Aussie Road Train Truckers Season 1 Episode 7

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Transcript

00:01The dry season in the Outback.

00:05It's when the Aussie road train truckers go hard.

00:09You've got to be done, you've got to be daft.

00:11It's good unloading with people that know what they're doing.

00:13I'm pissed off actually.

00:15To bank as much money as they can.

00:18If that doesn't work, then we'll go to plan B.

00:21I don't have a plan B at the moment.

00:23All before the wet season hits and the roads get shut down.

00:53Jake is loaded up with cattle and heading out of Birundudu Station

01:00in the remote western region of the Northern Territory.

01:04So today we've got on 132-headed cattle

01:08and I would roughly guess that the distance that we've travelled today

01:13would be about 600km, or a bit over 600km.

01:16He's carting the $140,000 load to Danmara

01:22along the Buntine and Buchanan Highways,

01:25two of Australia's worst roads.

01:29Ahead of him lies 400km of dirt

01:33and 200km of sharp-edged single-lane bitumen.

01:38It'd be roughly 12 hours this trip.

01:41There's a lot of slow driving.

01:43It takes a bit longer to rack and stack them k's,

01:45but I think we should be pretty close to where we need to be

01:48by about 10.30 to 9.

01:51Jake's hoping for a smooth ride.

01:57But the forecast is for rain.

02:00And a single downpour could stop him in his tracks.

02:09Merrifield Station, 500km south of Darwin.

02:16And the wet season rains have hit.

02:19It's mud as far as the eye can see.

02:22Brownie's pulling in, ready to load up his C509.

02:27Today's a good day. It's a wet day.

02:29We're going to put a load of cows on them,

02:31we're going to head north.

02:32There we go.

02:33Try not to get too splattered.

02:35The rain has the station staff stretched.

02:41It'll be a skeleton crew for Brownie's load-up today.

02:44There are no spare hands to guide him,

02:49and he's scheduled to unload tonight.

02:51Brownie needs to line up the gates on his truck

02:56with the ramps in the yard.

02:58He's got a 10cm margin for error,

03:04and the road train is 52m long.

03:07It means check, move, check, move, repeat.

03:34Over in the yards, there's a real-time cattle deal happening.

03:37The cattle boy, the agent,

03:39is over there drafting out which ones he wants

03:41and which ones he doesn't.

03:42So, as soon as he's done his job,

03:44then we'll start doing ours.

03:46Brownie needs to get a move on

03:48and pull in as many jobs as he can.

03:51His truck's been off the road for four days,

03:54and he has a $37,000 repair bill to pay off.

04:09Northern Queensland.

04:11See if you can keep fairly close to me coming in here, Jason.

04:13I'll just let you know where to stop.

04:15And Des and fellow truckie Jason

04:18are getting loaded up with $16,000 worth of pre-coat,

04:22gravel soaked in bitumen.

04:24It'll be used as the middle layer

04:26between the sub-base and the asphalt

04:28on a new stretch of road.

04:30It'll help to hold the layers together.

04:33At the quarry, towards the end of the year,

04:36we get a lot of pre-coat,

04:37and they might get orders for, you know,

04:3820,000, 30,000 tonne.

04:43Second trailer there, yeah.

04:45Des is a man of few words.

04:48Jason is a man of even fewer.

04:51Yeah, powers.

04:52He's an experienced truckie,

04:54but he's new to carting pre-coat.

04:57It takes very precise skills to get it right.

05:01Veteran Des will be showing him the ropes.

05:05When we tip pre-coat,

05:06because it's so expensive,

05:08quite important to try and tip it as close as you can

05:11and have it nice and clean.

05:13You can't tip it in the grass,

05:14and if they pick bigger rocks up or cow patties,

05:17it all gets jammed up and they spread it,

05:18and then they have a piece down the middle of the bitumen

05:20that's not getting stone on it.

05:28Each of the quads will be filled

05:30with exactly 101 tonnes.

05:35To take the guesswork out of them,

05:37every loader is fitted with scales.

05:41So each trailer can be filled with precise amounts.

05:45The scales are checked and recalibrated regularly.

05:48Des and Jason will be travelling from Klongcurry

06:00to a road building site 140km down the road,

06:04near Julia Creek.

06:06Probably about three hours down to where we're going.

06:10Going up the cell doorway is the desk.

06:13Yeah, mate, yeah.

06:16Another truck coming in here as well, so...

06:20The boy can get busy at times.

06:23We've had up to, you know, 20-odd trucks running out there.

06:26We can get 5,000 tonnes out of the gate a day.

06:31Des heads east on the Flinders Highway.

06:34Jason falls in behind.

06:36It's a convoy with a combined weight of 316 tonnes.

06:40The station crew at Merrifield are up to their knees in muck.

06:57A little bit, buddy?

07:00Yes, a little bit.

07:02Still fun.

07:04We've had a good time so far.

07:07Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

07:11The yard workers are unfazed.

07:14But Brownie's a certified clean freak.

07:17He's also an obsessed Kenworth supporter.

07:24I'm all about having matching stuff,

07:25so if you've got a Kenworth truck,

07:27you might as well have a Kenworth lemon.

07:30The TR's Kenworth as well.

07:33Brownie doesn't want his pride and joy to get dirty.

07:39Those crates are pretty feral this morning, mate.

07:42So, the further we can stay away from them, the better.

07:50Righto!

07:56It's gonna be a messy morning.

08:00They're dirt yards,

08:02and then you've got hundreds of animals' worth of manure

08:06soiled into them yards.

08:09So then you mix it in with water,

08:11and then you mix it in with wet season.

08:13At times, they could be, you know, shin height in shit.

08:16Shit.

08:26Heading out of the driveway, you're down.

08:29Birundudu covers an area of 1.6 million acres.

08:34It's one of the biggest stations in the Territory.

08:39Oh.

08:41An hour after loading up,

08:44Jake and his Kenworth C509 are still on the property.

08:49Birundudu driveway is not a, um, not your normal driveway.

08:55It's not concrete.

08:57With a manicured green grass either side,

09:00it's, um, yeah, she's a bumpy old track.

09:04With six gates.

09:06Slip in and grab in.

09:07Slip in and grab in.

09:30Got a lot of gates in their driveway.

09:31Birundudu transports over 40,000 cattle per year.

09:47That's about 400 return road train trips,

09:50worth more than $100 million.

09:56These gates will open and close 2,800 times a year.

10:02But the gates are not Jake's main concern.

10:07This driveway's a little bit flogged out here at the minute.

10:10They had a bit of rain, that 110 mill here.

10:13And their driveway's sort of turned into a river

10:16because there is a couple of nasty angles

10:18and your trailer might fall over if you,

10:21if that angle's too big, just, like, being loaded

10:23and that, that weight up high.

10:25You know, them crates are leaning a fair way.

10:29The road is a mess of deep runs.

10:32Jake will need to pick his path very carefully.

10:34The outback.

10:48And brownies trying to avoid getting dirty.

10:51Today's load at Merrifield is young heifers,

11:00about 300 kilos each.

11:03Brownies C509 has 12 pens over two decks on three trailers.

11:07Total, 180 cattle, and a load worth $200,000.

11:16It's wet, slippery, smelly business.

11:20Grids in the floor of the trailers are designed

11:22so the cattle can get maximum grip, even in the wet.

11:26There's not too many places where we've got this full-length walkway.

11:31And because we have the full-length walkway here,

11:34I don't have to get in the cattle coats today.

11:37I can just pull my gates shut by leaning across.

11:40Providing it works.

11:42Right on.

11:44There is ample opportunity for those animals

11:47to do number twos all over me.

11:48I don't need to go and find what they've left and walk through it.

11:52The world's biggest dual road train convoy

12:03is two hours away from the drop-off site,

12:06outside Julia Creek.

12:08There you go, I'm back there, Dave.

12:11Yeah, nah, it'll be good.

12:13Road crews are waiting for the two quad-side tippers

12:17to deliver $16,000 worth of pre-coat gravel

12:21for a major highway project.

12:23It's pretty expensive.

12:25It's about $20 a tonne to just put the oil in it

12:28and then you've got to pay for the stone

12:30and then you've got to pay for deliveries.

12:32It would work out close to $80 a tonne delivered.

12:36Des and Jason are an intimidating presence on the road.

12:39The stats are mind-blowing.

12:40Coming across here, there's a few single-lane bridges

12:41and things like that and they're pretty rough.

12:42They're not really single-lane,

12:43but they're not really wide enough to pass two road trains on.

12:44Out here, it's the oncoming trucks that are usually the problem.

12:48But somewhere behind Des and Jason is a monster truck.

12:49There's another truck behind you, Des.

12:50There's another truck behind you, Des.

12:51Yeah.

12:52Pushing to get around them.

12:54Jake's an hour into his exit out of Birundudu.

12:56It's a huge jump.

12:59They're not really rough.

13:00They're not really rough.

13:01They're not really single-lane,

13:02but they're not really wide enough to pass two road trains on.

13:07Out here, it's the oncoming trucks that are usually the problem.

13:08But somewhere behind Des and Jason is a monster truck.

13:11There's another truck behind you, Des.

13:14Pushing to get around them.

13:20Jake's an hour into his exit, out of Birundudu.

13:23he has 11 hours to go to reach Dunmarra it's a pretty rough job in terms of the

13:29road and both the dirt in the single line I will have 200 k's of dirt and then

13:35170 or single-lane bitumen and then another 200 a dirt once we get to Dunmarra

13:42it's back on the Stewart highway and she's all beers and skittles there

13:47you've got to be very vigilant on what you're doing and think about what you're doing on that

13:54on that road absolutely

13:55probably the worst thing you can do with a dirt road is think it's going to be

14:01the exact same as last time you left it because they will change every time

14:07Jake arrived yesterday and already the road has changed

14:16I swear to god potholes develop overnight sometimes

14:19I want to keep your wits about you a little bit yeah do everything right

14:25I'll try and get you around eh

14:32the Flinders Highway and Des and Jason are dealing with a road train hot on their heels

14:38it's good highway etiquette to let unloaded trucks overtake loaded ones

14:44Des is doing 90 k's and the road speed limit is a hundred k's

14:50if they're empty and yeah you're loaded we'll get them around because they still

14:54got to go and do their job too you know we don't want to hold them up in here

14:57yeah straight up there with the gillian channel

15:00it'll be really well and really clear by then

15:02yep all good

15:04Des and Jason will drop their speed to give the other driver a better chance of getting past

15:09there's places up there where there's no overtaking lanes it's got to try and get him around you know where a decent bit of road is and if you're coming up to that will you call him up and we back off and and let him go straight away

15:27the road doesn't last very good yeah for very long sort of thing all of the road trains are in position ready for the overtake but Des and Jason need the other driver to bring his a game

15:40get around here over past the park and by here we'll get around

15:45it's slow going for Jake

15:54he's hauling 40 tons of cattle on a dangerous section of dirt road out of Birundudu station

16:01because of that rain that they had out here

16:03everything's so green again

16:06it's like a bloody golf course out here

16:08the early wet season rains have greened up the landscape but they've also trashed the road

16:16so this section of the driveway out to my right is the actual driveway but

16:23we're sort of driving up on the edge of the bank here

16:26because that was literally a river that's where all that water was running

16:31you can't use the whole road

16:34you can sort of try and pick the smoothest line on a road

16:39but you can't really snake all over it

16:42them trailers are 4.9 metres high or something

16:46so there's a lot of weight up top

16:49so you want to try and keep everything pretty level

16:52Jake drove along this road yesterday

16:57but the sandy desert soil has had over 600 tons of road train pass over it in the last 24 hours

17:05you know if the truck falls through the road and it gets bogged like it's just because it's too wet

17:09the ground just collapses and you'll be stuck here for a long time then

17:13the road is clay skin over red sand and up ahead the surface layer has cracked

17:20Dez and Jason are in convoy on the Flinders Highway

17:38behind them is another road train determined to get past

17:51Dez has dropped back to 40 k's an hour in his 158 ton machine

18:01the other driver makes his move

18:05it's an empty quad road train

18:13the two trucks running side by side are massive

18:17both are T659 Kenworths

18:20and both are hauling four trailers

18:22this move would be impossible

18:24if not for the long straight stretch of road

18:27you don't get behind the wheel of a quad

18:47unless you're a seasoned pro

18:48the other driver nails it

18:52how are you doing Dez?

18:54how are you doing Dez?

18:55how are you doing Dez?

19:01Dez is a player in a high-stakes game

19:04from managing dicey overtakes

19:07right down to putting the right material in exactly the right spot

19:12we need to keep the stockpile nice and tight

19:15so don't spread the load out like you do with all the other material we run

19:21this will be Jason's first pre-co drop off

19:26it's critical he nails this part of the job

19:29even though Jason's an experienced driver

19:32it's on Dez to make sure the job is done right

19:36when I get out here I'll tip my load off

19:39and show him how it's got to be done

19:40and explain to him how it's got to be done properly

19:44no matter what

19:52push away

19:53pay pay pay pay pay

19:56Brownie is at Merrifield station

19:59come on

20:01where the cows are dirty

20:04and the station hands are filthy

20:06you've got people down south that pay for like mud exfoliation baths and stuff

20:10Indy gets it for free at work

20:15let's go and weigh them

20:18Brownie's $750,000 Kenworth C509 prime mover will be the next thing to cop it

20:25it's going to get dirty and I'm going to have to clean it

20:29see how it goes

20:31not great news for a clean freak

20:34these things get covered in mud

20:36they get shat all over by the cows and whatever

20:38and then when we get a chance we clean them up

20:41and people can see that you take pride in your machinery

20:45Brownie's all set to roll up onto Merrifield's full length weighbridge

20:53it's unusual for a cattle station to have one

20:56but it's vitally important

20:58because almost all cattle sales are based on weight and not numbers

21:05when you've got your own weighbridge on site

21:08they're weighed within 30 minutes of being loaded on the truck

21:10they should be as heavy as they were the minute they were put on the truck

21:15and that's the weight they're going to be paid on

21:1860 tonnes is the tear weight

21:21or how much the truck weighs empty

21:23there's 61 tonnes of cattle on board

21:27combined with a truck

21:29Brownie's gross weight is 121 tonnes

21:31all right we're going to go

21:39I'm going to fall off the weighbridge because I've got to go around the long way anyway

21:43because it's too muddy

21:45you don't need deep mud to bog a road train

21:48it just needs to lose traction

21:51it's definitely easy to bog a road train

21:54if you can imagine your Toyota gets bogged at the beach with four wheels

21:57well you put 62 wheels on there and then see what happens

22:03if Brownie puts a single tyre into a soft edge

22:07his trip will be over before it even begins

22:14Jake is approaching a long deep pothole on the Birundudu access road

22:18everyone's sort of been taking this road

22:21pull this path and I'm on down

22:23there's just a few little soft spots in it

22:26they're going to be wary of

22:28he needs momentum to get through

22:31but go too fast and he'll break something

22:34and he'll break something

22:56Des and Jason are hauling 202 tonnes of bitumen covered gravel through Queensland

23:01the Flinders Highway is one of the busiest road train routes in Australia

23:08there's also plenty of caravans

23:12this caravan in front says he's indicating for me to go around

23:15but he's not communicating too well

23:17I've got a hundred and fifty-eight ton on here and I can't even catch him

23:22the caravan drivers up here are affectionately known as grey nomads

23:27retirees enjoying their freedom and life on the road

23:32when it starts to cool down up there

23:34yeah we get caravan after caravan

23:37there's nothing to pass 50 caravans a day

23:40how can he not slam down for me and I can't catch him

23:43he wants me to get around him so I don't know how he thinks I'm going to do that

23:48if a nomad doesn't know what they're doing

23:51things can get very dangerous very quickly

23:55the caravan driver isn't speeding up, pulling over or slowing down

24:00to try and pass a caravan like that when they speed up and slow down

24:04if he can't see you 90% of the time since he spots you

24:08he'll puppy himself and slow right down anyway

24:11Des is on a deadline but he's in a stalemate

24:15Des will have to go around

24:18try and get around this fella if we can

24:21go

24:23yep, yep

24:28the 53 metre mega truck smokes the nomad

24:32yeah, still all clear up here

24:35Jake made it across the crack in the road

24:41the only damage to his rig is a broken truck cam

24:46we'll get down here we've got to drop our dust and see if we've got any flat tyres

24:51and just pump our drive tyres back up

24:54Kau Keringi is a popular pit stop for road train truckies

24:59Jake needs to do a bit of truck admin

25:02re-inflate his tyres for the bitumen road ahead

25:05and blow off the red dust

25:06the temperature is in the mid 40s and Jake doesn't want the cattle standing out in the heat

25:17any longer than is absolutely necessary

25:19so we'll just start pumping our tyres up here

25:22that'll take the longest

25:24Jake lowered the pressure in his tyres to help soak up the bumps on the dirt

25:28but low pressure on bitumen can cause heat and blowouts

25:30so I might just pump them up to 80 and then just have a little bit out of them for the next dirt bit

25:41no technique into this, just bloody

25:44just give them a tap and knock the dust out of them

25:47outback towns take a dim view of trucks rolling in from the dirt roads

25:52and dropping the dust out of their wheels

25:55you definitely don't want to rock up somewhere and then dust everyone out

26:00he also checks every tyre for damage

26:05the news is good

26:07just pumped all my tyres up and no flat tyres on the trailer

26:11so that's bloody really good thing

26:13the pit stop has gone well

26:15but Jake faces the prospect of more bad roads ahead and failing light

26:22Jake has three hours of daylight to cover the 300 k's of bad road

26:30until he hits the bitumen of the Stuart Highway

26:33quick stop, quick look about and then shoot across to the Stuart Highway

26:38everything needs to go well

26:40just left Kaukarengi, just the slightest little bit of rain

26:45hit the windscreens

26:47you know, once you've seen a bit of rain

26:49you're like, well I really hope it's not going to be over on that dirt

26:58Des and Jason's road train convoy is approaching the drop-off site

27:03yeah, two wagon trucks coming up towards you mate

27:06where are we going to be turning left at the road works there?

27:11alright mate

27:13the pre-coat they're hauling

27:15is for a new road being built off the main highway

27:18so we're just coming up to the traffic control works here

27:21and I've just called them up and

27:23told them we're turning left and going up the beef road

27:26we've just got the go-ahead

27:28so they're going to give us a green light

27:30and it's right around the corner so it's lying us down

27:32all this road here is what this pre-coat's for

27:36and I'll top dress all this stuff here

27:38the dump site is further along down a rough dirt road

27:44going in here to tip off

27:47I'll just find a nice tidy level spot

27:51but emptying the side tippers can be hazardous

27:54and fellow truckie Jason is new to this type of load

27:59the main thing is with these jobs you make sure you tip it properly

28:03and make sure you don't get dry bog trying to tip it properly

28:06the dry bogging problem is when the stone goes underneath your wheels

28:10let's see if you can keep fairly close to me coming in here Jason

28:13I'll just let you know where to stop

28:15yep, no worries

28:17like if you're tipping the second trailer off and you tip it too much

28:20a bit of the pre-coat will go under your tyres

28:22that's why you always keep your front trailer loaded

28:25it's the last one to tip off so you've got that weight there to keep pulling you out

28:28do you get dry bog there's no phone service

28:32hopefully someone comes along

28:34quite easy to get dry bog if you're not watching what you're doing

28:37it's sort of going from Kalkaringa to Top Springs now and it's 170km

28:46mostly single lane bitumen

28:50it is a bit bumpy

28:52yeah, so you've got to sort of manage your speed a bit

28:57a bit of weather to build up for a bit of a shower or a storm or something

29:02a slightly worrying thought of what

29:05could happen

29:08slightly worrying for like when we turn right at Toppie and go across to Dunmar

29:13it's all 180km of dirt there so

29:16it's happening here so it might be happening there you know

29:27the gloomy skyline has Jake rattled

29:30top-end monsoons sweep in from the northwest

29:35so the big rains could be right in front of him

29:38no service so I can't really get on the radar and have a proper look to like sort of narrow it down to where it is

29:45might say it could be a bit of a problem for us but I'm hoping that it's all this side of Toppie

29:49and won't be sort of in our path when we're on the dirt you know

29:52he needs to be on the dirt of the Buchanan Highway before the rain sets in

30:00it's a race Jake can't afford to lose

30:03it might only be a storm for an hour or half an hour but it'll wet that road up enough and you won't get traction to get going

30:12so you might need to stay there for a few hours

30:15worst case you could be sort of there overnight

30:17Jake is racing against a storm blowing in across the territory

30:31yeah a few puddles about mate

30:33yeah

30:35lose the contest and he'll be eating into his emergency supplies while he waits for help that could be days away

30:43this time of year always make sure you've got plenty of water and food and beer

30:48and beer most importantly

30:51because yeah he could be there for a while but you know that's worst case absolute worst case

30:57it's a cattle carter's nightmare

31:00with 132 cattle on board Jake can't afford to get cornered by weather

31:05getting bogged is bad for the bottom line

31:09you've got to go across the dirt road and there is a bit of weather about

31:12you won't go down unless you know you've got a different chance to get through it

31:15if it's wet and they've had a decent amount of rain throughout that area where that road is you won't

31:22you won't go

31:24he needs to make his decision now

31:27Top Springs is the last phone reception before the road goes to hell

31:33so we're just pulling up here at Toppy

31:37yeah there's a few puddles out the road here

31:39I'll make a couple of phone calls anyway and just confirm all that

31:45this is his only chance to find out if it's safe to head across the dirt

31:58Brownie is not far from Bridge Creek where he's due to deliver a hundred and eighty very dirty very smelly cows

32:05not far down the road are we going to go into Bridge Creek

32:13it also looks like Brownie might bookend his day with wet weather

32:18we can see that there's weather ahead

32:20we'll see how we go

32:22we may get wet we may not

32:23but right now he needs to focus on something much closer to home

32:29I've got a car right up my arse

32:31I'm doing seventy kilometres an hour in a hundred zone

32:36people are in a hurry and they need to slow down

32:38they need to slow down

32:41and in a minute I'm going to indicate right

32:43going around the left hand bend that's got double white lines

32:46that in no way would be an invitation to them

32:50what we'll just see

32:53we see a lot of it

32:55people try to overtake us when they really shouldn't

32:58a road train is bearing down in the other direction

33:02idiots

33:11can you please inform your friends that if not I did

33:15was another road train heading down the way

33:20just relax

33:22seriously just relax and let's make this happen

33:26at the safest possible time

33:29idiots

33:31hey Luke how are you going

33:35Jake's making a call to his boss

33:38yeah good mate how are you?

33:40yeah good thanks

33:42he's got a hundred and forty thousand dollars worth of cattle

33:45on his road train

33:47and he needs to know if he should chance the rain

33:50I had to look on the radar there

33:52there's not much across that dirt in the way of rain eh

33:55ah she's right I had to look

33:57she's right

33:58well I think um yeah we're just going to have a bogey here at toppy

34:01and then um we'll poke across there tonight and get him off

34:05a bogey is Aussie slang for a shower

34:08Roger no worries

34:10righto mate I'll chat to you soon

34:13well mate good job

34:15see ya

34:17the decision has been made

34:19Jake will make the run across the dirt and hope the rain stays away

34:23righto

34:24righto well I'll uh yeah I'll be back in a minute I'll freshen up and I'll be right back with ya

34:29I just wanna wait just there somewhere Jason and I'll uh

34:40I'll tip this load off

34:46dry bogging is a real threat to Des and Jason

34:49they're preparing to tip off 202 tons of pre-coat

34:55you can get dry bogged anywhere you don't need mud don't need sand or anything like that

34:59get dry bogged on hard rear

35:01put me power divider and me diff locks in

35:04it's something truckies only do in extreme situations

35:10Des is locking up the diffs and sending power through all the drive wheels on the truck

35:15when they're locked in you've got a lot more traction control

35:19because you don't want to slip

35:21you're unloading the moment you slip to bury yourself

35:26a chance of anything can keep them going this

35:33the road crew can't use pre-coat with dirt in it

35:38so it's critical Des and Jason dump the piles with as small a footprint as possible

35:42to minimise wastage

35:48Des has dropped his four trailers

35:50so where would I be tipping mine?

35:53you can come in there now if you want

35:55ok

35:57Jason steps up to the plate

36:00side tippers dump the load relatively close to the tyres

36:04make a wrong move and his trailers will bog in their own pile

36:08Jason has to be 100% on the ball

36:12yeah just move him forward now a bit

36:14that way you can spread that first one a little bit

36:16and then put the next two on top of him

36:24you'd be right to start turning around this way too

36:26pull up there, just come back a bit can you?

36:27he can't

36:32something's happened to the third tipper

36:35must be jamming up on that bow

36:37Jason isn't going anywhere

36:48just come back a bit can you?

36:50can't get that tubin to go eh?

36:53ah

36:55this thing must be jamming up on that valve

36:59Des takes charge of Jason's rig

37:03and goes into manual override mode

37:05Des takes charge of Jason's rig

37:08and goes into manual override mode

37:21you've been going, you've been going

37:23you've been going

37:29Jason's nailed it

37:31and Des is happy

37:34how'd that go anyway? all good eh?

37:36yeah nah it's good

37:38I think Jason went pretty good for his first time

37:41at least he's keen to learn

37:45it's another day of rinse and repeat

37:48Des and Jason are off to do it all over again

37:51Brownie is turning off the highway into Bridge Creek Station

38:01so once again we're going to go over the way bridge

38:04then we're going to unload them and then we're done

38:07there's a big downpour in the distance

38:10but he's made it without running into more rain

38:13at these yards

38:15the covered loading rams keep the cows and the truckies clean

38:18good news for clean freak Brownie

38:21but I'm not a gymnast

38:23so I really don't want to have to step too far either

38:25all 180 cattle are off the truck in no time flight

38:40there mate, last one

38:42come on ladies, come on

38:44Brownie smashed it

38:49it's job done

38:51be nice to have a shower

38:53put on some clean clothes

38:55have dinner with the family

38:57we'll take it from there

39:00but he still needs a few more well paid jobs to close out the season

39:05to help pay off past repair bills

39:06and give him a little extra spending money for those special occasions

39:16so I have a specific tattoo on my leg

39:19that just has the important dates of things that I'm supposed to remember

39:23and when I'm sitting in the truck as you can imagine

39:26that's like a notepad right there

39:28so I have mums, my father, my wife's birthday, youngest daughter's birthday and then my wedding anniversary

39:37so I like to think I've got all bases covered

39:41night time on the Buchanan Highway

39:54and Jake's back on the red dirt for the final leg of his journey

39:58top springs to Dunmara

40:00it's 180 k's of rough road in the dark

40:04yeah, quick shower, fresh numb, knock the salt off the plump

40:08bloody, back into her

40:10Jake started his high drama run to Birundudu and beyond

40:152,000 kilometres ago

40:17from the very bottom of South Australia

40:20all the way to here

40:22it's been a bloody jam-packed bloody couple of days

40:27yeah, been a few problems and solutions

40:30and lucky, yeah

40:33no, it's definitely all happened

40:36but getting to the easy end of it here, that's good

40:39in about 20 minutes, Jake will hit the bitumen of the Stuart Highway

40:45and the job will get a whole lot easier

40:48breathe a sigh of relief, sort of once you finish off all your dirt work

40:52like today, we've had a 600 kilometres job

40:56400 of it is dirt

40:57so, you know, once you get to the end of that dirt

41:01and everything's A-OK

41:03and you come away unscathed

41:05you can breathe easy and just relax a bit

41:08it's not about being a big tough truck driver

41:10a big flash truck and everything else that sort of comes with it

41:14probably only 50 k's to go to the yards that we're going to

41:17when you do get to your final destination

41:20and every single one of them cows runs off your truck into the yard

41:23starts having a feed and a drink and they're happy

41:27that's your job

41:29that's done, that's it

41:32Jake delivered his load safely and on time

41:36per his contract

41:38and made it back home, drama free

41:39next time

41:46sort of watch what you're doing a fair bit when you're in the crates there with them

41:49Jake goes head to head with an angry brahman

41:51ha ha ha ha ha ha

41:53back we go, eh

41:55whoosh

41:56back we go, eh

41:58ah

41:59way let's go, eh

42:00you

42:30You

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