Kiwi turned Aussie Lucas tells us all about truck life in North Queensland.

Hey guys, I’m Lucas Gallagher, and I’m 15 years old. I was born in Thames, New Zealand, but we now live in Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays in North Queensland. The town is a little bit like Queenstown in New Zealand and is based largely around tourism.

My dad Bradley drove trucks for his whole driving career in New Zealand for Main R & L Ltd, Provincial Freightlines and Paul Rudd before we moved to Australia.

Dad’s current boss owns a resort, which also has a restaurant, a bar as well as three bottle shops in town. Because we live so far from any main cities, Dad’s boss bought his own Kenworth T909 B-double for Dad to drive down to Brisbane and back, which is 13 hours each way (1100km) to pick up the alcohol and supplies each week – sometimes two times a week in the busy holiday periods.

I’m lucky enough to go for rides with Dad during the school holidays. His truck is a 2019 T909 Kenworth with a 50-inch sleeper. It went to Bling Man HQ in Brisbane and got all the tanks stainless steel wrapped, with lots of lights and stainless steel everywhere. It has a custom stereo with subwoofers, so we’ve got some good tunes to listen to on the way to Brisbane.

Dad normally goes to one big warehouse in Brisbane and loads up all the alcohol the business needs for the week, then comes back up and unloads it at the hotel. After unloading the trailers, the truck gets a full wash all ready for the next trip. Lots of tourists like to ask Dad questions about the truck and take photos of it when it’s parked at the hotel.

Last year, Dad and I took the truck to the Brisbane Convoy for Kids truck show and Dad’s truck won a trophy for Truck of the Show, beating out more than 700 trucks

Here’s a few photos from my trips with Dad, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!