I saw with interest the photos of the Roy Hill (WA) Republic cattle trucks (VTCM #32), and would like to add to this piece of early trucking history.

The Republic trucks were replaced around 1934 with two AECs which had bigger crates and trailers, one a normal control and the other a COE. I do not know the fate of the latter, but the former was laid up in local transport manager Ray Smith’s yard in Meekatharra circa late 1960s. Ray was the son of Jim Smith, the Roy Hill Station manager of the period, and is the neatly dressed young man with Stetson in hand and sleeve links in the vintage photo.