Shined-up rigs roll in for Castlemaine Truck Show

Geoff CrockettNovember 25, 2024, 1:11 pmNovember 25, 2024

The competition was tighter than ever as the trucking community came out in force at the 36^th HHA & Larsen’s Castlemaine Rotary Truck Show in Victoria on the weekend.

Braving the 32-degree heat on Saturday and a good smattering of rain on Sunday, thousands of spectators turned out to be part of one of the last truck shows of 2025.

More than 250 trucks registered at the two-day event, which saw Campbells Creek Recreation Reserve come alive with trucks, truckies and their families out to celebrate the transport life.

Tony Whelan won Best on Ground on Saturday. Image: Prime Creative Media

It also featured a truck convoy on Sunday morning through the main street of Castlemaine that saw the streets lined early as locals sheltered under shop awnings to enjoy the parade of chrome that took nearly half an hour to roll through.

Heavy Haulage Australia (HHA) boss Jon Kelly, who has co-sponsored the event for three years with Larsen’s Truck Sales, told the crowd this year’s judging was extremely difficult.

“It was a very interesting scoring process. Lots of trucks to get through, over 250 registered trucks, 300 trucks on the ground,” he said.

When it came to the Truck of the Show, things became particularly challenging.

“Just to give you some background, top score in terms of truck show presentation is you can have a score of 30 out of 30. We had two trucks with a score of 30 out of 30,” Kelly said.

“Normal truck shows, I suppose you see around the country, push the trophies around to share them around to different people. And I think the results should lie, where the results lie, and that was the decision we left with this weekend.

“As the result of that we’ve actually done a first, second and third place for the Truck of the Show here, for the first time ever at Castlemaine.”

Truck of Show runner up Cesare Colli with Colli Timber and Hardware’s 1981 White Road Boss. Image: Prime Creative Media

Truck of the Show went to 2023’s champion truck, a stunning 2022 Kenworth Legend SAR, owned by Cornwill Transport. Second place went to Colli Timber and Hardware’s 1981 White Road Boss from Western Australia, while third place went to Maloney Bulk Transport’s Kenworth T900.

Tony Whelan’s 1986 Kenworth W-Model was named Best on Ground on Saturday.

All up, more than 20 trophies were handed out on the day across a range of categories, with Daniel Booby’s Peterbilt 379, owned by Spinefex, the most celebrated truck of the day, taking out the People’s Choice category, along with Best Paint (artwork), Best Interior and Custom categories.

Daniel Booby with Spinefex’s Peterbilt 379. Image: Prime Creative Media

Rotary Castlemaine president Terry Walsh said about 150 volunteers from Rotary and the local community helped to make the event a success, involved in everything from traffic management to cooking food, registering trucks, setting up and packing down the site.

“The Rotary Club here in Castlemaine consists of around 40 members, and we have a few honorary members who turn up to anything that’s got a Rotary badge on it, so we probably number about 50-ish,” Walsh said.

“But there are a lot more people who’ve contributed across the weekend. So, all the community groups that we support through the year with funds have supplied their labour across this weekend, and we thank them enormously.”

Funds raised from the event are used to support a range of charity projects.