A good time to check who's won today's fuel competition.
21:29I'm not confident at the moment.
21:32I don't need to do much, but I will.
21:35The winner is whoever's used the least.
21:39Loser buys the beers.
21:40I don't know, we're usually pretty close, but he's done something different in his truck and stuff.
21:46If only there's not hundreds of litres out, you'll be right.
21:50I don't work a price out on a job on my fuel economy.
21:54I'll work it out on who was doing the job on the worst fuel economy.
21:59That's where the fuel competition come in.
22:01If I can get that saved, that turns into profit, not in a loss.
22:06Albert, Scotty's yard hand, keeps an eye on all the stats.
22:09Scott's pretty good with his mileage and 975, so it's pretty good.
22:16I generally lose when it comes to fuel out of all of them.
22:22I'm going to say probably second or third.
22:25Them bastards have got pretty good at saving fuel.
22:27Like, you know, but you still make a competition on me.
22:31He's 1,015 and we're 975 states.
22:35We're bleeding.
22:37Nearly 50 litres.
22:39But that's, yeah, that's bugger all.
22:51I don't expect it to be too soft, but we just need all the liquid.
22:54I'll find it.
22:55I've had some monster stuff misbehaving.
23:06Brownie's beaten the dirt.
23:08He's now on the home stretch to Lejeune Station.
23:13Jake and Hollywood are still hard at it,
23:16doing essential repairs on Jake's truck.
23:18These filters are a last line of defence.
23:21Can you see the silt at the bottom there?
23:23From the engine-destroying contaminants,
23:26the outback deposits in the fuel and oil.
23:29What does it go through first, Grim?
23:30This one or that other one?
23:32That one.
23:33This one?
23:35Definitely a lot greener than this old fella.
23:37You've been doing it, what, 80, 90 years?
23:3992 and a half years.
23:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:44These old silly fellas, you do listen to them a little bit
23:46when they've got something to tell you.
23:51In its working life,
23:53a prime mover should last about a million kilometres.
23:56But that only happens with regular maintenance
23:59and a dedicated crew.
24:01We're very lucky to have the team we've got here.
24:04All good drivers.
24:06Graham has described me before as just good for morale.
24:08Yeah, you're good for morale.
24:09That is it.
24:10Yeah.
24:12But I'll take that.
24:13I'll take that.
24:15It isn't an easy role being a road-trained driver.
24:18It's long hours, it's dirty, it's dusty.
24:22It filters on something.
24:24We'll put a bit of oil in.
24:26It'll be good.
24:28It's enjoyable, but you can get the satisfaction
24:31of finishing a job and doing it properly.
24:33Very good.
24:35That's just about your service done, Jake, isn't it?
24:37Yeah, mate.
24:39Happy with that.
24:41Job completed.
24:43All Jake and Hollywood need now
24:46is a new job to get them rolling again.
24:50At Lejeune Station,
24:52the temperature is heading into the 40s
24:55and rain's already falling further north.
24:57Here we are.
24:59Bundaberg Yard's on Lejeune Station.
25:00Bundaberg Yard's on Lejeune Station.
25:03Time to get away.
25:05Trucks one and two have already loaded up
25:08and are parked up ahead.
25:10Truck three is getting loaded up now.
25:16Brownie and his convoy of three other triple road trains
25:20need to load a million dollars' worth of cattle
25:23before wet season rains
25:25close roads all across the Territory.
25:27Getin' through it.
25:28Sweat's gettin' through me.
25:29Working outside,
25:30sweatin' your arse off,
25:31is just part of the deal.
25:33I'm saying, Mac, it's a two shirt kind of a day.
25:35Temperature's 38 outside,
25:37which means that the heat come off the bitumen
25:39is about double that.
25:40Dave's heading to Tennant Creek, almost 700 k's away.
25:41He's carting 75 tonnes of cement powder in 1,200 kilo bags.
25:53It's a $24,000 haul, and one of the heaviest loads his triple road train can carry.
26:08When you get paid by the time that you cart it, fit as much as you can on.
26:12He's got an eight-hour drive ahead of him.
26:15The time I get back from this trip, I've only clocked up about 4,000 k's this week.
26:21There's not many, not compared to some weeks, but, yeah, it's definitely been full on.
26:25When I was five or six, I saw my first double, and I always wanted to drive one, ever since I was a kid.
26:38Any pocket money we'd get, my brothers and I, we would buy Matchbox trucks.
26:43We'd take all the tops off them and make them all flat tops and hook them all together.
26:48We had B-doubles as kids way before they come out.
26:51But, yeah, I've always wanted to drive the truck.
26:55Dave's got a long, straight run on the Stewart Highway to Tennant Creek, but it's not all flat.
27:02It's these long, slow, gradual hills that kill these trucks.
27:07You just can't get going.
27:09Probably 2km hard pinched.
27:11Fuel is something that we use a lot of.
27:14Hurts the back pocket.
27:22We're just coming into Mataranka now.
27:25About 5km out of town, there's a pullover on the top of the hill.
27:29I'll stop there and make sure all the straps are still tight.
27:39Lejeune Station.
27:40And the temperature is 45 with 100% humidity.
27:52Brownie rolls his Kenworth up to the ramps.
27:55It's his turn to load up.
27:56The best I can explain it is we are a cow taxi.
28:10So we take the cows where they want them to go.
28:13Lucky last, mate.
28:15It's not uncommon for us to be away from home for anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.
28:20Wet, mate. Wet.
28:21Wet, mate. Wet.
28:22The only thing I can say is wet.
28:24So if I'm home, and if I'm asked to go, I'm going.
28:28Because that's where the money comes from.
28:32How you going, Wilbur?
28:34Won't be too long now. We'll get done.
28:38Hey, hey, hey.
28:40Hey, hey, hey.
28:44Brownie loads the last few cows onto his truck and shuts the last gate.
28:50Howdy, mate.
28:52We're done. We'll do smoke work, and then we'll get the aircon.
28:55It's nice to be able to change a shirt, get into the aircon to try and cool down,
29:00and then work on, I'm going to say, nutrient replacement.
29:05I get 799.
29:07Coke, sugar and chocolate.
29:10Believe it or not, my body is not my temple.
29:12I'm happy to be back in the air conditioner.
29:19It's where I intend to spend the rest of the day, mate.
29:22The monster convoy now has an 850k journey ahead as they push to beat the rain.
29:29Dave's hauling 75 tonnes of cement powder almost 700k south to Tennant Creek.
29:47This time of the day is difficult to drive. It's hard to see.
29:54The lights are too dull and you can't really see much.
29:58It's actually nicer to drive at night.
30:01You can see the road better at night.
30:03It'd be nice to have a break, stop and have a feed,
30:07wait for it to get nice and dark, and then we'll keep going.
30:11Dave rolls into the Highway Inn at Daily Waters.
30:18Time for something to eat.
30:21Something hot.
30:23But he's not the only one who thinks the Inn's a winner.
30:27My favourite meal is crumb steak, mashed potatoes and veggies.
30:32It's actually quite pleasant.
30:34Just to get out of the truck for a minute.
30:37The driving part I like.
30:42The loading, unloading, doing all the freight and stuff.
30:46But it's very lonely.
30:48It's a lifestyle that you have to like being in your own company and I don't.
30:55For Dave, there's a lot to miss at home.
30:58I've got five children, five girls, two are still at home, three are married.
31:06And I've got nine grandkids and one on the way.
31:10So that's ten.
31:12I don't get much time at home.
31:15I like to potter in the shed and make stuff and do stuff with my hands and sit down and have a coffee with someone else.
31:22Not just drinking it while I'm driving.
31:24So if I'm home and on the weekend, we enjoy lying in bed watching Instagram Reels.
31:30That looks terrible.
31:32I'll sometimes save him things that I want to show him that's funny.
31:36It's just time to laugh and joke together, I guess, and talk.
31:39So where are you off to now?
31:41So three ways is about 30 k's this side of Tennant.
31:45So I'll try and get to the three ways tonight.
31:47But if I get tired, I'll stop earlier.
31:49That's a good thing about having the house in the cab.
31:57Scotty and Sean are parked up near Darwin, right at the top of the Northern Territory.
32:02A thousand kilometres from where they started this morning.
32:06First thing tomorrow, they'll unload $285,000 worth of cattle.
32:11This is a fun part where you finish the day and you can do a barbecue and shit like that there.
32:18It's a fun part to your job.
32:20When you're out there, I'd rather not start my ice pack.
32:23I'd rather kick the bunk doors open at the right time of year and look at the stars and look at the quietness.
32:28You know, of listening to the crickets.
32:32These are the things that you miss because you don't get to do it as much as you'd like to do it.
32:38Because you need to rush, rush, rush to get to the next job, get to the next place.
32:43It might sound corny, but all that sort of stuff, that's what we grew up doing.
32:48You know, we were doing that with Dad as a kid, living in swags.
32:52That's what you did.
32:53It's been a long day of driving for the boys.
33:01We do a lot more microwaves than actual cook-ups.
33:05We've all got microwaves in our truck.
33:07Steak, egg, and onion.
33:11Then it comes back to your lifestyle being faster and faster and faster,
33:16trying to cover the jobs that you've got.
33:18You go without a lot more to keep that customer happy.
33:20It's becoming a job, not a lifestyle.
33:24Trying to see the recipe.
33:26Put an onion in a sandwich.
33:28That's about it.
33:30This makes us look like a burger and see if I build up with a night of this, hey?
33:33A few hours more sleep would have been nice, but...
33:49Yeah.
33:50It's 6am, and Dave and his road train have spent the night parked up at a roadhouse outside Tennant Creek.
34:01He's due to deliver 75 tonnes of cement powder to a yard in town.
34:07But it's Saturday.
34:08People are pretty hard to contact on the weekends, so we'll see how that goes.
34:14Reception's not real good from here, so I'll get closer to town.
34:17Yeah, pull over there and make a call.
34:20See what happens.
34:21Dave's contract says he must deliver the 50 Volker bags of cement powder.
34:29But he's not done until a loader driver gets them off his truck.
34:34People have a habit of turning their phones off on the weekend.
34:36I don't really want to spend the weekend in Tennant Creek.
34:40It is a real possibility.
34:43That won't work for Dave.
34:45He's on a tight deadline.
34:47Dave needs to be back in Catherine with enough time to back up for a 4am start tomorrow morning.
34:54See if I can get some of that bit.
35:01Hey, Cameron, how you going?
35:03There's someone into Tennant Creek now.
35:05Scott said to give you a call to see if someone could unload me this morning.
35:10Will there be someone there, or...?
35:14Yep, right here, no worries, I'll head in there.
35:17Yeah, there's supposed to be someone there.
35:23Every minute that I'm waiting for someone is a minute that I'm not home.
35:28Yeah, I think this is our turn.
35:30You know, if everything goes well, I might be home at 8 o'clock at night.
35:33But if somebody doesn't answer their phone for an hour, that all of a sudden comes 9 o'clock.
35:38That's where we're going, just there.
35:40The gate's open, so that's good.
35:43And then when I get home, they've all had dinner and a shower and gone to bed.
35:46Yeah, it is frustrating.
35:47I'm just going to duck in there and see if there's someone there to unload me.
35:59Dave's on time, but the place is empty.
36:02It's a deja vu moment.
36:05This is exactly what happened on Dave's last job.
36:09I can't find anybody.
36:15Dave's waiting to unload 75 tonnes of cement powder, but the loader driver is nowhere to be seen.
36:23Hey Cameron, Dave here again.
36:26Hey, the yard's all open, so I'm in here, but I can't find anybody, but I'm just going to unstrap it all and yeah.
36:32Dave can start by pulling the ratchet straps off.
36:35There's 25 of them holding the cement powder in place.
36:39They know I'm here.
36:41He's got a hold of them, so I unstrap it all.
36:43I'm strapping it all.
36:48Unfurling straps is a serious business.
36:55Winding them up again is an art.
36:58Yeah, Scott, he does it by hand.
37:00He's like, no, I don't want to use these new fabled machines, so...
37:04He does it all by hand.
37:06We've been unloading Hayat and he's got out with his roller and rolled them up
37:10and I've rolled mine up there and we've finished about the same time.
37:14I don't know if you've rolled the strap up before, but it takes a bit of time.
37:18Your hands get sore after a while, so this is heaps easier.
37:21It's just another thing you've got to carry in the truck.
37:24Yeah, I laugh at him all the time when he gets it out.
37:31Yeah, ready to be unloaded now.
37:34So, just need a loader driver.
37:36That's the machine there that he'll use.
37:40Scott reckons that I'm too patient.
37:42If he was waiting for 20 minutes, he'd be on the phone giving someone an earful.
37:47Make a second cup of coffee and just wait.
37:50I tend to be a little bit more patient and it backfires on me every now and then.
37:55Dave needs to get home tonight, ready for a 4am start tomorrow morning.
37:59Yeah, I do find this part of the job frustrating.
38:03People, you know, they think once the truck's unloaded, that's it, we're done, yeah.
38:07But we've got another eight hours after we're unloaded.
38:12Every minute that ticks by is less sleep I get tonight.
38:15Scottie and Sean have made it to their destination in record time.
38:30They're about to unload $285,000 worth of cattle off their two road trains.
38:36The station plans to fatten the cows up.
38:39A 50 kilo per head boost in weight will increase the value of the Brahman mole by a cool $70,000.
38:47The unloading is the same as the loading but in reverse.
38:51Come out with a slide in.
38:55Can I just find anything else?
38:56I know how to breed an animal.
38:58You can see an animal that's going to give you a hard time in a crate by its eyes, how it looks and how it's danced.
39:14To watch the right people load cattle and unload cattle is good.
39:19I've been doing it forever so it's something that's so natural.
39:27You don't even think about what you're doing, you do it.
39:29You don't even think about what you're doing, you do it.
39:38Come in.
39:56Come in.
39:58There's no mucking about.
40:00Scotty and Sean get the cattle off the 12 decks in under 10 minutes.
40:05It's job done.
40:08The 408 Brahman cattle are safely in their new home.
40:12We'll idle back to the bar cut and have some breakfast and then just idle on home.
40:17Yeah, just wait for the next job and go from there.
40:27Waiting's something Dave knows about all too well.
40:31Well, it's been an hour here since we pulled in the front gate.
40:36I figured my calculations if I don't get unloaded by 10 o'clock means I won't get home tonight.
40:41At the start of the day if you lose a couple of hours, you can't make that up.
40:47You can't just speed up and get there quicker.
40:50It just eats into the night and then that becomes the next day and then snowballs from there.
40:55I'm running out of daylight.
40:57That's the short version.
41:07It's a hallelujah moment for Dave.
41:09The weight is up.
41:13Loader driver Sam has jumped on the 17 tonne load to get the 50 cement bags off two at a time.
41:23Yeah, no, he's very efficient, very good.
41:26No, I'm happy.
41:28We'll be unloaded in record time.
41:30If everything goes according to plan, I'll be home tonight now.
41:33So, yeah, I'm happy with that.
41:39Dave made it home that evening.
41:48The call of family life was just too strong.
41:52Dave has clocked out for the rest of the season to spend more time at home with his family.
41:59Next time.
42:01Should be right for tyres. I stripped a heap there yesterday and changed a few around.
42:05Glenn tackles one of the toughest roads in the country.
42:10Well, these roads can be truck killers.
42:12They can destroy things for sure.
42:14And he's all alone.
42:16F***ing kidding me.
42:17F***ing kidding me.
42:18F***ing kidding me.
42:19F***ing kidding me.
42:20F***ing kidding me.
42:21F***ing kidding me.
42:22F***ing kidding me.
42:23F***ing kidding me.
42:24F***ing kidding me.
42:25F***ing kidding me.
42:26F***ing kidding me.
42:27F***ing kidding me.
42:28F***ing kidding me.
42:29F***ing kidding me.
42:30F***ing kidding me.
42:31F***ing kidding me.
42:32F***ing kidding me.
42:33F***ing kidding me.
42:34F***ing kidding me.
42:35F***ing kidding me.
42:36F***ing kidding me.
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