This vehicle was actually jointly owned. During my time in the Northern Territory working as fencer, I was in the company of two other blokes, and technically we all owned this Jeep as we had shared the cost when we upgraded the equipment, our fencing gear, to meet this large contract that our boss, now partner, had been given.

I sorta except responsibility for this old Jeep, however, I was the one tasked to ensure the old thing kept going. It had been knocked around, and that was not easy.

The engine bearings were shot on this Jeep, and I fondly recall spending a day replacing them in the workshop on Inverway station NT, (Inverway was once part of the VRD (Victoria River Downs) spread, at one stage the world largest cattle property. It was later to be purchased by Gina Reinhart, Australia's richest woman)

I had a lot of Aboriginal kids to help me, they loved handing tools and by by the time we had finished they would be able to get me a 1/2 inch open ender or a pair of long nosed pliers, and one of the smarty kids would pass me a shifter.."This one fits all, Boss" !, I enjoyed those times.

Of course what should have happened was the entire engine should have been pulled out and the crankshaft ground, unfortunately due to our location some 1000km from a suitable engine repair workshop we decided to simply replace the shells.

It was a 1959 Willys Jeep SW or station wagon, it had the 4 cylinder petrol engine, an engine said to be unstoppable. Of course it was 4 wheel drive and it was amazing just where the thing would go...little was known of its history but it had spent a pretty hard life on NT roads when we got it.

I remember once we were 'rock jumping' in a gully when one front wheel let go at the CV joint, the CV joint allows the wheel to turn and steer; it consists of a series or large balls running inside a cage, the cage broke and the balls went flying...it was a very slow, and noisy trip home that day!

It was, from then on it was a 2x4 Jeep, and this severely limited where it could go. 

Unfortunately, our time in the NT came to an end...the drought and low beef prices of the time meant that the property owner simply could not afford to have more fences erected...we stayed on and got a contract to build a road grid, but eventually we had to leave....back to Brisbane we went.