The History of the Australian Road Train The Machines. The People. The Outback that Made Them. Across the wide and red heart of Australia, where the distances are measured in days not miles, one machine became king — the road train. This is the full story of how it came to rule the outback. From the horse and camel teams of the 19th century to the bulldog Macks of wartime convoys and the mighty Kenworths and Titans of today, The History of the Australian Road Train traces a century of grit, ingenuity, and bush-born engineering. It follows the pioneers — Kurt Johannsen, Dave Baldock, Noel Buntine, Jim Cooper — and the drivers who wrestled thousands of tonnes across corrugated tracks and through monsoon floods. Told with the rhythm of a storyteller who’s spent a lifetime on the long roads, this book captures how a handful of bush mechanics and transport men turned surplus army gear into the most powerful freight system on earth. From the government’s first experimental road trains to the double-deck cattle haulers of the north, it’s a story of invention, endurance, and sheer necessity — Australia’s answer to the tyranny of distance. Whether you’ve hauled a triple yourself, or just dream of the open road, The History of the Australian Road Train will take you down the Track — from the wartime convoys and disposal yards to the modern RTA rigs thundering across the Barkly. A story of the machines that built a nation — and the people tough enough to drive them.