Event Coverage Australia Trip with Pics!

THANK YOU !! Great seeing all of these fine rides.

 

Agreed Danny. That is a great car!

 

Great work Jeff, what an experience.

 

So, since I have a few minutes... Oggie had some great stories several of which revolved around the history of the area, his families heritage here, and his cars. He had a 34 Ford salt flat car and showed me a plaque for a record he held at one point locally. Anyway, couldn’t imagine a better way to spend an evening in Melbourne than getting to know a local hot rodder better. Even the history of how long he had some of his hot rods was good to hear. And, it was also interesting talking to him about when he built the y-block in the roadster with the Mummert heads and the top loader four speed, etc. Anyway, I can’t wait to meet some more guys down here.

 

Did Oggie put you onto anyone in Perth to show you around?

 

When you get home, are we going to have to teach you proper English again?

 

You mean American English, not real english

 

Thanks for the tour @guthriesmith , looks like an excellent adventure.

At first glance I thought this was a model car with plastic cheater slick tires. Those shiny tightly tucked fenders had me fooled for a few seconds.

 

No, but Barrelnose pickup Chris reached out and has me set up I believe with a mate of his.

Possibly mate but no worries.

 

Had a Albert Butterfield who hosts "Building your first hotrod" on FaceBook here a few months back from San Fransisco doing work for Chevron. Are you here for Chevron as well?

 

No, I work for an equipment manufacturer that has dealerships down here. We recently designed a specific machine for the Australian market so we are doing some training and gathering feedback after the first two machines have made it down.

 

Must be a machine for catching roos.

 

LOL! Actually, these machines have been used to suck up gophers from what I have heard. They are vacuum excavators and the configuration for Australia is just more to fit the utes they tow them with as well as moving the controls to be on kerb (my new Aussie word) side as compared to curb side in the states.

Sitting at the airport again waiting on a flight to my next stop in Perth. I would have never guessed how big Australia was before this trip. Getting from Melbourne to Perth is a 4 hour flight and is a 3 hour difference in time zones.

 

HAMB perfect, lots of people in this place love to spell 'c' words with a K!

Ha ha. It screws up a lot of tourists travels plans as far as timing goes, especially when they want to drive. Particularly Europeans. "It didn't look that far on the map!"
I've heard that more than a few times.

 

That's called a 'roo bar or bull bar on the front of Utes.

 

.........or it's called a "hopper knocker"......

 

I wonder if Brootal is still there in Perth?

 

Stop, (I say rocking back and forth in the fetal position) I don’t understand your funny words!

 

Ain't got no gophers... the local equivalent would be wombats. You would need one hefty excavator to vacuum up a wombat. Those things get cranky.

Cheers,
Harv

 

Ironically enough, this project was called wombat as we were designing it. So…our dealer decided it might be funny to have the product manager carry a stuffed animal wombat around while we are here. Walker the wombat is on quite the adventure as well the last week or so.

 

We have more problems with drop bears than anything else.

 

He is!

Fatso The Fat Arsed Wombat, the unofficial and most coveted mascot of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney!

 

Mate, it looks like you are fitting in down here. If you stay any longer you will be chasing citizenship.

 

Haha…I am pretty sure I could live here. Made it to Perth and it feels a lot like Arizona in the states.

 

Just found and watched a video on your product. Cool piece of machinery. All I can say is "it sucks".....
Is the AX designation just for us down here inAustralia?

 

Yep, the “A” is for Australia and the “X” is for excavator…and it does suck.

 

Be sure to at least hit Hay Street while you’re there. If you gat the chance, visit Fremantle or colloquially known as Freo.

 

I can see a sign that says Hay street from where I am sitting right now at a restaurant. My hotel is actually only about 2 blocks away also on Hay street.

 

I have to admit, Perth has nice Beaches. You've overlooked the Pacific ocean from your Gold Coast hotel, now you can stare at the Indian Ocean.

 

Man , what an adventure. Thanks for sharing.