VITAL SUPPLIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 227, 26 September 1942, Page 3

VITAL SUPPLIES

AUSTRALIA’S ROAD CONVOYS 3,000,000 MILES A MONTH Sydney, Sept. 14. The biggest road transport organisation in the world is feeding vital supplies to the defence areas of Northern Australia, writes M. Pratt, war correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. Its convoys of large trucks now average 3,000,000 miles a month, and the organisation is growing so rapidly that within a short time it. is expected that tonnages carried will rise a further 32 per cent. Already the organisation is double the size of the transport systems of all the oil companies in Australia. The organisation was born on September 9, 1940, when the first convoy was sent away from Alice Springs at 5.30 a.m.. less than 24 hours after the army staff and men reached the town. In the following months the convoys were being pushed. through over rough bush tracks at the same time as an army of civilian workers were making an all-weather road. The story of the road itself is one of tremendous effort and the overcoming of many difficulties. Some sections of the road have already been coated with bitumen, and plans are advanced to cover many more miles with this corrugation-proof surface.

Army officers claim that with the proper equipment and trained men they will be able to bituminise the road at the rate of several miles a day. The 621 miles of this road, over which convoys are speeding to-day. was put down in 87 days—three days quicker than lhe allotted time.