13 - Willys Jeep - 1955

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 and our fencing gear. This was necessary to meet this large contract that our boss, now partner, had been given my the station owner. Ray had been doing fencing in the NT and Qld for a long time.

I sorta except responsibility for this old Jeep, however, as 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 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, new piston rings and likely lots of other stuff,  unfortunately and due to our location some 1000km from a suitable engine repair workshop we decided to simply replace the shells, for now. I ran quite ok after that, oddly enough.

It was a 1959 Willys Jeep SW or station wagon, it had the 4 cylinder petrol engine, an engine said to be unstoppable and pretty much the same as what powered the war jeeps.

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; on this model Jeep 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!

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

I enjoyed working in the Northern Territory, sure it is very harsh country but it has that 'untouched' look about it, the colours, and how they change during the day is very memorable.

I also experienced something that has only ever occurred the once in my life: complete silence. Some of the places we worked at were many miles from civilisation, one day I stopped and listened, we all did, we could not hear a thing, no birds, nothing, it was quite eerie. 

Another highlight was our trips into town, Kununurra, from memory a half days trip away to get fuel (petrol was obtained in 44 gal drums) and supplies, we'd stay a couple of days in the pub.

I recall meeting a team of helicopter stock control blokes, we had a demo on the day they were leaving, those guys are absolutely  without fear!  

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.