The tiny Queensland town of Thallon, located more than 500km west of Brisbane, put itself on the map with the third edition of the Thallon Truck Pull on August 31.
It’s not your typical trucking event — there’s no showing of trucks to claim the top prizes — instead teams of six went head-to-head pulling a 12-tonne prime mover over 25 metres as quickly as they possibly can.
The actual competition part is over in a flash — the fastest teams are pulling a Kenworth T610SAR prime mover, kindly provided by the local 4 Hill Farming, in under 30 seconds.
Thallon Progress Association president and Thallon State School P and C grants officer Janna Spierenburg says it was a weekend to remember, even in scorching conditions, following the last Truck Pull in 2022.
“It was a wonderful success,” she says.
“According to our postcode collection, which I created from a QR code that people would scan, we think we had about 267 adults and 155 kids, but it may have been closer to 300 adults.
“We had a kids’ zone that was free, and they just went wild out there which was fantastic. That was the whole point and what we try and do it for.
“It’s a fantastic result for our small community event. This year was a lot of locals. We did have a few travellers coming through, but it was people who had travelled up planning to ahead, not so much the passersby.
“A lot of travellers said they’d been there two or three days. They’d heard about it and were coming up to see it.”
The 2022 event saw women’s teams participate for the first time, and due to popular demand, a women’s only competition was run this year.
Six women’s teams signed up, outnumbering the five men’s teams.
“The women really wanted to get in there and give it a go,” Janna says.
“They’re far more organised than the blokes. They had the teams nominated and signed up in advance, whereas the blokes were the day before!”
When it came time for the Truck Pull itself, the organising committee pulled out all the bells and whistles.
Teams were encouraged to show up in uniforms and give themselves a fun name (with some teams having maybe too much fun).
While it was a competition for $3000, the light-hearted fun and games makes the Thallon Truck Pull what it is.
“Every team gets to have a bit of fanfare, run through the curtain and get an MC chatting them up,” Janna says.
“It’s ready, set, go and over in less than 30 seconds. They each got to pull the truck three times.
“Sometimes the first go you think is the fastest, but they work out their technique in the first two pulls and then the third one is usually the fastest. It’s very hard to get the chance to just go out and practice it!
“A lot of our teams are farmers or young blokes, but they weren’t that young this year!”
Once all was said and done, the women’s competition was taken out by ‘The Better Frillies’, with a time of 31 seconds. The ‘Truck Wits’ earned the cheque in the men’s division with a time of 23.14 seconds.
The event was supported by Brown and Watson, who presented the prizes to the winning teams, as well as the winners of the uniform competition.
“The Better Frillies are made up of members of the women’s rugby team, but they call themselves ‘better’ because the Frillies is the men’s team,” Janna laughs.
“They thought they could do better!
“Angus Short from Brown and Hurley opened up the event, gave a speech and helped to present the awards.”
With the Truck Pull over and done until 2026 now, it served as a great advertisement for the town of Thallon.
Janna hopes that more people will look at making it a part of their travel calendar for the next edition, which the committee is thinking of moving to March to encourage more attendance.
“What is great about the Thallon Truck Pull is that it’s so uniquely Thallon,” she says.
“It’s our one major event that’s so inclusive. Anyone can attend, it’s free entry. The market stalls were brilliant this year.
“We had vintage cars, we tried to get trucks as well but they were all far too busy. It was a great day for our wider shire community to all come together and have a bit of fun.
“The whole day was the highlight. Everyone just really enjoyed their day. It was a nice afternoon out.
“The competition was really tight. I was a timekeeper, and I thought after every pull each team won. I couldn’t believe how fast they were moving the truck.
“The competitors gave it everything. They put their bodies on the line and beat their times on every time around. It’s very impressive to see what people can do together.”
Thallon Truck Pull 2024 Winners:
Men’s Competition
1st: Truck Wits – 23.14 seconds
2nd: fu-KENWORTH-it – 24.02 seconds
3rd: Grasshoppers – 24.94 seconds
Women’s Competition
1st: The Better Frillies – 31.00 seconds
2nd: Mungindi Preschool – 31.90 seconds
3rd: Fillies – 32.12 seconds
Uniform Competition
Winner: Mothertruckers
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