A History Of Road Trains In The Northern Territory 1934-1988
Transportation History Australian History Social History Technology & Engineering Biography & Memoir Road Transport Outback Studies
A History of Road Trains in the Northern Territory 1934-1988 is the only dedicated chronicle of the monster rigs that opened Australia’s last frontier. In 175 pages of crisp, photo-rich narrative, author John Maddock traces how home-built Mack, Federal and Diamond-T prime-movers hauled triple and quad trailers up the Stuart and down the Barkly, turning remote cattle stations, mining camps and Darwin’s wharves into an economic corridor long before the railway arrived. Kangaroo Press first released this paperback in 1988; copies with the original illustrations, route maps and fleet lists are now hunted by transport enthusiasts, historians and model-makers because no later reprint exists.
What makes this particular copy attractive is its clean, tightly-bound interior—no foxing, no loose pages—plus the authentic period inscription on the front endpaper that places it in the hands of someone who drove the very routes described. The book is not a generic coffee-table overview; it is packed with first-hand interviews, operating statistics and rare factory photos of rigs such as the 250-inch wheel-base “NT specials” that still hold Australian length and weight records. Collectors value the detailed appendices on trailer types, axle configurations and the evolution of the famed “dolly” coupling system that let one prime-mover jockey up to five decks of livestock or freight.
For readers outside the trucking world, Maddock frames the story as social history: the road-train era transformed Aboriginal missions, accelerated the wartime build-up, and later fed the live-export boom. Young adults studying Australian history or technology curricula will find clear explanations of how engineers overcame heat, dust and corrugated tracks to design air-filtered cabs and heavy-duty suspensions—knowledge that still underpins today’s Outback logistics. Adults researching family stations or freight companies will discover rosters, depot locations and even fuel-consumption logs that rarely survive in company archives.
Because the title has never been digitised and only surface occasionally in the second-hand market, a well-preserved 1988 Kangaroo Press copy with all illustrations intact is considered the reference standard. Whether you are restoring a vintage Mack, modelling 1:25 scale road trains, or writing regional heritage reports, this single volume delivers the authentic data, photos and on-the-ground stories you cannot find online.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
Buy Now