Radio as the Driver's Only Link with Home
Page 33
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
RADIO apparatus that enables drivers to keep in touch with their depot, often several hundred miles away, is carried on all those lorries operated by Mr. E. J. Ding, of Yunta, that traverse the roadless, desolate interior of South Australia. As loads frequently comprise valuable sheep some means for communication is necessary in case of breakdown. Should this occur in semidesert, waterless country, immediate action has to be taken to rush water to the scene of the mishap and to transfer the animals to another vehicle if repairs cannot be quickly effected. Fortunately, such occurrences are rare. But the two-way radio, operating on the depot's own wave-length, provides a constant safeguard against occurrences that might easily involve this Australian operator in heavy loss.
Mr. E. J. Ding, now a member of the R.A.A.F., recently described the big difficulties of transport to and from lonely railheads and isolated sheep stations " down under."
With his brother, Mr. II. E. Ding, he has been for the past 15 years a road-transport pioneer in a country where, in many cases, the only means for getting from one place to another was by carnal or bullock cart. On the other side of the world, his brother now maintains mail and other services upon which scores of sheep farmers and isolated communities are increasingly dependent for their essential contacts with distant towns and trading centres.
The mail service is operated fortnightly between Marree and Birdsville, a distance of 400 miles, and is covered each way in out a week. Throughout this long journey the mail driver meets only four people at appointed places en route—a vivid illustration of how sparsely populated is the Australian interior.
The largest vehicle in Mr. Ding's fleet is an A.E.C. Mammoth Major oilengined six-wheeler with a doubledrive rear axle and a specially extended wheelbase of 22 ft. Fitted with a double-deck cattle-carrying body, it can accommodate 200 sheep weighing 10-11 tons. Latterly, it has been supplemented by an A.E.C. Matador four. wheeler.
Few of the journeys made by the Mammoth Major are less than 200-300 miles. Even over such distances, except in the immediate vicinity of a railhead, there are no roads. A rutted track provides the only guide for the driver, who carries food and drink for the trip and sleeps on or near his vehicle each night.
Occasionally, sheep are carried on journeys of 1,000 miles. Then the driver must also take water and provender for the animals as well as his own provisions. In unfenced country, hundreds of square miles in area, the sheep cannot be let out to graze. There is no means for getting them back into the vehicle. Frequently, they form part of highly valuable stud flocks.
The benefits of road transport in this part of the world are strikingly shown by a journey which involved the transport of a number of stud sheep 600 miles across country in 48 hours. The alternative rail route would have involved a journey of 3,000 miles. taking many days.