History Of The Trangie Truck & Tractor Show
How did it start?
Going back over 10 years ago (guessing, this could be 20 years ago) prior to the Trangie Truck and Tractor Show Inc forming in 2018, our local publican, Shane Dolton, with some help from a couple of truckie regulars at the pub, organised a truck and car show event to be held at the local sporting oval. This event was supporting Glen McGraths Breast Cancer organisation that raises funds to employ medically trained nurses to care for women and men suffering from breast cancer.
Shane had gone to an extreme amount of work to organise the event that saw Thompson Bros. tautliner trailer displaying the pink Glen McGrath cover located on site (this trailer is now on display at the National Road Transport Museum Alice Springs). He had also secured an impressive number of trucks to be displayed at the event along with local cars ensuring the event would be successful. All this work had been funded by Shane himself. Shane wasn’t and still isn’t a truck enthusiast, however, he loves cars and he knew an event like this would be very good for Trangie.
Unfortunately, due to bad weather including large amounts of rain, the show was cancelled the day before the planned event date and never rescheduled.
Since then, there has been a lot of chatter by the locals about holding a truck show in Trangie.
Moving Forward
Conversations would regularly come up about holding a truck show in Trangie, especially after some of our current committee had visited Alice Springs and the National Road Transport Museum and Hall of Fame, an event where they celebrate the 5- and 10-year anniversaries.
In 2006, The Dubbo Golden Oldies Truck Club Inc was formed holding their first event in September 2006. In later years they decided to change the event from annual to biannual. This created a space in the calendar for Trangie to hold an event biannually if we wanted it.
At the same time a charity event held in Narromine and organised by Bruce Wright was also wound up due to limited volunteers to help at the event. This event was primarily to hold a tractor pull competition but also had a number of trucks on display. The event attracted large numbers of visitors and tractor enthusiasts to the Narromine Shire.
Having the Dubbo event changed to being held biannually and the winding up of the Narromine event, Toby Mitchell and some members of the Trangie Car Club saw this as a great opportunity to hold a Truck and Tractor show at the Trangie Showground. A showcase of vintage trucks, tractors and cars and at the same time take away some of the pain that was facing our community considering this long-standing drought was all the incentive needed.
How did we decide on the name of the event?
Many ideas were put forward, however in the end the alliteration “Trangie Truck and Tractor” or in short TTT was chosen as having a roll of the tongue sound and easy to remember.
2018
A few local community members, decided to hold a meeting on 16th October 2018 to get an idea of the interest in having such a show in Trangie. The town hadn’t held a PA&H Association show for more than 30 years and this event was going to fill a gap on the local attraction and event Calander. The inaugural committee consisted of:
President: Toby Mitchell
Secretary: Terrie Milgate
Treasurer: Andrew Cayzer
Public and Social Media: Kelly McCutcheon
Registration and Sponsorship Officer: Rob McCutcheon
This period in Western NSW was a tough time for everyone. One of our biggest rip-roaring droughts on record, farmers funding resources exhausted after being spent on feeding livestock so they didn’t die or could be sold. Livestock numbers were quickly diminishing and just to make things harder for families, mental illness was creeping along doorsteps and making its way into households.
The idea of holding a whole of family event that showcased vintage vehicles, cars, bikes, trucks and tractors all at the same time was thought to provide the much-needed incentive for people to get out of their homes, talk amongst friends and put smiles on faces.
2019
Planning, planning and more planning took place throughout 2019 until August when we were all prepared to get this show happening. Gate prices were kept at a minimum to keep costs for our visitors low. This was very favourable and as the event was for all family members with the inclusion of free children’s activities, markets stalls and displays of quilts and photography, the show was a major success. Our anticipated attendance being 500-750 ended up being 1,500. To say the committee and the community were overjoyed was an understatement. All food venues were given to local not for profit organisations and schools, with all involved being extremely happy with the additional financial injection into their organisation. Available accommodation was fully booked in Trangie and Narromine and food and beverage outlets in town were kept busy showing benefits to our community economic growth.
COVID
Our event after COVID was scaled down with new entry rules and plans to follow as with all events that were happening Australia wide. The 2021 event was initially cancelled with a new date planned for April 2022. This event was moved out from the showground site after receiving 4 inches plus of rain leading up to the day of the show and pouring buckets during the show, however, as a lot of trucks and tractor owners had already travelled the display of vehicles was then moved into the main street which was very popular with all the town people and local businesses. Market stalls went ahead at the showground site followed by the Wall of Fame announcement of inductees.
After COVID the Narromine Shire Council through an injection of funds from State Government saw the Trangie Truck and Tractor Show Inc. include a major music event to their program in 2023. Adam Brand was engaged to play at the event and Ballz ‘n All was engaged as support artists which was a very popular decision.
From Then to Now
2025 saw our 4th show take place. Each show has offered difference and has grown to an event that sees an impressive display of over 250 trucks, 120 tractors, 50 cars, 10 bikes pulling up stumps at the showground and put on display with over 7,000 people attending, and up to 100 caravans camping on site.
The introduction of the Derby race and Quick Shear events, Beers and Gears and The Wall of Fame have brought other streams of enthusiasts to the show. Children under 12 are still entering free of charge and have free activities provided, entry costs for adults are kept to a minimum, but still provides a full day of entertainment, mood music throughout the day and a popular band playing during the evening.
We still have a 25-30 strong committee and on the day of the event over 100 members of the shire as well as visitors to Trangie turn up to help on gate entries, registrations, running events just to name a few.
Valued sponsors are sort for each event and without this support the event would not go ahead. We are looking at investing funds back into the town by possible ways of a:
Option 1: Museum of tractors, farming equipment, trucks, cars and bikes. The organisation has already received donations from the late Michael Barclay’s family (JD Header) and the late Robert Bourchier’s family (old Massey tractor and stationery engine). For a museum to be erected we will need to look at generous funding opportunities which quite often ask for a cash injection from the organisation.
Option 2: Display of donated equipment that can be placed in a paddock close to Trangie and the highway for visitors to peruse at their leisure.
Option 3: Possibly purchasing the old unused buildings in the main street of Trangie and transforming them into an unmanned museum
Nowadays we host over 40 market stalls which is growing quickly in numbers, helicopter rides are made available throughout the event, $10,000 worth of children’s activities are provided free of charge to under 12-year-olds, and the last event saw the Derby Championships take place, trucks, tractors, cars and bikes on show from local clubs and interstate.
Our event planning for 2027 will showcase historical International trucks and tractors, a live demonstration of antique earthmoving equipment from the McCutcheon collection, a Country Verses City Derby event and much more still in the planning stages.