Plugger’s Mack returns for Easter

One of the big attractions at the Back O’Bourke Easter Festival will be the return of a very famous piece of transport history, known simply as ‘Plugger’s Mack’.

The Mack MKII V8 Superliner holds a Guinness world record for the longest trailer pull.

In 1994 Kevin ‘Plugger’ Bowden put his own truck – the Mack MKII V8 Superliner – on the line to tow 29 stock trailers weighing close to 500 tonnes with an overall length of almost half a kilometre.

Plugger set a world record, and apart from a broken diff and some trailer damage, the pull became the stuff of trucking legends.

Now the Mack returns to Bourke fully restored, to take pride of place at the front of the Easter Saturday Parade.

Former presenter at 2WEB, Bob Hayward, who rode in the truck on that famous day back in 1994, said the truck didn’t start as a history maker but was an example of the hardworking, tough as nails working trucks of the outback.

“Those trucks were legends, like the truckies – people like Tart Bowden and Trevor Norris – we lost both of them recently - hard working guys and hardworking trucks,” Bob said.

“You needed a pretty fair sort of rig doing the sort of work we were doing out there.

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