HCVC

THE MIGHTY OSHKOSH By Robert Hyde

My earliest recollection of Oshkosh was when the first one arrived in Western Australia in several large crates at Wigmores (now WesTrac) in South Guildford. We have been very fortunate to have been a Building Contractor for Caterpillar for close to 60 years. Firstly, my dad Harry, then myself and now our son Scott now does a lot of their building work. This is how my interest in Oshkosh started.

In about 1971, when the iron ore industry was just starting Wigmores had to have a shed and parts inventory near where the rail lines were being built.

Our first shifting of the shed was in Tom Price and we shifted it to a place called Camp 45 which I believe is 45 miles from Roebourne. We had it all organised to head up after Easter as it never rains after Easter (that is what we were told anyway). Wigmores with their crew and myself and another carpenter arrived in Tom Price and started to dismantle the building and place all the parts in small steel containers for transporting on the semi-trailer, an Oshkosh owned by Wigmores shipping branch which was based in Fremantle.

Well, about the second day the rain started, and I think it rained steadily for about four or five days. We eventually dismantled the building and packed all the parts and headed to Camp 45 and laid the concrete floor, Bell Bros had a batching plant on site so we had plenty of concrete. We proceeded to build the shed over the next three weeks and then all the parts were placed on racks and basically all was complete. The shed was approximately 40’0” x 30’0” by 20’0” high.

When it came time for us to pack up and drive home and as mentioned we had lots of rain and upon arriving at the Robe River it was still quite high. There were no bridges back then, only two concrete foot paths across the river bed. As it was too deep for our Ute, I was not prepared to take the chance of driving across. Eventually, the Oshkosh arrived and we hooked a chain onto the Ute and they pulled us across.