TO THE uninitiated they’re simply “big old green trucks” – lumbering dinosaurs of years gone by.
To others they are a reminder of dark times and Australia’s fighting spirit.
But now they are the stars of upcoming mini-series Pacific.
Highlighting the Pacific theatre of operations in World War Two, the mini-series is expected to be released next year and people might just be able to catch more than a glimpse of a Willys Jeep on a beach at Port Douglas, or perhaps a military green ambulance on the docks of Melbourne.
For military vehicle restorers Graham and Mari Meyer, these old trucks honour the commitment of the men and women who served their country, of which there are fewer and fewer as the years roll on.
Graham, who has had the “green habit” since 1982, was approached by the production company for Pacific, which asked if he could supply the vehicles.
Of course, the answer was “yes”.
It’s a passion his brothers, Gary and Wayne, share too.
“When we were little fellas our uncle bought a jeep, not long after the war,” Graham said.
“Being his favourite nephews we always got to drive the jeep around – I was only 10 or 12 at the time.”
Through the years, between working his way up the ladder at Coles and volunteering in the Army Reserve – or the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) as it was then known – the Willys Jeep was always a part of Graham and his family.
When Graham and Mari moved to Tamworth in the early 1980s, they would take their children on camping expeditions in the Jeep.
“They all talk fondly of those trips and learning to drive in it,” he said.
The first vehicle he ever restored was another symbol of his childhood.
“It’s funny, the first vehicle I ever chose to do was a White Scout Car (the M3 Scout Car), buried in concrete at Branxton – as children we’d stop there and play on it.”
It was a project shared by Alan Martin and Dave Clare, Tamworth, across a five-year period.
“It was a labour of love.”
They’ve restored more of the White Scout Cars since that have proved most challenging.
“They only brought 600 of them to Australia and they were used by the CMF after the Second World War, and once the CMF was finished with them many farmers bought them,” Graham said.
This, he said, made it hard to find the necessary parts for restoration.
“They’re a victim of Aussie know-how,” he said.
“Farmers would strip off all the armour and the turret so that basically all you were left with was a windscreen and a bonnet on a chassis.”
Graham has been forced to manufacture his own machine gun skate rail.
“They were one of the first things to be cut off,” he said.
“Maybe there are a few left in a paddock somewhere.”
Given the work involved in restoring these vehicles one might suspect Graham would lock them in a shed – but this is not the case.
In 1995 he took part in the commemoration of the North-South Road by driving a jeep from Alice Springs to Darwin.
“By the end of that journey we had what we refer to as ‘Jeep bum’ and had to stand up for the next seven days.”
Every five years he aims to do a similar journey with like-minded people.
Next August a group will trek from Brisbane to Alice but Graham has plans to detour at Normanton, Queensland, and traverse the tricky Cape Road.
They’re often called upon to display vehicles, whether it be at the Manilla Vintage Machinery Field Days or for the Duri Women’s Hospital Auxiliary.
The jeeps are even called into duty on one day of particular importance each year in Tamworth – Anzac Day.
“I’m a bit of a military buff, but I don’t dress up in all the military gear like they do in America for the Civil War re-enactments,” he said.
“I just love the military vehicles and the role they helped the Diggers play.
“When we carry them in the Anzac Day parade one of their first questions will be ‘is this a Ford or a Willys (Jeep)’ – every year somebody will say ‘the Ford was better’, or ‘no, the GM (General Motors) was better’, which in a sense was the beginning of the Holden and Ford rivalry.”
The producers of Pacific are not the first to have approached Graham to use his vehicles – they also appeared in The Great Raid, which was filmed on Bribie Island, Qld.
As well as trucks and jeeps, the producers of Pacific wanted three trailers, which Mari said was a feat in itself.
“Graham actually built a trailer in 48 hours, which has to be some kind of record.”
It is a strange coincidence that Graham should supply these vehicles, given what Mari says about his inability to watch television.
“He’s got a house full of DVDs and he’s only watched two,” she said.
One of which was The Great Raid.
“I’ll watch Pacific; I want to see my trucks in it,” Graham said.
And if he should ever get tired of restoring military vehicles there is a paddock full of old Holdens and Fords and various other vehicles, including tractors.
Graham said he was always reading and researching military vehicles, if not restoring them.
“Some people think they know everything but I’ll continue to learn until I’m 156,” he said.
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