Aussie Road Train Truckers Season 1 Episode 3

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Transcript

00:00The dry season in the Outback.

00:07It's when the Aussie road train truckers go hard.

00:14To bank as much money as they can.

00:19You gotta be done, you gotta be tough.

00:22Good unloading with people that know what they're doing.

00:25I'm pissed off actually.

00:27Millions of dollars worth of trucking contracts are up for grabs.

00:31If that doesn't work, then we'll go to plan B.

00:34I don't have a plan B at the moment.

00:36It does take a little bit of a toll being away from the family so much.

00:40The place that we're about to go load cows at is on fire.

00:44See that smoke?

00:46This whole place is on fire.

00:48The roads out here are some of the longest on the planet.

00:52Break your ankle.

00:54One hat, one head.

00:56Everything we need.

00:57The chase is on to secure the biggest payloads and the most lucrative freight routes.

01:07All before the wet season hits and the roads get shut down.

01:11Jake and Hollywood are driving in convoy.

01:26They're both fully loaded with a million dollars worth of cattle that needs to be in Alice Springs by tomorrow morning.

01:47But in the road train trucking game, plans can change at the drop of a hat.

01:54Yeah, just got a call.

01:55The office buddy looks like we're going to hold a ghost up.

02:01F***.

02:02Tomorrow.

02:04Relay to the following board and then back to Darwin.

02:10Jake and Hollywood's overnight job just got a whole lot longer.

02:15It'll add an extra four gruelling days to their road trip.

02:19When I do leave to go on a job, I don't really know when I'm going to be back.

02:24You'll definitely know your first job, so you go out and do your first job.

02:28Then you might end up in Queensland or South Australia or Western Australia or you literally end up anywhere.

02:35Social life is out the door with this job.

02:38You just cannot make a plan at all.

02:42Every three months there might be a bit of an uproar from home,

02:45so you've got to go home for a couple of days and get that sorted out.

02:49Memories count for a lot on the road.

02:52My partner, she's great about it.

02:56Yeah, she's a pretty independent young lady, so all in all, mate.

03:02Yeah, she's awesome.

03:04There's only one way to make tomorrow easier and that's just to do more today.

03:07So, yeah, that's trucking.

03:17Oh, Grim, I haven't been away from home for that long just yet, mate.

03:20I'm sorry.

03:26Des is pulling up in Cloncurry after a day carting road building material around Western Queensland.

03:39He'll overnight in his quad tipper, ready to start his next job first thing tomorrow.

03:44Let's get to have a quick shower, mate.

03:50It's not real flash compared to any bathroom at home, but, uh,

03:54at least it's, at least it's a shower.

03:57That's all you need at night.

03:58Shower and feed and go to bed and get up in the morning and do the same thing over again.

04:02Rinse and repeat.

04:14Road train truckers spend so much time in their prime movers that the sleeper cabs are just as critical as engine power and diff ratios.

04:23Same thing as in every truck, just air-conditioned and microwave, couple of fridges, single bed, nice and comfy.

04:32I've got a bit of, uh, nice foam on top of that eggshell foam, so I sleep better in this bed than what I do at home sometimes.

04:39The only thing I miss is a cuddle.

04:42Because of the super heavy loads and long hours Des does, he's under strict OH&S driving conditions.

04:51You've got a sleep ap machine.

04:53Oh, this is a face mask.

04:55I snore a lot.

04:57We've got to do a medical every 12 months.

04:59Just put an old tape measure straight around my neck and my neck went 0.6 of a centimetre over the size.

05:06Can't go any bigger than 40 centimetres.

05:08Yeah, so I had to go to Brisbane and do all these breathing tests and everything come back alright,

05:13but I still had to have a sleep apnea machine.

05:16Ah!

05:21You want me to fart too?

05:23Dawn in the territory.

05:42And Hollywood's pulling up to meet Jake on the side of the Stuart Highway, just 50 k short of Alice Springs.

05:50Springs. During the night, more messages came through from the boss. Their plans have changed

06:09again. Jake will be dropping his cattle off at a different location to

06:19Hollywood. He'll then head further south on his own to pick up another load of cattle

06:26for return delivery north. So, yeah, don't worry about waiting for me. You turn and burn, mate.

06:32Righto, we'll keep going and we'll get that job done, eh? No worries, mate. Yeah, mate.

06:35Drive safe, eh? Will do. Fine, mate. So, change of plan now. I'm unloading at a different set

06:42of yards. I'll go my way and he'll go his way and see each other somewhere a bit later on.

06:50So, the ever-changing schedule of the cattle industry up here is part of life. You know,

06:56nothing's ever in concrete. You just have to roll with the punches on it. Absolutely.

07:01Jake and Hollywood's schedules are taxing, but they have no choice. They need to bank cash

07:08and fast. Scotty's at the gates of Ceres Down Station, 200km from his hometown of Catherine.

07:29Take the tires and make sure when the person gets here, you're ready to go to work before

07:34they are. And you're not holding anyone up. Scotty needs to stack his triple road train

07:40with 107 bales of hay worth $30,000. Then get the load back to Catherine, drama free.

07:48The wet season is closing in. And this entire $350,000 wall of hay he'll be carting from needs

07:58to be out of here before the heavy rains hit. Scotty's got back-to-back jobs lost in. And

08:05he can't afford for anything to go wrong.

08:08An hour or so of load time in here. And yeah, we'll get back home to Cashman for

08:13around lunch time. How you going, man? Hey, Scott, how you going?

08:17Yeah, fair.

08:18Daniel's in charge of the hay business on Ceres Down Station.

08:22So we're just going to load out of the haystacks up here up the driveway?

08:24Yep.

08:25Get up the drive and turn west and, um, across the far haystack and I'll lead to the

08:31outside. No, mate, you really will work on that and go from left. See left.

08:40The station runs 1,500 head of cattle and supplies hay to other farms in the area. Scotty will

08:49be carting the $30,000 load on his Western Star 6900. He calls his road train the mistress.

09:01When me and Kate were going out and we were there because we were never home because we

09:03were always working, Kate said, he's with his mistress. And then everyone thought I was

09:07actually paying up and I wasn't. Truck got named the mistress because you're always with

09:12that instead of being at home with your wife.

09:17He's hauling an 18-axle A-triple. The whole rig is over 53 metres long.

09:23Watching the trials and watching the trees so they don't wreck your stacks and shit like

09:27that, do you? I think it'd be nothing more embarrassing than taking an old mate's gateway.

09:33The first thing in the morning, look at that. Not a good start for the day.

09:42Hollywood is heading to a station outside Alice Springs to deliver a $500,000 load of cattle.

09:49He's due there at 10am.

09:51Jake has to go out to the backyard. He's going to put about nearly a day more travel on his

09:59journey. Cattle gets sold on the road. Can have changes within an hour of each other. It's just

10:07part of the business because of the industry moving so fast. My plans have changed. We're going to drop

10:17these off down the road here and then pick up another load of cattle and go straight back up

10:23to Darwin with those. That's good news for owner operator Hollywood. Travelling long distances with

10:31empty trailers can spell financial disaster. Trucks are fairly dear to run. You know, fuel prices of

10:38two dollars a litre which is two dollars a kilometre but that's only about a quarter of what your running

10:44costs are so you're actually costing eight dollars to run back empty. Our big bonus is getting a backload

10:52and that makes a pretty good going really. The maths gets very ugly very fast when you're driving with

10:59an empty load. Eight dollars times a thousand k's is an eight thousand dollar loss. Hollywood needs

11:08all the extra money he can get his hands on. The truck he's driving now is his backup rig.

11:18A disaster at the start of the season has left him with fifty thousand dollars worth of repairs

11:24on his number one seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar rig, a Marmon Motors truck.

11:33Missed a crossing one night about midnight and ended up in the bottom of the Victoria River.

11:39River full of crocodiles for 13 hours.

11:43You could hear them splashing, you could hear them barking.

11:46I was rescued around lunchtime in a boat the next day.

11:50That's very good, isn't it? That worked out well. Yeah, well done.

11:58Motor, gearbox, two diffs and electrical. I hope to have it going by next season.

12:04I'm only about 10 minutes away from my destination after a fairly long haul last night. 49 minutes late.

12:23I said I'll be here at 10 o'clock tonight.

12:25I'm here. We're just about ready to unload these cattle.

12:38Yeah, copy, Glenn? Copy.

12:50Yeah, I'll come over and get a load of dust for Donny, eh?

12:54Copy that.

12:55In Cloncurry, Queensland, Des is loading up for a run to Mount Isa.

13:06He's carrying a full load of crusher dust.

13:11This crusher dust is just a real fine dust off the rock that they crush.

13:17Mainly any dust, enough to a bit of four mil.

13:26The quarry sells the dust left over from breaking up larger rocks.

13:31It will be added to concrete to help reinforce the roads and paths around Mount Isa.

13:38Cattle and mining are the two biggest games in town out here,

13:42worth billions and billions of dollars every year to Australia.

13:47Des is driving a quad, a road train with four trailers.

13:52Fully loaded with 101 tonnes of crusher dust, it smashes the scales at a total of 158 tonnes.

14:01Now that you put the load in, I can just spray the lids back over and it's ready to go.

14:07The 150km trip from Cloncurry to Mount Isa follows a dangerous section of the Barclay Highway,

14:23with steep hills and tight corners.

14:25Des's T659 is at maximum weight.

14:30This route is going to be a serious challenge.

14:33Duck into town and put a bit of fuel in it, just top him up.

14:36Don't like running it low.

14:37Scotty's at series down station, preparing to bundle up $30,000 worth of this hay onto his road train.

14:53With back-to-back loads, Scotty's on a tight schedule.

14:57He needs to load up fast if he has any chance of hitting his deadline.

15:02The hay Scotty's hauling is in 2.6m long bales, the exact size to maximise the load on the road train trailers.

15:10Yeah, that'll do.

15:14These bales are jarra grass, a native plant that grows well in the tough climate of the tropical north.

15:20And the cattle just love it.

15:24Each bale weighs 600 kilos, give or take.

15:27They've been stacked four piles high.

15:31That's as high as a single-storey building.

15:34The $30,000 low can easily topple on an uneven road.

15:41Scotty locks them down with a couple of dozen two-inch ratchet straps.

15:45Yeah, you'd be surprised how many people are lazy, but with them when they're packing them all up and stuff like that,

15:51they're leaving them in their ratchets and stuff like that there.

15:53The straps also need a good arm and a good aim to place them perfectly over the five-metre stacks.

16:00Me elbows are nearly worn out from doing it.

16:02Not the work that you do ruins you, body full stop.

16:05It's not too bad when I'm with all the other boys.

16:07I just go into the ratchets and they can throw all the straps.

16:12Your ankles and your knees and your hips will be buggered, but yeah, we just keep doing it.

16:20This part of the Northern Territory is where the outback meets the tropics.

16:25Extreme heat and heavy rains are just weeks away.

16:28It's starting to get humid up here, but it's not hot yet.

16:31Not hot yet, not hot hot. There's nothing wrong with sweating.

16:40Finally, Scotty's all loaded up. Have a good trip.

16:43Yeah, you too, mate. Have fun.

16:44Have a good day next time.

16:45See you.

16:45Yeah.

16:45He now has 65 tonnes of hay stacked five metres high across three trailers.

16:57Oh, mate, it's pretty good on the load of this. Getting loaded quick, neat and tidy.

17:02It's a high and heavy load, and there's a lot of uneven rocky dirt to get through.

17:08Yeah, just seeing how it's travelling here now and watching for rocks and shit like that there,

17:12so don't wreck a tyre.

17:14It's going to be an epic challenge.

17:20Hollywood's in Alice Springs, about to unload $500,000 worth of Brahmin cattle.

17:27Road trainer, he's bound down the jumper.

17:32Jake's still on the road, travelling to his destination.

17:39Very good. Well, here we go.

17:41Hit these old fellas off.

17:44One hat, one head. We've got everything we need.

17:58It's Hollywood's job to unload the cattle.

18:08It's a good day.

18:09It's a good day.

18:11As soon as the paperwork is signed, he'll be on his way.

18:17It's job done for Hollywood.

18:19Another successful trip.

18:21It's going to be a busy little fuel station at times, this thing.

18:34Des is filling up at a place that looks more like a space station than a petrol station.

18:39He needs his rig to be at peak performance for the punishing haul through the Selwyn Ranges.

18:44In about 10 minutes, I can put, yeah, 600 or 800 litres in.

18:56Put 220 litres in so far.

19:00The truck has five tanks.

19:02Four of them hold a combined 1,500 litres of diesel.

19:06Put a bit in these sides and I'll go over and fill the others up and come back and top these ones up.

19:12There's always something to do when you're driving trucks.

19:14On a flat road, the quad train gets about one kilometre to the litre.

19:28Des will be burning through fuel on the steep ranges between here and Mount Isa.

19:33Yeah, it probably goes back to, yeah, 800 or 900 metres a litre.

19:38The route Des is taking is a dangerous, steep and winding one.

19:44He'll need every bit of grunt from his 550 horsepower engine to get his T659 up the mountain.

19:53But Des's battle won't be over when he reaches the top.

19:57It will take all his skill, using just the engine and the gears, to make it down the other side.

20:04I don't touch the brakes from the time I leave the carry to Mount Isa and it's all through the hills and that.

20:15I always slow down at the top and drop it back a few gears and so you don't have to touch your brakes

20:20from the top to the bottom. You want to keep your brakes there for emergencies.

20:25Yeah, you try and save them so when you do need them, you've got them.

20:28This road from Boncurry to Mount Isa can be a bit of a challenge.

20:35I remember the first time I ever drove on it.

20:39Yeah, I thought, holy hell.

20:40Scotty's hauling three trailers with 65 tonnes of hay out of a bush paddock.

20:59It's easy to bog a triple, but very hard to get them out.

21:02Yeah, they over to about 600 kilos of bale and we've got 107 bales on. So yeah, with that there,

21:10it'll be about 65 tonne, you're probably sort of 10 tonne under your maximum weight that you can

21:15carve with flat tops. The drag from the 60 trailer wheels can cause a break in traction

21:22and stop the road train dead.

21:24Rocks and sharp sticks hidden in the dirt can also cause chaos.

21:35You don't want to change a tyre, that's a shitty job.

21:44There's 30 k's of tyre shredding single lane bitumen before Scotty hits the highway to Catherine.

21:49The roads we're travelling on nowadays aren't the best and our speeds are a lot better than what they used to be.

21:56We've got bigger horsepower trucks and stuff like that in there, so we tram along a lot better.

22:10The choppy bitumen means Scotty needs to check the load regularly.

22:21Ah, they've just got to settle down, eh? Like...

22:26Like you do this a couple of times there and now, like, leave here and go up down the springs there and pull up there

22:30and do a quick check there and you might pull two or three down then, you know what I mean?

22:35I think by the time you get to Catherine they'll be all settled down and you won't have to worry about touching them again, eh?

22:41Unless you've got shitty hay on. If you've got shitty hay on there where the hay's a bit soft in the waste,

22:44I don't, um, you can keep ratcheting them down until you get to the destination, like,

22:50but this hay is pretty good actually, this jarret's pretty tight.

22:56The hay's fine, but the trailer's not. It's bad news.

23:00F**k, man. That a fat f**k tire. I'm pissed off, actually.

23:05F**k, f**k.

23:16Scotty's got back-to-back deliveries all day and this 65-tonne load of hay is due in Catherine at lunchtime.

23:23But he's just discovered a flat on his last trailer in one of the worst spots on the inner rim.

23:31This will throw his schedule right out the window.

23:33You might have picked up something there in that paddock there where we drove in and drove around.

23:41Normally they don't go that flat that fast, if you know what I mean, in the senses of, um, for it to be off the bead.

23:47The bead is the critical section of tyre that seals against the steel rim.

23:53That part there's the bead. And it broke the bead. Otherwise I'd pump it up.

24:00A tyre off the bead can be a complicated issue to fix. First things first, Scotty's got to jack up the trailer.

24:07No good trying to pump that one up because it's broken the bead, so just grabbing my airline using the jack.

24:14Jack. Scotty has an air-assisted 20-tonne jack that should make lifting the truck effortless.

24:23But not today. Dust and dirt roads have damaged the jack. Scotty will need to manually jack five

24:31tonnes worth of truck. Oh, I was going to use that.

24:44Des's quad train is fully loaded with crusher dust for delivery to Mount Isa. Between Des and his

24:56destination, there's a mountain to climb. The Selwyn Ranges are full of steep hills and sharp corners.

25:04That's a lot of pressure for a 53-metre long, 158-tonne road train. But Des's immediate problem is dodgy drivers.

25:16I've got a truck trying to come around me now. He hasn't got many brains, so I'll have to back off a bit for him.

25:23I don't believe that, but this is what happens with you all the time.

25:26Des's 550-horsepower engine is battling to haul the giant load up the steep incline.

25:54I'm only doing about, yeah, about 18k an hour. I'll climb most things if we can get traction.

26:01Getting traction's the biggest thing. I'm going to go over this bit here. We've got to go back

26:06down to another couple of gears. Missing the gear going up a hill's a big deal, especially if you're

26:11towing that sort of weight. Well, it's not an easy task to get, you know, get going again.

26:16If Des can't get his truck into gear on this steep hill, there's virtually nothing he'll be able to do

26:22to get moving again. So you've got to be a bit careful. Get in the right gear so you can make it.

26:32These last few hundred metres are pushing Des's rig to its absolute limits.

26:37So this wind here catches a lot of people out.

26:44They'll test a few good trucks out. Quite often there's one breaking down halfway up here.

26:52Whether they're overheated or done something wrong or do a tail sharp, a universe or something like it.

26:58A breakdown now will hit the bottom line hard.

27:10Scotty can't ignore the flat tyre. If he leaves it unfixed, it'll destroy the dual wheel next to it.

27:16It's not a good feeling when you get out of your truck and walk back to see two tyres on the ground.

27:22I'm not going to store you with that.

27:24Wrecking tyres is bad for business. They're expensive.

27:28I think we counted up the other day there, we end up, we had 62 dead tyres stacked up there,

27:36which is one full road train worth of dead tyres in the last month or so.

27:41Try to get some air and just flick it back on the bead.

27:45Say an average of 400 bucks, 450 bucks a tyre is a lot of money.

27:51And if I can get it on the bead, well then I'll pump it up.

27:53If this bush trick doesn't work, Scotty will be back under the truck battling the heat and dirt,

28:00swapping out a full set of tyres.

28:06Yep.

28:18Throw the bead back up, that's haven't changed it.

28:20The tyre is inflating, but the real test will be if it holds air doing 90k's along the highway.

28:29If it comes up now, I'll keep them hiding.

28:31Scotty's lost almost an hour repairing the flat tyre.

28:36He's got a full day of deliveries ahead of him.

28:39If he doesn't get a move on, he'll lose valuable business.

28:42Let me check it up here and see how it's looking up here and then we can go from there.

28:54Oh, just kicking a tyre mate, making sure they're all pumped up and ready.

29:00All your air taps are turned on.

29:05Everything's going to roll.

29:06Jake's doing a quick check of his truck and trailers before he heads out on a new job.

29:13The go today is go and load some cows, probably 50k's west of Castron,

29:18and unload them probably 50k south of Castron.

29:26Jake's rig is a 53-metre quad road train.

29:29It's got four trailers with double-deck cattle crates.

29:33Fully loaded, it weighs 120 tonnes.

29:36Just picking up on any little soon-to-be problems.

29:44Probably just not real good for your gate to be swinging around while you're diving around.

29:48Just have it locked back into place.

29:51In case you break it off the hinge or just, you know,

29:55just be an annoying little problem later on.

29:58Jake's contract is to load up $250,000 worth of cattle and then unload them at a remote cattle station 100km away.

30:10But the job has got off to a very bad start.

30:13The **** is going on here.

30:16Jake might not be going anywhere.

30:18Our air con.

30:23Air con's up here.

30:24You need them.

30:25Full stop.

30:26You can't.

30:27You can't do the job or live here without them.

30:29The ****.

30:34Oh, ****.

30:34Scotty's heading to Catherine 150k's down the road with a $30,000 load of hay.

30:46He's running late after he stopped to fix a tyre.

30:49It's part of the job you've got to take the good with the bad.

30:53No good at crying because no one is going to listen to you.

30:55If the tyre loses air, he'll need to get under the truck to fix it.

31:02That'll blow his delivery schedule for sure.

31:06You're always jumping from job to job to job to job, you know what I mean?

31:10I'm just going to pull up here and check them straps again and check that tyre again,

31:15make sure it's right, then we'll hightail it to home.

31:19To be able to make your business work and make money, you chase what you have to chase.

31:25No, it's still hard, it's laughing.

31:29That saves you a bit of time.

31:36When I get the cast from here, I'll jack it up again properly

31:38and have a good look at it, see if I can find a hole in it.

31:42Even at 53 metres and a total weight of 65 tonnes, in Catherine, Scotty isn't driving the biggest rig on the road.

32:00A couple of demountable sheds are being moved right through the centre of town.

32:05Yeah, they're all doing wide loads there, so they're all five and a half metres.

32:09So they'll be blocking the bridge up and the road's only six metres anyway, so they're loads as wide as the road.

32:15I'll drop these tyres in the shed so I can have a quick look at that tyre again.

32:28It'll make sure it's going to be right.

32:29Scotty's made it back to Catherine in time.

32:34Just.

32:36It's a tag team operation. The hay will be handed off to another driver to unload.

32:41It's hard now, but that's the main thing in it.

32:46Scotty will now head straight back out with his next job.

32:55Once I get over the top of this hill, I'll be able to see Mount Isa.

33:01Des is cutting 101 tonnes of crusher dust to Mount Isa.

33:06The area holds the world's biggest deposits of copper, lead, zinc and silver.

33:16Bit of a turn to our left and then the shaft turned to our right again, off the main drag.

33:23Mount Isa is also one of the only places in the world where a 53-metre road train hauling 158 tonnes

33:31is allowed to drive through the centre of town.

33:39The toughest manoeuvre is a hard left followed by a sharp right.

33:45But it's the only way into the drop site, so Des needs to make the turns.

33:50I need a bit of a wide circle, so I don't run over the corner of the concrete there.

34:01And there makes me tyres.

34:02It's just a top of this one.

34:03It's just a point of…

34:05It's just a point to come down that's a fantastic way.

34:06I've gone through it and he's yesterday.

34:07It's just a point of down.

34:08It's just a point of down, but I'm clear enough to make the turn.

34:10What is the main thing of the name of the machine saying?

34:11What is theパ AREA?

34:12Well, what a special thing about...

34:13Well, there's no one who's found a lot of outing in the middle of the mechanical wheel.

34:14There's no one who's found a lot of strud�.

34:15But it's only on a lot of face when you're out.

34:17It's just a long time.

34:19It's a place to start a lot of one of my own, so I find some time.

34:21What is this?

34:22Yeah, another warp in the park.

34:38It'd be close to 40 degrees.

34:40I reckon it'd be right up there, 40 degrees Celsius.

34:45Jake's ready to head out of Catherine

34:47to pick up a $250,000 load of cattle.

34:52But his aircon's blown.

34:54And out here, that can be deadly.

34:58Today's temperature is forecast to peak at 43 degrees.

35:03If Jake can't get the aircon running,

35:05he'll be cooked in more ways than one.

35:09It's sweaty in here with no aircon,

35:11so we'll definitely have a quick look at that before we go anywhere.

35:16Probably just a few years have been blown,

35:18in behind that dashboard there.

35:20Being a road train truckie

35:22means being a mechanic, a tradie, and a driver all in one.

35:27And even then, you can't always get it right.

35:30Ah, I'm Audrey Goddier.

35:33Park light, tire beam, turn.

35:37A bit mind-blowing once you pull that cover off

35:39and you think it's going to be a two-second job, but...

35:41No.

35:46Grab a light tester.

35:50I think Jake would like to think that he's handy.

35:53Oh!

35:54He's off.

35:56Just checking if any fuses are blown.

35:59We were mounting the TV on the wall

36:01and I think it took Jake, his mate,

36:04and then Dad to come around and help.

36:07So...

36:08You're handy when need be.

36:10Yeah.

36:11The stud finder was playing up.

36:13It was telling us lies.

36:14Yeah.

36:15It was the wall's fault.

36:17Yeah.

36:17All the fuses are looking good,

36:23and that's bad news for Jake.

36:25It means less chance of an easy fix.

36:29And it's already 40 degrees and 90% humidity.

36:36Jake can't spend any more time trying to fix the aircon.

36:40He's on a contract with a tight deadline.

36:42Money talks, so he's going to try and tough it out.

36:46When that phone calls, you've got to go.

36:47So, um...

36:49Just cop it sweet for now with the aircon,

36:52going with these cows and get them sorted

36:55and then hopefully try and sort this aircon issue out tonight.

36:59Righto.

37:10Just started working again.

37:12So I just shut my driver's side door

37:14and that aircon fan just clicked in.

37:20It's a good thing but a bad thing

37:21because there's a problem there,

37:22but you don't really know...

37:24..what's why.

37:27Anyway, let's go.

37:29Jake's driving out with a dodgy aircon.

37:43But there's bigger trouble ahead.

37:48The area he's going out to is on fire.

37:52He just doesn't know it yet.

37:53Yeah, Kelby.

37:59F*** me.

37:59Can't get a break.

38:00Righto.

38:01No worries.

38:02Jake's on the phone with his boss, Luke.

38:05Yeah, that's right.

38:06Yeah, I was going across to the low level and back into town.

38:09There.

38:10So that was Luke on the phone just then

38:13and just informed me

38:17that the place that we're about to go load cows at is on fire.

38:22See that smoke?

38:26This whole place is on fire.

38:29There's a bushfire raging out of control up ahead.

38:34The question is what to do.

38:36Try and navigate around it

38:38or bail out now and lose the money.

38:42Des has arrived at the Crusher Dust drop site.

38:50He's about to unload 101 tonnes worth of stuff.

38:56You there, Donnie?

38:58I'm coming.

38:59Have I still got to come out and round that gate here?

39:01There's a gate shut.

39:04Yeah, you're on.

39:05I'm not going to run it now.

39:06Bloody hell, I've got it.

39:12Bit of a challenging yard, this one.

39:17I designed most of these yards for two trailers.

39:22This one I'm tipping just in front of me,

39:23so I've got to tip blind all the time.

39:25And this heap here seems to get further and further over.

39:38Des starts by tipping the last trailers first.

39:41They're 40 metres away and in his blind spot.

39:44That makes his job a lot harder.

39:47Yeah, so you're tipping it where the original one

39:49and where there's no dust there at all, aren't you?

39:51Yeah, mate.

39:52Nice.

39:54He tips the middle two,

39:56then the front trailer is the last to go.

39:59Look out the passenger side, not the driver's side,

40:01because you're swinging around to the left.

40:02It takes precision work from Des.

40:05He has limited vision and he can't get it wrong.

40:08Don't make close your line of job.

40:09You've got to be on the ball with it.

40:14Otherwise, you bend your mud guard down onto the tyres

40:16and then you've got to straighten them out

40:17before you get going again.

40:20You still loop around, we'll be at it.

40:24Another successful load without bending anything.

40:28Des will now head back to Cloncurry

40:30to collect another load of crusher dust.

40:33Rinse and repeat again.

40:35F***, mate, what a f***ing f***ing show.

40:42Drinking off drinks in your bed?

40:43I reckon you've got bad juju or something.

40:46Start to get those storm cells,

40:48they call them dry storms.

40:51Everything's happening but it's not raining,

40:52so the ground's still dry and lightning's striking.

40:56The way she goes, everywhere's on fire.

41:00Up here in the Territory,

41:01the end of the dry season

41:03is when nature runs the show

41:06and can stop a road train in its tracks.

41:09There was a fire out here this morning

41:11and it's just jumped the river

41:13and got into his place,

41:15so that's it for loading cows out here today.

41:20Jake's $250,000 contract

41:23has gone up in flames.

41:25The life of a road train truckie

41:27is unpredictable.

41:29Jake will head back to Catherine.

41:31We'll just duck in here

41:33and pull it around

41:35and then go home.

41:39Next time.

41:40Not everyone can do the dirt work.

41:42You've got to be the right gentleman

41:43to be able to handle the dirt.

41:46It's man versus the wild.

41:49Scotty and Sean battle it out

41:51on one of the Territory's toughest roads.

41:53Yeah, I mean, you can get road roads down it,

41:55but it's a tyre-killing dirt road.

41:57Yeah, I mean, you're Junior with weeks.

42:00Bye.

42:01Bye.

42:06Bye.

42:08Shots of breath.

42:10Keep your eyes broad.

42:11Just go to the管 and tube- BP main-man!

42:14You can do too, like your body.

42:15I can hear anything...

42:16Don't tell me what you're doing,

42:17or...

42:17Don't tell me what you're doing.

42:18Don't tell me what you're doing,

42:18Don't tell me what you're doing.

42:19You're so元-

42:20Don't tell me why you're doing...

42:21You're so元-

42:22Where are you doing tonight?

42:23What are you doing?

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