Review
The Wild family has decades and generations of experience in livestock transport, still going strong like their trusty Kenworth nicknamed ‘Grunter Hunter’. Farms and Farm Machinery spoke with Ian and Fiona Wild about the Wild family’s history and how it’s not quite time for a full restoration
Words and Images Warren Aitken
Drive on the wild side I
must admit that, when I first spotted the Wild’s Livestock twin steer Kenworth, it blew me away! It went straight to the top of my ‘I’ve got to know the story behind that’ list. I thought it was going to be such a cool restoration story. I was so wrong; you want to know why? In order to be a restoration story, the truck has to have been restored! It turns out that the Wild’s Livestock truck has never stopped; it has not had time for a restoration, it is just a hard-working iconic truck. The truck did get a little downtime when the motor was first replaced with a couple of million kilometres on it. Since then, the big girl has racked up another million-plus kilometres. All up, there is over three and a half million kilometres on a truck nearing its 30th birthday. I may not have been able to get a restoration story out of owner and driver Ian Wild, but I was certain I would still get some interesting tales. In fact, I got some very ‘wild’ stories. My apologies, I will try hard to avoid any more puns. DRIVING AND DROVING Wild’s Livestock’s history can be traced all the way back to 1928 when Ian’s dad Laurie, at a mere 13-years-old, left chool and became a drover. His first droving job saw him assisting in the relocation of 350 Hereford bulls from Jandowae down to Ipswich. It’s a hell of a job for a young kid to get into; I’m sure those bulls would have been pretty intimidating for a young Laurie. As he grew, so did his reputation. Laurie became well-known around the area as an expert drover, legendary horseman and renowned horse breaker. When he was not away droving, Laurie would be hard at work with his father and brothers on the family farms in Donnybrook and Peachester. Laurie spent nearly 20 years in the saddle before
marrying and ‘settling down’. In 1946, Laurie and his wife Margaret bought a working dairy at Bald Knob on the southern end of the Blackall Range, Sunshine Coast. It was this family farm that would see Laurie changing from droving to transport. Over the next few decades, Laurie and Margaret purchased several neighbouring farms and were heavily into supplying milk for the local area. With a growing farm, and changes in the farming landscape, Laurie was a very busy man. Add in the fact that he ended up with six kids as well and I doubt he slowed down for much. It was a wildly busy time. Last of the six Wild children was Ian and he is the one I had the privilege of sitting down with. Well, Ian and his lovely wife Fiona. Under the shadow of the unmissable Kenworth that brought me up here, and with a plate of the most amazing homemade cupcakes in front of me, I learnt all about the Wild’s Livestock story. Wild’s Livestock began way back with Laurie and his first truck, a Chev Blitz. The Chev hit the road for Laurie during the 1950s and was the first dedicated livestock vehicle for the family. That little truck did the job for a few years but, eventually, there was more work than it could handle, not only moving stock for the family farm, but also doing work for other farmers as well. So, goodbye Chevy and hello to a classic six-tonne J2 Bedford. The Bedford’s arrival came around the same time that Ian was returning from a two-year stint at the Emerald Pastural College. Having left chool, he headed off o the college to gain both his truck licence and a more in-depth agricultural knowledge. Though, he jokingly admits that: “I really only learnt how to play up.” With a truck licence in tow, he returned from two years of study to the family farm and worked there
Taking over pig transport in the ‘80s led to the name Grunter Hunter. The current Grunter Hunter came into being in 1994 and has been working hard since
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