Community & Business
3 March, 2023
Paddock find is King of the Road again
A 1941 Chev truck that sat forlorn and rusting in a Pittsowrth paddock for several years has been given a new lease on life in the hands of Pat Murphy and his son Tim.
The truck was destined for Chevrolet heaven when the owners of the land scooped it up and took it to the Toowoomba Swap Meet where, in all its faded glory, it caught Pat’s eye.
Despite a few glaring problems, his interest was piqued.
“It was very rough... very rusty,” he said.
“It was a farm vehicle and farm vehicles start out pretty good and by the time they’re passed on a few times they end up being rubbish and they pension them off and leave them out somewhere.
“That’s what happened with this one – it didn’t have a bonnet, didn’t have a radiator, but most of it was here.
“The back section is quite unique, and I only had some of the original so I had to make the rest.
It needed a name and Pat chose ‘Murphy & Sons’ honouring his two sons and five grandsons.
Pat has been able to trace some of the truck’s history and believes it belonged to a Linthorpe farmer named Ron Symes possibly as far back as the 50s or even the 40s.
He may have even been the original owner.
“When he passed on it was passed on to his son who was also Ron Symes and I believe he was killed
in a car accident a few decades ago and then the vehicle was passed onto a woman and I believe she still lives in the region.”
He said Chevrolet produced the model from 1941 to 1947 “and most of them, say 90 to 95 per cent
of them, were used by
the army during the war years.”
But he doesn’t believe this one ever saw war service.
“It must have been bought by a farmer – and I’m not sure if that was Ron Symes or not.”
Pat, from Toowoomba, has four Chevs, a Ford
and a Plymouth in his collection but it was the old truck, saved from
an inglorious descent into the dirt beside the highway, that he chose to bring to the recent Southbrook Swap Meet and Car Show.
