Nearly 200 heritage trucks, tractors and cars rolled into town when Beaudesert hosted the Heritage Truck Association of Australia’s 2022 Annual Show on 15-16 October.
The impressively restored vehicles came from south-east Queensland and beyond for the event, which has previously been held at Rocklea but shifted to the Beaudesert Showgrounds this year due to flood damage at its usual location.
Beaudesert’s Paul Cahill was among members displaying trucks at the event.
Mr Cahill displayed his white 1975 Bedford KMR XT5 with a Detroit diesel 6V53, his grey 1969 Dodge D2F with a V185 Cummins diesel and his blue and white 1963 Ford Trader 75D.
Mr Cahill, who’s been a Heritage Truck Association of Australia member since 2009 and has previously exhibited at the Rocklea event, said it was great to have the show on home soil.
“I just like interesting old trucks. I did work as a truck driver for about 15 years, but not these kinds of trucks,” he said.
Fellow association member and Beaudesert local Mark Plunkett, who was instrumental in organising the event, said he was pleased with the outcome.
“We saw a diversity of people coming to have a look – families, old truckies, modern day truckies and it was great to see little kids in awe of the size of the trucks,” he said.
“There was one particular Mack truck near the front gate, there were only two of them ever brought to Australia and the one we had there is the only one left in existence, that was pretty special. We also had one of the guys from Jimboomba who got to be reunited with a truck he sold 25 years ago.
“I think there’s a very good possibility we’ll be able to do something with the annual show here in Beaudesert again, and if we do there’s even bigger plans afoot for it.
“I’m really grateful for the local business support we received, and I think it brought money to the town – people stayed in local motels, people went out and had meals, we used local organisations as much as we could for the show, like Beaudesert Rotary. We tried to keep the money in the town.”
