With just months left of his cross-country tractor trip to raise money for charity, Sam Hughes – AKA The Travelling Jackaroo – has his sights set on his next chapter. And he’s on the hunt for a B-Model Mack to help bring it to fruition.
Sam has been on the road for more than three years with the hope of raising $250,000 for his three chosen charities: the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Farm Angels (formerly called Drought Angels) and Dolly’s Dream.
And he’s just $13,000 shy of that goal.
Currently, Sam is travelling through Tassie on his trusty 1957 Chamberlain 9G tractor. “I’ve been here for about three weeks and will be here another two weeks or so before heading back to the mainland,” he said.
From there, he’ll head to Melbourne, then Sydney, Brisbane and back home to the Sunshine Coast, where he plans to build a mobile museum that will focus on the people who have helped to shape Australia, including our truckies and the transport industry.
The plan is for it to travel to shows and schools across Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Sam says a B-Model Mack is his preference for the prime mover, due to its rugged reliability.
“Ideally I’m looking to purchase a B-Model Mack because they’re such an iconic piece of Australian transport history. If I’m going to take the museum on the show run, I need to have a reliable truck.
“Sometimes these shows run back to back so I need to be able to just turn the key and go.”
Sam says he’d like to purchase a truck that is close enough to roadworthy and doesn’t need too much work to get it on the road.
For the trailer that will house the museum, Sam revealed a few different ideas have been floated.
“I am looking at a few ideas – one of the ideas I had is to have one of the old Ghan locomotives if I can, but I’m currently in discussions. What I’d like to do is get one of the shells, then put that on a donga base, which would go onto a flat deck or drop deck trailer.”
Sam said he’ll start working on the museum later this year or early in the new year, with hopes to have it complete by late 2025.
“I’m planning to spend a year building it. The current plan is that I’ll finish the big tractor trip and then start work on the museum. I’ll need to get the truck together, get the trailer together and get it all fitted out.”
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