Transport throwbacks to a bygone era have been a mainstay at Higgin’s Heritage Park in Wakefield for two decades.
The historic transport museum’s patron Mort Brown and trustee Rodger Humphries have steered its course since it first shifted into gear in 2004.
The facility opened its doors to the public over the weekend for the annual Transport Fest.
Mort says, the plan for the museum came about when he was a committee member at Transport Nelson Limited and a surplus was left over from a reunion.
“We had a few meetings, and it was a lot of indecision on what we should do with the money and a couple of guys said, ‘why don’t we start a museum and try and preserve old trucks?’
“We were talking about putting up a shed somewhere, and we were going to go to Founders, but we felt a bit uncomfortable about that.
“Then the Army Group with Rodger and Ken Ivory who had negotiated with Ross Higgins, who owned the park at that stage, for a bit of dirt.”
After the funds were pulled together, excavation for the museum began between Christmas and New Years 2003 before the building was constructed and quickly fitted with trucking décor and a smoko room.
Mort says around 20 trucks are currently housed at the museum which age between 1917 and 1964 with up to 20 members who give their time to upkeep the facility each week.
“We’ve got diesel in our blood and truly, once you drive a truck, you can’t let it go,” he says.
“We’ve got a workshop that does the mechanical work, and a carpenter’s shop where they build the decks and do body repairs and rebuilds.”
Mort says that while the museum had arrived at a milestone, he was sceptical about its future.
Except for its biannual truck display event, visitor entry funds and donations were decreasing, and its membership wasn’t younger than 75 years old.
He says more vintage truck enthusiasts and younger volunteers with a mechanical background could get the museum back on an even keel.
“It’s really a serious concern, I would hate to think about 10 years from now,” he says.
“You survive on the workers that come out during the week, and we’re all getting very old.
“It’s very difficult now to get young people from a mechanical background, and when I say young, someone aged 65 would be nice to come and join us.”
Mort says working bees occur on a Monday and Wednesday between 9.30am and 3pm and the park itself was open every Sunday during the summer months and once a month during winter.
