✕ Close
A 1996 Western Star 6900 — once the pride of Alford Cattle Transport out of Mt. Isa, brought back from the brink to exactly how she left the factory floor.
Where It All Began
Before a single spanner was turned, we went looking for the history. These photographs show Hobo Jungle in her original working life — fleet number 192, running the tough cattle routes out of Mt. Isa, Queensland for Alford Cattle Transport. The white, brown, yellow and green livery was iconic on the outback roads of Far North Queensland, and these photos became our blueprint for everything that followed — all under her original name, "Boss Drover".
The Journey
When we found her, Hobo Jungle had been through the wars. Years of hard work in one of Australia's toughest operating environments had taken their toll. What followed was nine months of painstaking work to strip her back to bare metal and bring her back to exactly how she rolled off the line in 1996.
She came to us wearing the livery of her last operator — a long way from her original Alford colours. The bones were all there but years of hard work had left their mark. The chrome was dull, the paint was faded and chipped, and the running gear needed serious attention. But underneath all of it, we could see exactly what she once was.
The full strip-down began. Every component came off. The cab was pulled, the engine was removed, the chassis was completely bare. Decades of grease, rust and road grime were cleaned back to reveal the original steel. This is where you find out what you're really dealing with — and what you find sets the plan for everything that follows.
The rear bogey and suspension components told a story of hard kilometres. Everything was stripped, blasted and rebuilt from scratch. Every bearing, every seal, every bolt torqued to spec. This is the work nobody sees when the truck is finished — but it's the work that makes everything else possible.
Into the booth she went. The cab received a full respray in the original Alford white — but first, every panel was prepared, filled, primed and blocked until the surface was perfect. Using the original photographs as reference, the Alford livery — brown, yellow and green — was carefully recreated to match the truck as she appeared in her working days at Mt. Isa.
With the paint going on and the livery starting to appear, the transformation became real. The Alford colours — unmistakable on any outback road — came back to life panel by panel. Chrome fuel tanks were polished mirror-bright. The engine bay was meticulously rebuilt. Nine months of work was starting to show.
The final stages — chrome bullbar, polished tanks, correct decals, period-accurate details. Every component fitted, every line checked against the original photographs. Fleet number 192. Mt. Isa on the door. Hobo Jungle on the cab. Exactly as she left the factory floor in 1996, back where she started — and back where she belongs.
The Result
Nine months of work. Back to original. Back home to Mt. Isa.
This is what the Heavy Haulage Heritage Museum is all about. Finding a piece of trucking history that's been forgotten, doing the work to bring it back, and making sure the story of the people and the machines that worked these roads is never lost.