Low Life

Jeremy Clarke

Wednesday, 13th May 2009

Journey’s end

After visiting Digger in Kalgoorlie, I drove his old ute across Australia. In Australia, ute is short for utility vehicle — or what we Poms call a pick-up truck. Digger had recently bought himself a secondhand Toyota Landcruiser, with double fuel tanks and an extended cab to accommodate a massive fridge behind the seat to keep his beers cold. So he had no further use for his faithful old workhorse. I was to drive it across the continent to his home in Wandiligong, Victoria, an old gold miner’s cottage that he abandoned after his marriage failed, and leave it there.

The ute was a 3.8 litre diesel Toyota Hilux, sun-bleached beige, originally used for herding cattle. Steer-sized dents in the door panels gave it character. Digger bought it 18 years ago from a Wondiligong notable called James Fraser. Since then it has been across Australia and back several times.

Before I set out across the outback, did I harbour anxieties that the ute might be feeling its age and break down? That it might fail, for example, on the Nullarbor— a treeless, waterless plain uninhabited except for a dingo-infested roadhouse (in Aussie parlance, a ‘chew and spew’) every 50 or 100 miles? Or that it might leave me high and dry on the desolate, baking slopes around Iron Knob?

I did not. Digger is a long-haired old biker. All his engines are lovingly tended. When I lifted the bonnet of the ute, underneath was a picture of order and cleanliness. The 400,000 kilometres on the clock didn’t mention that the ute was on its second engine. The battery was brand spanking new. The morning I left, I caught him looking wistfully after his old ute, as if he was seeing off a favourite son.

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Old Mart from Sunny Sarfend

May 14th, 2009 1:51pm Report this comment

I am glad that Clarke is spending some of his windfall on climate changing trips around the world but when might he come and throw some of his filthy lucre in my direction?

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