Thornycroft Nubian Restoration Group Townsville in Aitkenvale, Queensland | Community organisation

Thornycroft Nubian Restoration Group Townsville

Locality: Aitkenvale, Queensland

Phone: +61 418 636 727

Address: PO Box 1622 4814 Aitkenvale, QLD, Australia

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24.01.2022 Went out to mow the pad for the Thornycrofts new location this morning - less than an hours push-mowing but I perspired and then very nearly EXpired - damn that sun has some bite in it!

22.01.2022 They pop up all over the place! ;-)

22.01.2022 Hi all, here is a very early pic of Coolangatta Airport Fire Service, circa 1962. Im wondering if anyone can identify the truck on the right? The one on the left is a Thornycroft, Large Fire Tender, 6x6 with a Rolls Royce straight 8. Cheers Tim

22.01.2022 All British Day is on at the Cathedral School this Sunday 11th June and I have been allocated a display space - I will take the A-frame, flyers and business cards along and hopefully spread the word a bit further. If anyone would care to join me at the display I would welcome the assistance.

22.01.2022 I need to get a pallet of Thornycroft parts from Melbourne to Townsville as cheaply as possible. Anyone got any good contacts in the freight/trucking industry who may be able to help? Its been a 3-4 year conversation with the owner and he has held them for me but I need to get them moving otherwise the opportunity will be lost.

21.01.2022 Hot, heavy, hard work but we got it done! Re-fitted LH rear wheel with "new" tyre, removed RH rear, re-fitted wheel and "new" tyre, removed LH front wheel and re-fitted former RH rear, bringing former RH front wheel home to have the tyre removed and clean up the rim as the new spare. We also got more air into the remaining tyres (may only be a short-term fix!) and a few of the hatches and roller-shutters lubed and moving again. Huge thanks to Kelly N Shane Jackson and Ryan Jackson, Dale MacKenzie, Timothy Moores and Les Irwin for their assistance - could not have done it without them!

21.01.2022 Well, a rather large present arrived in the mail today ... one Rolls-Royce B-series motors workshop manual! The folks at the Canberra Fire Brigade Museum have outdone themselves and I am eternally grateful! You may remember I copied some pages from the brake section of one of my other manuals for them a while back ... this is their return gesture and it is a magnificent one! :-)

21.01.2022 Nice score this morning - finally picked up a load of fence-pipe which Michael Lucas had offered me for a token price and with the help of Colyn Giles and his long dual-axle trailer we got it out to the yard at Roseneath where it will be formed into the frame of a shade-shelter for the Thornycroft. Now chasing shade-cloth or, better still, sheets of roofing iron if anyone has anything they need to offload. We have enough pipe to make a frame about 7 x 7 metres which will cover the truck and give working shade either side. :-)

21.01.2022 I need to organise a small working-bee to remove one of the rear wheels - it has been going flat for quite a while now and probably needs a tube patch or new tube (one of the "newer" ones we swapped out a while ago, worse luck!). As I have an umbilical hernia now, I am not up to lifting a lot of weight at present and it would be safer with a couple of "spotters" on the job as well. If I can just get a hand man-handling the wheel off the truck and into the trailer, that would be great. Ill suggest either Sunday 11th February or Sunday 18th February as those are my next available weekend days off - I can also do Mondays if that suits better for availabilities. Should not take long and all help will be greatly appreciated. Call me 0418 636727 or leave a reply post here.

20.01.2022 This is what we aspire to, folks! ;-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itm1WuFStXg&feature=youtu.be

19.01.2022 With the Wet Season fast approaching, a very timely and practical donation from friend and former work-mate Sean Broderick - thanks Sean, greatly appreciated and it will definitely be put to good use! :-)

18.01.2022 Another load today, this time fence panels kindly donated by Cheryl Smith. We dont really need a fence around the unit but there is method in the madness ... Colyn Giles neighbour is a gun welder but he needs a new dog-run ... we need the shade-frame welded ... the barter system has its merits! ;-)

17.01.2022 Well, nothing lasts for ever ... will need a new home for the Thornycroft soon (within a month perhaps). Id love to get it into a shed but open space will do if thats all that is available. Any leads greatly appreciated.

17.01.2022 Comms established with the Canberra Fire Brigade Museum which is restoring an ex-Canberra Airport Thornycroft - more motivation to get this one going! ;-)

16.01.2022 I will be eagerly awaiting the post this week - the lovely folks at the Canberra Airport Fire Museum have dispatched a copy of their Rolls-Royce B81 engine manual, which is exactly what we need to start investigating the possibility of getting our beast running again! :-)

15.01.2022 Heading north again on Sunday 3rd September - will be attending Aus Armourfest at The Australian Armour and Artillery Museum, then travelling to the Cooktown area to meet a collector who has 4 ex-CAA Thornycrofts (as far as Im aware, theyre pretty much identical to the RAAF version except one has an Allison automatic gearbox). Im told one or more of these vehicles is running so hopefully can get some photos as well as video and noise!

15.01.2022 Some interesting history of the RAAF Fire Service ... and there is a photo of #3 in service in Townsville during the late Sixties! :-) http://www.georama.com.au/RAAFFireService/History.html

15.01.2022 Most people probably think Im a bit demented persevering with this project, so henceforth we might call it The Berk & Wheels Expedition! ;-)

12.01.2022 Thornycrofts in RAAF service.

12.01.2022 Good to catch up with Ralph Chetham at my workplace the other night - we worked out it had probably been 3 years since he first offered to help out ... where has the time gone? I have been busy and under a lot of pressure with family matters since the middle of 2018 but hopefully can get back on track with the project soon.

11.01.2022 Ive been contacted by a bloke who has a 1968 Thornycroft he wants to offload. It has been turned into a tipper, of all things! I also found out last night that the engine and front end are now out of it. It has an Allison automatic gearbox so Im assuming it may be an ex-CAA unit - or did the RAAF ones ever use autos? Given that its 400 km away and in pieces, Im mildly interested but also very aware of the logistics of collecting it, let alone finding storage for it so Ill probably pass on the offer but any feedback or thoughts on compatibility with our 1960 model would be appreciated.

11.01.2022 Steve White submitted these pix of a Thornycroft converted to motor-home duties - apparently it is currently in Tasmania.

10.01.2022 Looks like Thornycrofts in action here as a Caribou lands without the aid of its main gear.

09.01.2022 Made progress yesterday - obtained (on loan) a 1+5/16" multi-hex AF socket and 3/4" breaker bar, then was offered a single-hex socket in the same sizes and the possibility of two different storage yards (to be investigated further). A quick test of the socket saw one wheel-nut loosened with just the breaker bar and some foot pressure so hopefully all the other nuts will be as compliant about undoing but a length of pipe or RHS to use as an extension would be handy just in cas...e! Since then I have also been offered a torque multiplier but I may not be able to pick it up in time for the working bee on Saturday. I am going to drop the "new" tyres and the spare wheel to Bridgestone today so that they can get started and will also attempt to remove one other wheel from the unit today so that both "new" tyres can be fitted ready for the weekends work. It has been a while coming but finally there is some forward momentum! :-) See more

08.01.2022 Another busy and long day but it was productive and I have made progress! Got up early and loaded the spare Thornycroft wheel plus the two loose tyres onto the trailer. Nearly blew a foo-foo valve getting the full wheel and tyre on but I made it (mostly!) intact! Took them over to Bridgestone on Ingham Road to get cleaned and make a start on the swapping process, then bolted out to Stuart, where Shane Jackson gave me a hand to remove the left rear wheel from the truck. We wer...e pleasantly surprised that all the nuts gave up fairly easily, with just the breaker-bar and a bit of foot pressure required (very thankful, too, given we were working in the middle of the day!). Then we "requisitioned" young Ryan Jacksons trusty trailer (flat tyres and all!) to drag the Thornycroft wheel out to the trailer! I shot back into town, pushing time before needing to hit the shower but made it to Bridgestone and they had already fitted one second-hand tyre to what had been the spare wheel, so I swapped loads and then shot home. Showered and made it to work with mere minutes to spare! Might try and get this wheel back on tomorrow and that will reduce the task-list for Saturdays working-bee, giving more time to attack a few other preventative maintenance items. See more

07.01.2022 A practical camper-conversion. :-)

07.01.2022 Finally got a tarp over the cabin section today - the observation panel seals have all cracked and separated, allowing rain to enter. Hopefully this move will alleviate the problem as the Wet Season approaches.

06.01.2022 With all the recent rain, the yard where the Thornycroft is stored had turned a bit feral as it has just been too wet to mow with conventional mowers or ride-ons - enter "Shiva the Destroyer", an 80s-era Rover brush-mower who took the rampant growth in his stride and tamed it back to civility! Hey, look Ma, theres a fire-engine in there! ;-)

04.01.2022 I have sourced about 10 or so 7-metre lengths of fence-pipe (plus assorted shorter lengths) which could be quite handy for making a shade-frame for the truck. Would anyone have a tray-truck or trailer able to safely transport these from Currajong to Roseneath, sometime in the next week or so? My trailer is only a 6 x 4.

03.01.2022 It used to be a Thornycroft fire engine ... now a tipper! A bloke in Cairns wants to offload it ... dunno, apparently it has been somewhat dismantled since this photo ...

02.01.2022 Some interesting pix of Navy Thornycrofts in action.

02.01.2022 Last weekend I ventured north for the Mareeba Military Muster and set up camp beside the Stug replica owned by the Australian Armour & Artillery Museum in Cairns. I had some interesting conversations, made a few military vehicle networking contacts which may come in handy down the track and even got a donation from one chap - a whole $2 to get the Thornycroft project started so I hope you dont mind but it went towards my coffee intake later in the day as I was existing on 2.5 hours sleep after a late night Friday and an early start Saturday morning! ;-)

01.01.2022 Displayed today with the Military and Historic Vehicle Club of Townsville at the annual Heritage Day. Gained a couple of useful leads (for publicity and parts). It would just be so much more effective to have the unit there and be able to fire it up for the crowd - now that would attract some attention and interest! ;-)