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Trucks At Point Nepean

This month's adventure was a trip to Fort Nepean on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. The trip was organised by Steve Camilleri on behalf of the HCVCA.

As I hadn't driven my truck for several months I decided to prepare it on the Saturday. I reconnected the battery, checked the oil and tyres and started it. Much to my surprise, it started straight away. I filled in my log book and waited a few minutes for it to warm up. I put it in reversed and released the clutch. Nothing happened except the engine nearly stalled. I gave it a few more revs and released the clutch again. This time there was a sharp twang as the brakes released and the truck moved backwards. The brakes must have stuck on through under use.

I drove the truck home the long way through Eltham. The drive was fairly easy except for one heart stopping moment. I was just coming into Eltham travelling at about 55kph. I rounded a blind corner only to find a queue of traffic at a set of traffic lights. I slammed the brakes on, locking the back wheels which resulted in a cloud of smoke and the shriek of tortured tyres. I stopped before hitting the car in front but only just. I hadn't seen any warning signs about the traffic lights but luckily wasn't travelling too fast.

I took the truck home and gave the cab a wash. First time in ages. There was a lot of accumulated dirt and grime on the cab. After the wash I noticed that the cab had started to rust at the bottom. This is common on ACCO cabs built before 1984 (they were galvanised after that). The truck was park up nearby and I went home.

On the Sunday morning I got up early and set up off for the meeting place, the BP Service Station at Lynhurst. The 45 minute journey was mostly on the freeway. When I got there there were about 20 trucks already parked. I found a parking space and reversed in. I stopped the engine and someone came up and remarked that my truck was leaking water. A quick look under the cab showed liquid coating the engine and chassis. First look indicated that it wasn't water but diesel. I tipped the cab to get a closer look.

As soon as I tipped the cab people came over to see what the problem was. I started the engine and was told "Shut it down." As one person remarked "It's pissing diesel everywhere." The leak, from somewhere near the injector pump, was very heavy. I decided that if I took it to Point Nepean it would run out of fuel on-route.

I couldn't decide whether to call it a day and drive the truck back to it's parking place. This would involve organising to get it from there to the repairers at some future time. In the end I decided that as I'd made the effort to get up early I'd lock the truck up and go on the run with someone else. After the run I'd drive it back to its parking and organise the repair another day.

Dave Horne said I could join him in his 1934 British Bedford. The only problem was that it was an open cab and I hadn't brought a coat. I did have a fluro jacket I had acquired from England. I wore this for the trip to Point Nepean.

Nearly 30 trucks started the run. Steve had planned a good trip through Frankston and up the coast road. We left Frankston on the Nepean Highway and then turned right to Mornington Esplanade. We followed this through Mount Martha, Dromana, Rosebud, Tootgarook, Rye, Sorrento and Portsea. This was a fantastic route, plenty of bends and hills. Most of the locals gave us a wave. We stopped several time so that the convoy would "bunch up" again.

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We arrived at Point Nepean and due to unclear signage (and "pilot error") half the trucks drove to the wrong car park. Point Nepean had allocated a large tarmaced area for parking. Eventually all of the trucks arrived at the parking area and were parked up.

Steve Camilleri asked where my truck was and I told him the story of the breakdown. He told me he was familier with the Perkins engine in my truck and he'd look at it when we got back to the BP service station.

Dave told me that he wasn't returning to the BP Service Station so I would have to find a lift with someone else. I arranged with Steve to go back with him as he was going to have a look at my truck.

Neither Dave nor I had brought any lunch and were looking forward to buying something to eat. We were horrified to find out that Point Nepean didn't have any catering facilities so we couldn't get anything to eat. Brian Dawes came to the rescue by providing biscuits and tea from the back of his Dodge pickup.

I went for a look around and found the HCVC Secretary, David Wenker eating a sausage in bread. I asked where he got it from and he pointed at a barbecue. The barbecue was for the Sorrento Croquet Club and we were told to stand in the queue to get a sausage.

While standing in the queue a rather officious person came up and asked up what we wanted.
"A sausage in bread" we answered.
"What Club are you with?" he asked.
"The HCVC" we said.
"You can't have one of these sausages. They're only for the Croquet Club members." He said.
We left the queue looking a bit sheepish. Like naughty schoolboys caught stealing apples.
David asked why we hadn't got a sausage and we told him what the other bloke had said.
"We'll see about that." Said David.
He spoke to a lady from the croquet club and she arrange for us to buy a sausage in bread for $2.00.

I was still hungry after the sausage but no longer starving. I wandered across to the information centre and bought an icecream. I then visited the various buildings that formed the quarantine station. I spent a very interesting hour looking through the disinfecting station, the accommodation blocks and other buildings.

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The Quarantine Staion was established in 1852 after a ship, the Ticonderoga, arrived in Port Phillip with an outbreak of fever on board. Over 300 people were affected. Later five dormitories for quarantined passengers were built.

Any ship with sick people aboard was forced to dock at the Quarantine Station. The passengers were disembarked and put through a disinfection process and then placed in the accommodation blocks until the outbreak was over.

I got a phone call from Dave saying the bus to Fort Nepean was leaving soon and did I want to see the fort. I said yes and made my way to the bus stop. There were about 15 HCVC members on the bus.

The history of the fort is quite interesting. In 1877 there were fears of a war between Britain and Russia. A Royal Engineers report recommended contruction of defences at Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale to defend the entry to Port Phillip Bay through The Heads. In 1852 work started on Fort Nepean with the first gun emplacement completed in 1884. Another emplacement was completed in 1886. A similar fort was built at Point Lonsdale on the other side of The Heads.

In 1877 emplacements for two 5 inch 'disappearing guns' were built. Disappearing guns were so called because they were built on hydro-pneumatic carriages so that when the gun was fired the recoil caused the gun to drop or 'disappear' into the emplacement below ground level. This enable the gun crew to reload the gun in the relative safety of the gun pit. In 1888, at Eagles Point, the highest point on the peninsula, a 9.2 inch disappearing gun emplacement was built.

The guns were never fired in anger until the First World War. A gun at Fort Nepean fired the first allied shot of World War 1 when five hours after the declaration of war a shot was fired across the bows of the German freighter "Pfaltz" which was trying to steam through The Heads and escape. The ship heaved too and the crew were arrested and interned for the rest of the war. The freighter was used by the Australian Armed Forces for the rest of the war.

Fort Nepean also fired the first allied shot of the second world war when, a few hours after the declaration of war, an unidentified ship tried to steam through The Heads towards Melbourne. The fort fired a warning shot across its bows and the ship quickly identified itself as the Woniora, a Tasmanian Steamer. It was allowed to continue to Melbourne.

After the war the garrison was removed and the fort declared redundant. An officer cadet school took over the quarantine facility at Point Nepean in 1952. In 1980 the school was moved to Canberra and The School of Army Health took over for a short time.

The new Point Nepean National Park, comprising 215 hectares, was opened in 1988. It became part of the Mornington Peninsula National Park in 1995.

The first place we visited was the tunnels. This is the underground tunnels that run between the command centres, the magazines and the gun emplacements. A facinating look at military life. I don't think I would have like to have lived at the fort. We moved onto looking at the observation post, the highest point of the fort. We had a panoramic view south over Bass Strait, East to Point Lonsdale, Queenscliff and the Bellarine Peninsula. Looking North we could see the tall building of the Melbourne skyline.

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We received a call saying that the bus was returning to the Quarantine Station. As we had only seen half the fort we decided to wait until the next bus. We continued looking around the buildings. The rest of the places we looked were built for the first and second world wars. Also on display were the guns, mentioned above, that fired the first allied shots of the first and second world wars.

We returned to the bus stop and found that we were waiting for the last bus. If we'd missed it, it was a 4.5 kilometre walk back to the trucks. When the bus dropped us at the car park we found that most of the trucks had left to go to Arthur's Seat, including Steve Camilleri. I got a lift to Arthurs Seat with Jeff Johnston in his 1984 Volvo F12. A much more comfortable ride than Dave's 1934 Bedford.

We set off in a convoy of 5 trucks and to my surprise Steve Camilleri's truck was in the lead. I spent an interesting hour talking to Jeff about his life truck driving and his business, Barkking, which he runs with his brothers, Robert, Graeme and Stuart. Graeme, driving his Commer and Robert, driving his Bedford were also on the run. I jumped out to talk to Steve but he shouted that he was going to find the other members of the tour and drove off. He said that he was coming back in five minutes.

We waited around for ten minutes which stretched out to 20 minutes and then 30 minutes. At this point the people remaining decided to leave. I was worried about being stranded at Arthurs Seat so Jeff Johnson contacted Steve only to find out that he had been held up by another breakdown at the Motor Museum. Jeff came to the rescue again and offered to drop me at the service station.

Another interesting journey with Jeff back to the Service Station. When I arrive, Graeme Johnston said he'd have a look at my truck so I tilted the cab. Steve Camilleri and few others joined us. I started the engine and it immediately started leaking fuel. Steve got his tools out and started trying to find the leak. He eventually traced it to the damper on the injector pump. There was nothing he could do to fix it but said that he had a spare at his place in Springvale. Graeme said that his yard was much closer and that he had a damper on an old engine there.

I followed Graeme back to his yard in Narre Warren and parked where he told me. I started to tilt the cab but Graeme said that it was too dark to do anything. He told me to leave the truck and he'd fix it the next day. That still left me stranded as my car was at the truck parking place 25km away. Graeme told me not to worry I could take his ute. I left Graeme's place about 7:30pm. It had been a long day.

I found out later that there had been four breakdowns that trip. In addition to my ACCO, Mick Black's R model Mack ran out of air during the trip to Point Nepean, Trevor Davis's 1927 International broke a spring and Steve Costorphan's Diamond T engine destroyed it's blower. Sean Denny was kept busy recovering these broken down vehicles with his Ford LTL 900 beaver tail truck.

I rang Graeme next day and he said that he couldn't get the parts to repair the truck for a couple of days. I asked when he needed his ute back. He told me to keep it as long as I needed it. Two days later Graeme rang and told me he'd fixed my truck. He'd replaced the damper with a new part, he'd found that a duct from the air intake was leaking and he'd replaced that. He checked the fuel pump as he thought it wasn't working properly. He'd also adjusted the tick over as the body shook violently at the existing tickover speed.

Graeme only charged me for the parts he'd bought. This was much less than the $1,500 I had been told it would cost to have the pump fixed by a professional. When I picked up the truck it drove much better. I managed to reach 96 kph on the freeway, much better than before. It still lacks some power when climbing hills but it is better than before.

I must thank all those involved in my rescue during the weekend, Dave Horne for taking me in his truck, Jeff Johnston for getting me back to the service station and especially Graeme Johnston for fixing my truck and lending me his ute without any expectations.

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Read my previous blog. Trucks in Malaysia.