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Aussie Road Train Truckers Season 1 Episode 5
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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.
00:53Dawn on remote Lembanya, a $65 million cattle station.
01:00And Glen's got a massive day ahead,
01:04carting six decks of cattle on his triple road train.
01:09He's loading 207 Brahmin bulls of different sizes and weights.
01:15Now, where do we want to lay these lighter fellas at?
01:17Eight hands, mate. Eight hands.
01:19And then the bottom deck are the heavy fellas.
01:22All right, mate, no worries.
01:27It's a precise business.
01:30The bulls are separated into two classes.
01:33The lighter cattle go up top.
01:36Basically just young and tired,
01:38so they haven't been castrated or anything like that.
01:40They're just full males still.
01:44These are the lighter fellas,
01:45then we'll have a deck a little bit heavier fellas.
01:47The younger bulls need a strong hand.
01:51For their safety and Glen's.
01:57Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh
02:27Scotty's at Auvergne Station in the remote Northern Territory.
02:44Auvergne is the jewel in the crown of a $130 million cattle empire.
02:51But Scotty's not here to move beef.
02:53Scotty's on a time-critical road job, helping to build up the property's main supply route
03:01before the wet-season rains blow in.
03:15Scotty and Sean have spent the week shifting hundreds of tonnes of gravel to help flood-proof the road.
03:21When the wet comes in, you can't get to the stations.
03:24The stations are all waterlogged, the roads are all dirt.
03:28You just can't get to them.
03:30There's still 400 tonnes of dirt to load and drop.
03:34It's a job that demands two trucks.
03:37But this morning, Scotty got some bad news.
03:41He's on his own.
03:42Sean's truck's broken down.
03:44Sean's truck broke out.
03:46Yeah, he blew his dip up.
03:48Sean got out there with his tippers and stuff and then the front dip let go on him.
03:52Yeah, shit itself.
03:55Oh, true.
03:56Right, yeah.
03:57It's a painful hit to the bottom line.
04:01By the time you buy the dip, pay the freight to get it from Darwin to Cashman,
04:04pay the mechanic to drive out to help you do it and drive back.
04:08You know, there's a 20 grand bill gone in a single swipe.
04:13Time to load up.
04:15One of those things is ride another check and get on with it.
04:21Is that 18, mate?
04:26Yeah.
04:26The average weight of these bulls is around 250 kilos.
04:37And at today's prices, they're worth around $875 each.
04:43Ten more to go.
04:45Ten more, right up, mate.
04:47All up, Glenn's load is worth $180,000.
04:51This mob of cattle is heading to Merrifield Station, almost 900 kilometres away.
04:59Glenn's facing a 14-hour drive.
05:02Do the paperwork and get out of here.
05:10Auverne Station is crisscrossed by a network of roads,
05:13and they all need to be maintained.
05:16Roads on the cattle station are pretty important.
05:18They've got their own graders and equipment running around there
05:21doing all the internal roads, so they can move the cover around.
05:25They can actually get up there to check the crops and do their planting.
05:30Lucky Scotty's a jack-of-all-trades.
05:33Today, he'll run both the loader and the truck.
05:37Each bucketful of road base weighs about four tonnes.
05:41Driving with it too high can tip the $200,000 loader.
05:45The two full trailers take a 50-tonne bite out of the massive hiles.
05:52The road base all comes from the station's grounds,
05:55but Auverne doesn't have the time or the heavy trucks to move it.
06:02Truck driver come loader driver.
06:05Rolls us, folks.
06:06That dirt was way back up here when we started.
06:12That's how much dirt we've carted so far a lot.
06:14We could have put it at the other end, and it was all done.
06:20Scotty has just one day to get 400 tonnes shifted all by himself.
06:26And the most dangerous part of the job is yet to come.
06:30One more.
06:39One more.
06:39Glen's on his way to Merrifield Station, south-east of Catherine.
07:00He's got a 14-hour drive ahead of him.
07:02Getting out of the station is half the battle.
07:10The 45km stretch of Dirt Road is a tyre killer.
07:17Driving on dirt is...
07:19It is a lot different to bitumen.
07:20You're watching ahead, like, a long way ahead,
07:23and you're sort of picking your path all the way through.
07:25Some people, they'll see us going over the other side of the road
07:32and then coming back the other side of the road,
07:33and they're probably going,
07:34like, what the f*** we're doing?
07:35But we just try and pick the smoothest parts, you know,
07:38cos you know what it's doing to everything.
07:40Should be right for tyres.
07:41I stripped a heap there yesterday
07:43and changed a few around, so we shouldn't have any drama.
07:48Famous last words.
07:50There's a major drama waiting for Glen just up ahead.
07:55Jake's in Glendambo, at the bottom of South Australia,
08:18heading back towards his home base in Catherine
08:21in the Northern Territory, 2,000km away.
08:24So, I've dropped those cattle off at Port Augusta
08:29and just waiting here for the next job.
08:31So, we'll just get up the road here a bit and see what happens.
08:35This was the last time we saw Jake on the road.
08:39See that smoke?
08:41His whole place is on fire.
08:43When his job got cancelled...
08:46That's it for loading cows out here today.
08:48..that gig eventually got reinstated,
08:52and that's what he's just completed.
08:54..but now he's empty.
08:56And no cattle this far from home means destination unknown.
09:02So, yeah, you could end up anywhere, really.
09:04Anything could happen.
09:05One thing that is for certain, Jake is burning dollars.
09:09To travel 2,000km without a load isn't really desirable
09:13because your truck's really not making money
09:15and you're still burning diesel for that whole time.
09:18Ideally, your truck should be loaded 100% of the time,
09:22but, you know, it doesn't really work like that.
09:24It's only going to be loaded 50% of the time.
09:26Oh, excuse me, I'm getting an interview here.
09:33It's getting gross.
09:35And you.
09:35There you go.
09:36If there's no cattle getting carted around,
09:43well, you know, I'm out of a job then.
09:49To avoid the $2,000 fuel bill to get him home,
09:53Jake's boss is doing the rounds, sniffing out work.
09:56We could end up picking a load up in Alice Springs
10:00and going north or picking another load up in Alice
10:03and coming straight back down to Port Augusta.
10:06You could end up in Queensland
10:07or you could end up out the south-western side
10:10of the Northern Territory.
10:13The Australian outback is home
10:15to the world's biggest cattle stations,
10:17measured in millions of acres.
10:20For Jake, it means his next job
10:22is a minimum of 1,000km away.
10:25You've sort of got to be at peace
10:26with not having a plan
10:28or anything set in cement.
10:30You know, you're heading back that way
10:31but then you get a phone call
10:32and get speared out somewhere else
10:34to grab another load
10:36and just put you back, you know,
10:37two or three days from getting home.
10:43What is it like when I change plans
10:47or don't know what I'm doing?
10:50Well, if it's during the week,
10:51I don't really mind
10:52because my life doesn't change that much.
10:54I just go to work and come home.
10:56But on the weekend,
10:56if I want to hang out
10:58or have got plans to do something,
11:00it can be a little bit annoying
11:01when it's so last minute.
11:03But that's kind of...
11:05It is what it is, really.
11:07Roll with it.
11:08Brownie is in the remote north-west
11:14of the Northern Territory.
11:16The triple road train he calls February Dreams
11:19is carting $250,000 worth of cattle
11:22down the Victoria Highway.
11:25This was Brownie loading up yesterday,
11:30part of a monster four-row train convoy,
11:35tracing the rain
11:36to deliver 800-plus head of cattle
11:38to Merrifield Station,
11:40another 900 kilometres away.
11:42Our main focus is on the condition
11:44in which, you know,
11:45the animals arrive at their next destination.
11:48Like, it's a very small industry
11:50and it's a very small world
11:52in regards to reputation,
11:53so, you know, it's very important.
11:56Brownie watched his dad build that reputation.
11:59He doesn't want to be the one to lose it.
12:02Third-generation truck driver,
12:04but it's always been that nice,
12:05so stick at Steve's, I suppose,
12:07that saying is, you know.
12:08Dad's always done trucks,
12:10I've always been interested in trucks.
12:11And for Brownie,
12:13there's definitely only one truck.
12:16They've always been predominantly Kenworth.
12:18Always.
12:19Yeah, I've got a f***ing f***
12:20Kenworth tattoo.
12:22So they've started taking it back.
12:25I've only ever driven Kenworth trucks.
12:28Mum and Dad, for the majority of my life,
12:30only ever owned Kenworth trucks.
12:32So I'm a Kenworth fan through and through.
12:36Well, I guess I was just always fascinated with trucks,
12:39big, shiny, flash-looking trucks,
12:40and my truck is a Kenworth 509.
12:44That particular model is the most heaviest-duty option
12:47that Australia has for outback ruggedness.
12:51You have the ability to spec it up extremely heavy-duty.
12:54Obviously, they're more expensive.
12:57It's got heavier-duty front suspension.
13:00What this actually means is
13:02when we're on the shittier, rougher roads,
13:04the steering wheel's not shaken around uncontrollably.
13:07Maybe they're a little bit more rougher
13:08to ride in, to drive in.
13:10We use steel-fuel tanks instead of aluminium.
13:14You know, they're getting rocks chucked at them all day
13:15by the tyres.
13:17They're not light trucks.
13:19They're 15 tonne.
13:20Just the truck on its own.
13:22That's what they are,
13:22in order to be able to do what we do with them.
13:25I love this truck.
13:27It's my truck.
13:28Brownie's $750,000 prime mover may be top of the range,
13:34but there's something up ahead that can stop it in its tracks.
13:38This is a Southbound truck,
13:54alerting us to the fact that there was a buffalo up here.
13:57They don't need a buffalo.
13:59They hurt.
14:00Scotty's working hard to finish a contract,
14:18shifting hundreds of tonnes of road base at Au Verne Station,
14:22but he's on his own.
14:24His subcontractor mate blew a diff this morning
14:27and is somewhere on the side of the road,
14:29waiting for a spare part and a mechanic.
14:32That's how quick it can change
14:34from having a really, really good day
14:35to having a really, really sick day.
14:37I think I've got a good reputation of getting the job done.
14:41It mentally wrecks you, don't get me wrong.
14:43It is stressful.
14:46It's big trucks doing hard work on tough country.
14:50Shit happens, mate, I could be doing this here now
14:53and then I could blow a diff up just like that, you know.
14:57For Scotty, it's also been a month of setbacks.
15:01We've had a bit of a run just of late there, like...
15:04I've done a fuel pump on this thing here,
15:06which was, like, 12, 13 grand later.
15:09They're the joys of owning a truck, I suppose.
15:12You can be eating caviar one day
15:14and eating corned beef, tinned beef the next day.
15:18Caviar and tinned beef.
15:20It's exactly why Scotty runs multiple jobs at the same time
15:24across multiple territories.
15:26You've got to have a lot of irons in the fire, I reckon,
15:28cos when one iron goes cold, you've got to have another iron hot.
15:32Team Scotty's shifting dirt and moving cattle.
15:36Glenn works for Scotty.
15:38We've got four prime movers,
15:40three Western Stars and one Kenworth.
15:43We've got end tippers, we've got side tippers.
15:46Those end tippers, they turn over
15:47around that 50, 60 grand a year.
15:50It's a little fill-in job.
15:52Keep the coin coming in.
15:54Without the coin coming in, you go broke.
15:56Brownie's driving through a dangerous spot
16:11on the Victoria Highway
16:12with a fully loaded road train.
16:14Living in the Northern Territory, we have buffalo.
16:23That is horrendous.
16:26They are very thick and heavy,
16:28do massive damage,
16:30and then obviously we have camels and horses as well.
16:33Wild animals like buffaloes don't worry about fences and stuff,
16:37but now we're coming into wet season.
16:39They're certainly wandering around more and more.
16:41A feral buffalo can weigh up to 500 kilos,
16:45and there's around 200,000 of them roaming the Northern Territory.
16:50You need to be on your A game.
16:52You can't swerve with a road train.
16:54That's the most dangerous thing you can do.
17:08I've got a wedge of cattle just on your left side there, mate.
17:11Yeah, mate, don't worry, thank you.
17:14Why just let him know
17:15that he had that wedge of cattle there for him?
17:18And he said he saw the buffalo as well, so here you go.
17:24But it's about as sociable as my life gets, really.
17:28If that was just catching up with a mate, we'd tick that box.
17:43Glenn's travelling at just 30 k's an hour.
17:47Just poke along until we get to the rough stuff,
17:50and that's the sort of stuff you're a little bit weary about sometimes.
17:53There is corrugations that you just can't mesh with, you know what I mean?
17:57And you just have to literally...
17:59Cos everything just shakes and rattles.
18:02You drop into holes and stuff like that,
18:04and it's definitely not perfect.
18:07Well, these roads can be truck killers.
18:09They can destroy things for sure.
18:10There are four types of road up here.
18:21Corrugated, what Glenn's on now.
18:25Bulldust, what Brownie's heading into.
18:28Black soil, what Scotty's trying to cover up.
18:31And single-lane bitumen.
18:33And they're all taxing on the body.
18:35When you're in a truck, your body knows it's go time.
18:40And you can go like that for months.
18:43When you get home,
18:44literally your body just goes into shutdown mode.
18:48Cannot f***ing do a thing,
18:49cos your body's just gone burnt.
18:51See ya.
18:51The Buntine Highway.
18:54And Glenn's finally hit the bitumen
18:55on his way to Merrifield Station.
18:58But the road is in shocking condition.
19:01So it'll just be slow and steady, eh?
19:03The stone there is...
19:05It's just sharp rock, eh?
19:06It just wants to eat your tyres.
19:09Yeah, shit.
19:10100%.
19:10There's bitumen, but, yeah,
19:14very, very average bitumen.
19:16It's just rutting and stuff like that,
19:19you know what I mean?
19:19And you pull up every 50km.
19:22I think it's the key to that road.
19:26At least if you've got something in your tyre,
19:27you can pull it out and patch it.
19:29Or plug it, whatever it might be.
19:31But if you keep going,
19:32nine times out of ten, you're tyres.
19:34F***.
19:38Glenn's taking his own advice
19:40and pulling up after almost 60km of driving
19:43to check the cattle
19:45and the tyres.
19:49It's a disaster.
20:01F***ing keeping me.
20:04F***.
20:05F***.
20:05South Australia.
20:16And Jake's just got word
20:18there might be some work on.
20:21Boss has just asked me
20:23if I could be at another job
20:25by Sunday.
20:26So I think it's doable,
20:31definitely doable,
20:32but I'll just have to take a minute
20:34just to try and work it out
20:36and see if we can make it there or not.
20:40The contract states
20:43the cattle need to be loaded
20:44on the weekend
20:45at a remote station
20:47in the far north
20:48of the Northern Territory.
20:50It'll be annoying news
20:51for Jake's partner,
20:53Hannah.
20:54It's already Thursday afternoon
20:56and Jake's in the deep south
20:58of South Australia.
20:59It's today Thursday.
21:01His boss wants the job,
21:11but it all rests on Jake
21:13being able to make it work.
21:15Yeah, it's doable.
21:17Doable,
21:19but he'll be banking big days
21:20and nights.
21:22Probably 2,000km, I'd say.
21:25Try and knock another
21:26500km off tonight
21:29and then get a few hours sleep tonight,
21:33refuel,
21:34and then try and do maybe
21:361,200km tomorrow.
21:40We'll keep leaning into her
21:42and yeah,
21:43see how we go.
21:46You do have to take it as it comes,
21:49but play poker with the cards you've got.
21:55I'm f***ing proud of that one line.
21:57It's a f***ing good one.
22:05I've already eaten one bit of cake.
22:08I've already eaten some other stuff.
22:10I don't know what's in that,
22:11but that's a wrap.
22:13And there's a green thing.
22:15That'll be afternoon smoke, eh?
22:18Scotty's working a two-man contract
22:20on his own,
22:22hauling hundreds of tonnes of road base
22:24in two end tippers.
22:26Outside,
22:27it's 47 degrees.
22:29Now I just about to tip a load of dirt off.
22:31There's a bit of water settling here
22:33and they get bogged here all the time.
22:39The access road
22:40runs through black soil country.
22:42At the slightest hint of rain,
22:45the ground becomes
22:46an impenetrable bog.
22:48Getting across the black soil,
22:50once it rains,
22:51yeah,
22:51everything gets bogged on it.
22:54They're flat out walking on the black soil
22:55when it's wet.
22:58Scotty's job
22:58is to dump the dirt
23:00in a single straight line.
23:02Then,
23:02a road crew
23:03will level
23:04and compact the piles
23:05and create a protective layer
23:07over the infuriating black soil.
23:10It's the only way to keep the road open
23:12during the wet season.
23:16The end tippers have a huge
23:19eight-metre hydraulic ram
23:20that lifts the full length of the trailer.
23:22The ram is powered by
23:28a hydraulic pump
23:29that runs off the truck's engine.
23:33It will lift the 25-ton load
23:3610 metres.
23:39But there's a catch.
23:41End tippers suffer
23:42from a very high centre of gravity.
23:44They've got to be level.
23:46If they're not level, mate,
23:47they'll fall over quick.
23:52Because when you pump it up there,
23:5330-odd foot,
23:5435 foot in the air,
23:56if you've got an inch of...
23:58like that there,
23:58by the time it gets up the top there,
24:00it's two foot.
24:01So it'll go quick.
24:04Then it'll cost you a lot of money.
24:05If the tipper goes over,
24:07it'll take the $500,000 prime mover
24:10with it.
24:11An accident like this,
24:13this late in the season,
24:15would destroy Scotty's bank balance.
24:20People don't realise,
24:22you know what,
24:22they're in their goal,
24:23you can do them what they do.
24:26If you're tipping one of these tippers off here,
24:27if you've got to win,
24:28hit it there,
24:29and knock an arse over it,
24:31you end up in a terrible mess.
24:37Before he can tip the second trailer,
24:39he needs to unhook the empty one.
24:44Ah, me wheel-banging bar.
24:46But we use it here now.
24:49I'm doing the unhooking and hooking up.
24:57Scotty's unhooked the lead trailer.
24:59But he's forgotten
25:08to do one very important thing.
25:13If I didn't drop me leg.
25:14Brownie's pulling up to the ramps
25:25at Merrifield Station
25:27with his $250,000 load of cattle.
25:32Oh, my God.
25:39Unloading in Merrifield, mate.
25:42As steady as we can do.
25:43We don't want to rush the cattle off,
25:44so at their own pace, it's good.
25:49To keep them moving.
25:51That's not about rushing them by any means.
25:53Brownie's main job is clearing the way
25:58by opening and shutting the gates
26:01and letting the cattle do their thing.
26:04When you're talking about multiple animals,
26:07we generally try to keep them flowing
26:08so that they don't have time to stop,
26:12turn around, and then maybe protest.
26:14Hey, hey, hey.
26:15We try to keep them moving
26:17so that I can get them to where I need them to be
26:19and shut the door, and then we're done.
26:21I don't know.
26:27We're done.
26:30Can't have been any longer than 10 minutes, all right.
26:33Brownie has fulfilled his contract
26:34and delivered all 204 head of cattle safely.
26:41Unloading's always predominantly easier.
26:45As much as we did our best with the cattle,
26:47they really prefer not to be on a truck
26:49and they'd soon be in a paddock.
26:51Unfortunately, they don't even wave goodbye or say thanks,
26:54so just bugger off, mate.
27:01One there got to change.
27:05Glenn's road train has blown a tyre.
27:08It looks like it needs to be replaced.
27:09Plenty of wire hanging out of it.
27:15Flat tyres, they are the sort of nature of the beast,
27:18but every time you see one, you do,
27:20you're just like,
27:21****, **** now.
27:22The shredder tyre is on the inner rim,
27:34so Glenn has twice the work to do
27:37before he can get moving again.
27:40****, ****.
27:42It's the one that you don't really want,
27:44you know, purely because you've got to move two of the **** things.
27:47****.
27:47The outside's not too bad,
27:49but, yeah, inside's a fair bit more effort sometimes.
27:54It's a lot of effort.
27:58Those tyres weigh 80 kilos.
28:00Well, that wasn't the one I was watching.
28:02I did think it was going to go all the way home.
28:09Do your best, yeah,
28:10to leave the shed with everything how it should be.
28:14But in the most inopportune times,
28:17give up no worries.
28:18I'm going to change a **** tyre
28:20and get hot and sweaty and dirty.
28:22Done a couple, eh?
28:23Kick a tyre and it's like, **** now.
28:26Wish I didn't do that.
28:27And to add to Glenn's pain,
28:31the temperature on the side of the road
28:33is close to 60 degrees.
28:35How do you feel having to do this in the afternoon?
28:38Well, we're in the shade.
28:41But, um,
28:42it would have been better in the shed.
28:49With the last bolt screwed in...
28:51All right.
28:54..Glenn's ready to get back on the road.
28:56Every truckie has their own rituals,
29:02and Glenn's no different.
29:04Well, I've got no more dirty work to do there.
29:06I'll slip me crocs on.
29:07Yeah, well, Scotty doesn't like me crocs.
29:10Obviously, when we're loading and stuff like that,
29:13definitely no more footwear,
29:14but slip them on, slip them off.
29:16That's my go-to anyway.
29:18Eat the boots in the bunk
29:19and, uh,
29:22hopefully get home at reasonable time.
29:26Jake's hauling four empty trailers
29:41out of South Australia,
29:42and he's just booked his next job.
29:45He has to pick up $200,000 worth of cattle
29:49from a station 2,000 kilometres away
29:52in an isolated corner of the Territory.
29:55So the station we'll be going to
29:56is, uh, is called Birundudu,
29:58a very remote station in the, uh, in the NT.
30:02So it's going to take a bit to do to get there
30:05from where we are now.
30:06Yeah, with the roads and everything,
30:08you wouldn't want to go there unless you had to.
30:10To get to the station,
30:15Jake will be travelling
30:16on some of the worst roads in the Territory.
30:19We'll have bitumen most of the way towards Catherine,
30:22and then we've got 180km of dirt,
30:25then we'd have another 175km of just skinny-lane bitumen,
30:29and then once we get to the end of that,
30:32then we'll have another 160km of dirt,
30:35uh, to the driveway.
30:37Birundudu, middle of nowhere,
30:41right on the edge of the desert.
30:42Driveway into the station is 70km with six gates.
30:48It's a pretty big cattle joint when, you know,
30:49it takes you an hour, hour and a half
30:51to get down into the homestead.
30:55Jake's not the only road train heading up there.
30:59In the race to beat the wet season,
31:01thousands of cattle are being shifted
31:03by convoys of road trains.
31:06And then once we get in there,
31:07I think there's seven of us loading in there
31:09for Saturday, Sunday morning.
31:11Trying to get in there with a bit of time
31:12for a good cook-up on the hot plate
31:14and a few beers with the boys.
31:16For Jake, that's going to make
31:18the 2,000km journey pass a little easier.
31:22Like a bush cook-up with the boys
31:23is, um, hands down,
31:25my favourite, favourite thing to do about this job.
31:28You know, I cannot get enough of it.
31:31When he's really, really busy
31:33and there's, like, two or more of them,
31:35there's always a fire and beers around the fire,
31:38which is nice because I actually have been
31:41and it is fun to do that
31:43for one night and then come home.
31:45Yeah.
31:47But Jake loves it.
31:48He loves being away and having a fire.
31:50He always raves about it.
31:51A night by the campfire with the boys
31:54makes you push it a bit harder
31:56in the days previous
31:57to make sure that you're definitely
31:58going to be there on time for him.
32:01But will he get there in time?
32:06I nearly f***ed up then
32:08if I didn't drop me leg.
32:10Scotty's just had a close call
32:12while unhooking his trailers.
32:15The landing leg supports the trailer's drawbar,
32:18keeping it in position for hooking and unhooking.
32:21That would have been a clamp at show then.
32:29It's one man in 47-degree heat
32:33dealing with heavy machinery.
32:36It's when small mistakes
32:37can escalate into disasters.
32:41Scotty needs to drop the piles
32:42at specific intervals.
32:45Maneuvering the big trucks
32:46on narrow roads take skill.
32:49I think it's a pretty fine art
32:50for a good tipper driver.
32:54If the tipper's going to topple,
32:56this is when it'll happen.
32:58With the second trailer successfully tipped,
33:19Scotty now has to reverse
33:20his 12-metre lead trailer
33:22to line up with the dog trailer.
33:24The receiver hitch he's aiming for
33:27is just 50 millimetres wide.
33:30Worst part here,
33:30because you've got your steer tyres
33:32let down a fair bit,
33:34but the steering's hard to turn,
33:35so you've got to sort of be
33:38rolling back that little bit
33:39and then put the clutch in
33:40and then give the engine a rev
33:42to be able to pick up the power steering.
33:44The couplings haven't lined up.
33:57F***.
33:58That's because I didn't drop the leg earlier.
34:04F***.
34:05Scotty bends the knees
34:07and deadlifts 200 kilos.
34:10Not bad for a 58-year-old truckie.
34:12Ha!
34:13I didn't f*** this time.
34:23The temperature is still
34:25a scorching 47 degrees.
34:28F***.
34:28That's what it's up today.
34:30It's like 50-plus degrees out here today.
34:32But the metal parts of the truck
34:34are much hotter.
34:36And all the steel and everything
34:37gets a bit hot.
34:39Scotty's done his job.
34:46It's over to the station
34:47to sort out the rest.
34:53The good side of this is
34:54I'm in the cold for a reason.
34:56Glenn's stopping in Catherine
35:08on his way to Merrifield Station.
35:12Catherine is located
35:13at the junction of the Stewart
35:14and Victoria Highways,
35:16which makes it the perfect
35:18all-purpose pit stop
35:19on the way to and from jobs.
35:22And for Glenn,
35:23the perfect place
35:24for a quick hello and goodbye
35:26with his teenage kids.
35:28What's the dinner, mate?
35:29Tonight, any plans?
35:30Big dinner plans?
35:31I might see if the kids
35:32weren't bringing me something.
35:35It's a pizza by the sounds of it.
35:37I think the kids will come
35:38and deliver that to me.
35:43Yeah, with the kids,
35:44it's hard.
35:45Like, I think about them
35:47all the time.
35:48I'll have a bit of a yak
35:50with them and then
35:50shower and disappear.
35:56Any moment you can get home
35:58or have a chance
35:59to try and get home,
36:00you'll definitely
36:01try and make that happen.
36:03Pretty sure they miss me
36:04as much as I miss them,
36:05so, yeah.
36:07Yeah.
36:11Glenn's made it to the yard
36:12in Catherine
36:13for a quick dinner
36:14with his kids.
36:15His rig is full of cattle
36:17and they need to be delivered
36:19by first light.
36:20But Bo and Ada
36:21haven't seen Dad
36:22for almost two weeks.
36:24Good pizza.
36:25Better than having
36:26sandwiches for dinner.
36:30You're making me more hungry,
36:32or what?
36:34They come in,
36:35we have a bit of a chat,
36:37have a bit of a feed,
36:38they talk about
36:38whatever's going on.
36:40Bit of a catch-up, really,
36:41that's what it is.
36:42Yeah, the biggest trip I've done
36:44we loaded up in Catherine
36:45and then we went down
36:47Tower Springs,
36:48unloaded there
36:49and came all the way back up.
36:51And that's like
36:51the warmest trip
36:52I think we've done
36:53pretty well.
36:54That was really fun.
36:56It's all good when you're a passenger,
36:58it's all good when you can go to sleep,
36:59when you want to go to sleep.
37:03Neither Bo nor Ada
37:05want to be truckies
37:06when they're older.
37:07The hallows and goodbyes
37:09are just too hard.
37:10We miss him,
37:11but, you know,
37:12it's good to see him
37:13if you can.
37:14Maybe just for
37:15not very long,
37:17but it's better to see him
37:17for a little bit
37:18than not at all.
37:21Sometimes you get going
37:22on the road
37:23and all you want to do
37:24is go home.
37:25You just want to be at home,
37:26but you can't, obviously,
37:27because that's your job.
37:29When you do get there
37:30after a big period
37:31of being away,
37:31it's relief, really,
37:33because you're home.
37:40Truckie life.
37:41Hello
37:42and goodbye
37:43again.
37:46So,
37:46I'll just go here
37:47in Merrifield tonight
37:48and camp there
37:50and then we'll just unload
37:51it first thing in the morning.
37:52Jake's just hit the town
38:04of Marla,
38:05close to the border
38:06between South Australia
38:07and the Northern Territory.
38:11So,
38:12now I'm just
38:13pulling into Marla
38:14Roadhouse here.
38:16We'll have a bit
38:17of a break here
38:17and get some surprise
38:19for the cook-up.
38:20Yeah,
38:20it's not a bad little store here.
38:22It's got everything you want,
38:23like barbecue meat.
38:25You know,
38:25you can get a fresh salad
38:26and, you know,
38:27all that sort of stuff.
38:28Yeah,
38:28it's a good little spotty.
38:36Yeah,
38:36mate,
38:36we're right.
38:37Where are we?
38:39Rogi,
38:39I'll talk to you.
38:40Ah,
38:41ta-da.
38:42That was the boss.
38:44Yeah,
38:44just seeing how we're going,
38:45where we're up to
38:45and what's what's what,
38:47so telling where we're at,
38:50how it's looking,
38:50which is pretty good,
38:52so,
38:52yeah,
38:53he's happy,
38:54we're happy.
38:57The Marla Roadhouse
38:58is incredibly remote.
39:00How you going,
39:00boys?
39:01This is Jake's last chance
39:03to stock up on supplies
39:04for 900 kilometres.
39:07After I just talked Marla up
39:08for being a good spot there,
39:10they don't have any meat,
39:10they're all out of meat in there,
39:12so,
39:13anyway,
39:14yeah,
39:14we'll have to,
39:15we'll have to get a bit of meat
39:16further up the road somewhere.
39:22The rumblings of the wet season
39:24are all too apparent.
39:26Time is running out
39:27for the road train truckers.
39:29Yeah,
39:50I got going just after five,
39:51yesterday morning,
39:52and,
39:52yeah,
39:54knocked off pretty well
39:5511 o'clock
39:56when we got here last night.
39:57Peak season,
40:00yeah,
40:0118-hour days,
40:02pretty usual,
40:03you know what I mean?
40:11Glen hasn't slept in his bed
40:13at home
40:13for almost two weeks.
40:15Yeah,
40:16we'll be fine.
40:17Probably this time Sunday
40:19might be a different story.
40:21A little bit sore and tired,
40:23but,
40:23yeah.
40:27he's about to unload
40:31207 Brahmin bulls
40:33after carting them
40:34800 kilometres.
40:35Fly off.
40:38It's probably just as easy
40:39to unload on your own,
40:40honestly,
40:41because
40:41they can only go as fast
40:43as the animal
40:43in front of them is going.
40:45Just have all the gates open,
40:46that's probably the best trick.
40:48There's no point
40:49having three people
40:49trying to push cattle along
40:51because all it does
40:51is they block up the ramp
40:52and
40:53it slows everything down
40:55really at the end of the day.
41:09Once you unload,
41:11there's sort of like
41:11a big tick on that one.
41:13It's two skidings,
41:14but that's right.
41:15Oh, was it?
41:15Yeah, no, that's right.
41:16I didn't steal any.
41:17No, no, no,
41:18I counted them.
41:18You're right.
41:19Yeah, yeah, kill it.
41:20You're right.
41:20I'll just fold this up
41:21and I'll bring the book over.
41:24A quick recoup
41:25and, yeah,
41:27basically just
41:27march on to the next job, really.
41:31Make your way back to Castro
41:32and change trailers
41:34and go get hay.
41:37Hopefully Dave's got
41:38them trailers hooked up
41:39when I get back there.
41:39He should do.
41:40And I'll just snatch on to them
41:42and disappear.
41:47Next time.
41:48Jake's horror day
41:54from hell.
41:55Oh.
41:56Oh, for sake,
41:58you're fucking dead.
42:01It's in with my ass.
42:04Today can go
42:05off.
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