A group of retired truckies get together each year to reflect and reminisce about their time running the old Stuart Highway, between the 1960s to 1980s – back when it was basically a dirt track.
The 2025 South Road Dirt Runners reunion was held earlier this month, on May 4, at the Parafield Gardens Community Club in Adelaide, with around 140 people attending.
It’s organised by a veteran South Australian truck driver Murray Fox and his team. “It’s a chance for all the old blokes to get together and have lunch.
“Sadly, many of these old drivers are falling off the perch. We lost four last year and five or six the year before. We do this every year.”
Murray grew up west of Ceduna, with his parents owning the Kingoonya Roadhouse. He would drive the old Stuart Highway – South Road as it was known – back in the day.
He remembers the time when it was used as a mail and supply road, for people to get from station to station, and for general carting and hot-shots all over the outback.
The South Road was nothing more than a track, first surveyed in the 1850s.
It had hundreds of kilometres of bone shaking corrugations, bull dust holes which turned to mud during rain, culverts and creeks that could become rivers within hours of heavy rain, cattle grids and single lane jump-ups amongst its many hazards.
Drivers could get stranded for all manner of reasons and had to be very resourceful – fixing punctures, replacing tyres, mechanical repairs on the run, expertly covering loads with huge tarpaulins and securing the loads with secret knots and techniques only known to these intrepid truckers.
All this with the pressure to get their precious freight through – pressure from the people and companies which sent it, and pressure from those waiting to receive it; sometimes the isolated stations and homesteads on the South Road, or the roadhouses serving as an oasis in the desert or the tiny towns clinging to life in the outback.
It wasn’t until 1987 that the South Road was finally sealed.
The annual South Road Dirt Runners reunion is a time for those who lived those challenges while out on the road to get together and share their stories.
The reunion gathers a smorgasbord of drivers, many are aged 70 and over.
As Murray revealed, “We have one driver who is getting close to 90. He used to drive the South Road in the 1960s. It was hard yakka between Port Augusta and Alice Springs,” added Murray.
The event gives these truckies a chance to catch up with old mates (and the occasional sparring partner), recount triumphs, tragedies, accidents and all manner of dodgy repairs on the run to get their freight to where it needed to be.
And many of those truckies are joined by their wives, partners, kids and grandkids, together with those who have an interest in what these pioneers did.
They tackled that notorious road without any of the modern comforts found in today’s trucks. No air conditioning, no ergonomic seats, noairbag suspension, no mobile or satellite phones and dodgy AM radio reception (if you had any reception at all).
The formal part of the reunion’s proceedings includes a slideshow of photos dating right back to the 1960s, where people can reminisce about places, events and the all-important trucks.
These drivers and their families have thousands of hours of our nation’s oral history to share and divulge, especially when a particular slide evokes a forgotten memory or an amusing anecdote.
The atmosphere is one of welcome and easy conversation, an annual chance to catch up with old friends or perhaps renew an acquaintance with someone from 50 years ago.
There’s also an “In Memoriam” time, where those in attendance pause to remember colleagues who have taken their final drive since the last reunion.
This year featured trucks driven in by Rick Andrews, Leigh Dehne, Phil Ellbourn and Young Edgell.
The next South Road Dirt Runners reunion will be held on May 3, 2026, with anyone with a connection to the old South Road welcome to attend.
There’s no entry charge, with meals and drinks from the PGCC at your own cost.
Check out the South Road Dirt Runners 1960s-1980s Facebook page for further information and updates.
When the new section of bitumen south of the the NT/SA border was laid we found it to be corrugated for many K’s and then we encountered a tent on the side of the road staffed by SA Transport personnel enquiring what we thought of new section .
We were very polite in informing them to rip it up and start again .