This is the 18th article in a series of columns written by Alan Henderson about Deniliquin district historical events and issues. Alan’s grandfather purchased ‘Warragoon’ on the Finley Road in 1912. Alan was born in the Deniliquin Hospital in 1944 but moved to Canberra in 1967. In retirement he has written a family history, Boots, Gold and Wool, and will share some of his research in this local history column.
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As a boy on a Blighty farm in the 1940s and ‘50s, it was exciting when a big truck arrived to collect livestock, wool, or grain, especially if you were allowed into the cabin.
On our farm, the driver was often one of the Seymour brothers or Archie Carvosoe.
I have been enjoying reading about the Seymours and other trucking business families and drivers in Deniliquin & District Transport History, Volume 1, published in 2022.
In combination with the remarkable historic vehicle and memorabilia collection at The Depot in Hardinge Street, we have a wealth of information on our transport history, and there has been discussion about a second volume being prepared.
As well as the characters, amusing incidents and family histories, the innovation, dynamism, and competition among the small businesses that dominate the trucking industry is obvious.
Transport history includes numerous illustrations of the dramatic increase in productivity in the last century.
I have often listened to my farmer relatives complain about wool and wheat boards and marketing authorities with varying degrees of monopoly power, but I cannot recall complaints about transport services.
The industry is so competitive, you can readily switch suppliers if you are unhappy with the service.
Deniliquin & District Transport History, Volume 1 comprises 13 chapters.
The first covers the Falkiner road train acquired in 1913, followed by three families that commenced trucking operations in the 1920s (Grimison, Seymour and Murphy), with the balance emerging in the booming post-WWII period.
The road train, imported from Germany to help transport the huge Falkiner wool clip, comprised a prime mover with two motors plus ten trucks with wide iron wheels.
The road train chapter is distinctive, because, firstly, the investor had deep pockets, Ralph Falkiner spent almost $2 million in today’s prices, and secondly, the road train was a failure (Bushby, Saltbush Country, chapter 36).
It seems the Falkiners decided subsequently to focus on what they knew best, breeding sheep for wool production and contracting specialist trucking businesses, including several covered in other chapters, to transport their wool and livestock.
Herbert Grimison purchased his first truck, an Isotta Fraschini, in Balranald in 1919 and moved to Deniliquin in 1925, reverting to deliveries by horse and cart around town, before acquiring a Chevrolet Maple Leaf truck.
In the late 1920s both Dan Seymour and James Murphy acquired T -model Ford trucks.
In 1925, Ged Beckton driving a three-ton International truck owned by Hay Motor Engineering Works, delivered a load of fat lambs to Newmarket saleyards in Melbourne – a two-week round trip.
Ged and his family moved to Deniliquin in 1936 and later purchased a Federal truck.
The first generation of these families had to endure the Great Depression from October 1929, as well as rough roads and unreliable vehicles.
In the early 1950s, the second generation of the Grimison, Seymour, Murphy and Beckton families, as well as Neil Scott and Keith Purtill, and later, Vic Lumbar and in Hay, Neville and Phyllis Jones, developed businesses in buoyant economic times.
Australian sheep numbers increased strongly in the postwar period, peaking at 180 million in 1970.
In the early 1960s, Vic Lumbar started delivering firewood to Melbourne and backloading merchandise, including for Gillespie Hardware Store, and later for supermarkets and hotels.
In the period from 1947 to 1971, Deniliquin’s population increased by 80 per cent from 3,668 to 6,604.
Keith Purtill established his business transporting baby boomers to school, acquiring a bus and the Blighty school run in 1951.
The number of children aged 5-14 years in the Conargo Shire increased fourfold from 123 in 1947 to 499 in 1966.
By the early 1970s Purtills had six bus runs, including the Conargo run, with the driver Bernie Rose and the bus, a 1948 Bedford OB.
The bus, ‘Rosie’, is the oldest registered school bus in Australia and is on display at The Depot, and occasionally used for weddings and other special events.
These businesses were established in Deniliquin, servicing the needs of the town and district but they travelled afar.
Seymours and Murphys frequently delivered sheep to properties in central Queensland held by the owners of Boonoke at Conargo.
In the days before mobile phones, Coddy Seymour once wired from Blackall: “Terrific heatwave up here, no chance of moving, too hot by day, too drunk by night. Send more money, Cod”.
During the 1988 World Expo in Brisbane, Purtills were operating five coaches from Melbourne to Brisbane.
In the period 1964-65 to 2007-08, real (adjusted for inflation) non-bulk freight rates declined by 40 per cent (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, Information Sheet 28, Table 1).
Improved roads, containerisation and especially, the increased size and reliability of vehicles have contributed to these productivity improvements.
In the 1960s Alan Murphy was driving stock crates with two decks about 11m long, compared to today’s B-doubles with four decks, increasing the number of sheep carried threefold.
Bulk handling has enabled ever more dramatic improvements in the transport of grains.
Hopping in a Seymour truck as a young boy was fun, but as a teenager, occasionally sewing wheat bags was at the other end of the spectrum, partly because I was so slow.
I guess people thought: That would be right, slow workers move to Canberra!
Deniliquin & District Transport History, Volume 1, is available at The Depot in Hardinge St, Deniliquin.
Historical column contributor