Bob Sandow
Have you seen the Loading/unloading facility on the Dartmoor road?
I was first shown the gantry about 35 years ago by a work colleague, namely David Quill.
We were travelling to the Portland factory of Softwood Holdings when he stopped the vehicle and asked ‘Have you seen that before?’ pointing out a structure in the native scrub.
David then went on to tell me what he knew of the history of the structure.
It was not for about another 18 years or that I recalled the story and how to find it again.
Over the years I would usually I would think about it as I would drive past the area on my way to Dartmoor Mill or Portland or elsewhere, but I could never find it again.
It was placed in this location in the bush out of sight sufficiently over the border to be unnoticed.
The facility itself is a fair lump of metal called an overhead gantry complete with two block and tackles which are again fair lumps of metal in their own right.
The use of this gantry commenced back in 1958 and continued in operation for at least 10 years.
It is alleged to have been dreamed up by a smart Naracoorte lawyer named Skewes who when looking at the road traffic act could see a way around the act.
Local companies that made use of the facility and also used his office in Naracoorte as their company operating address (allegedly).
The operation was generated by the interstate registration system in place at the time.
Vehicle registration was a lot cheaper for interstate registered prime movers than those used on intrastate runs.
The road traffic act, section 92 states that ‘trade between the states will be free and unrestricted’, meaning in this case trade between South Australia and Victoria would be free of any encumbrance.
It is alleged that only some of the smaller transport companies operating in the Mount Gambier area made use of this facility.
The basic aim of the smaller transport companies using the facility was that it allowed them to compete and in some cases undercut the bigger transport companies through the non-payment of Federal stamp duty.
So basically the gantry was put there by independent transport operators to get cheap tonnage rates between Mount Gambier and Adelaide and Adelaide and Portland.
The interstate vehicle plates when made had the prefix IS followed by a letter and were black and white in colour.
The majority of smaller transport companies used them, not so much bigger companies.
To use those plates officially the vehicle had travel over a state border during the delivery.
The system was worked as follows:
Two semis would be loaded in Mount Gambier with timber or such and be driven over the border to the gantry facility.
Both vehicles had Interstate plates with one vehicle having the loading manifest for Mount Gambier – Portland.
The other vehicle would be manifested from Portland to Adelaide. On arrival at the gantry the trailers would be placed under the gantry side by side, (remember this was back in the days when trailers weren’t fitted with landing legs or quick release turntables).
The drivers would undo the king pin on each prime mover turntable, remember the trailers were all single drive with only 8 ton over the axle.
Each of the trailers would be hooked to a block and tackle which would then be pulled up releasing the trailer from the prime mover; the suspended trailer would then be lifted clear of the prime mover.
Each prime mover would then be driven out from under its suspended trailer and then reversed back under the other trailer next to it.
When this was done the number plates on each trailer would be removed and swapped to the other trailer. This meant in theory that the load had crossed a border and could then be ‘legally’ allowed to travel intrastate.
The trailers now bearing Interstate registered plates would be driven to Adelaide with the load of timber using the swapped vehicles manifest loading dockets).
It is also alleged that the gantry was bankrolled by a business man named Tom Heddich from Portland. This gentleman had a very big hardware store in Portland at a time when a large amount of cement was being used (in Portland), the cement was cheaper to purchase in Adelaide than the Geelong Cement Works.
Ken Lawson and Don Yuell had two or three trucks each, once the timber was unloaded in Adelaide they would go to the Adelaide cement works and hand load the trailer/s then back load the cement to
Portland for Heddich (unfortunately Ken Lawson who operated out of Queens Avenue lost his life when he collided with a bridge at Yambuk, this occurred in the mid 1960’s)
The Interstate plates of yesterday are now called Federal Interstate Plates.
Each home state is identified by the prefix i.e.…. S for South Australia, V for Victoria and so on.
The plates are identified by their colour which is yellow and green.
The rules are still the same today – you must cross a border when using Federal Interstate Plates.
The difference in cost between the two plates boils down to; there being no stamp duty payable on Federal Interstate Plates.
The aim was/is to register whatever you could on Interstate plates and use the Interstate registered trailers for everything thus reducing the business overheads by not paying stamp duty.
This Is the gantry as it stands today, in the bush with trees growing through it. If the land owner reads this story it would be nice to have the trees removed and a decent photo take before another piece of history is lost. I received help with the article from several old truckie men namely Des Ind and Col Gilmore.
