We are thrilled to celebrate an incredible milestone alongside Kenworth Australia, of whom we are a proud partner for over 50 years. This year marks half a century of Australian commercial vehicle manufacturing for Kenworth Australia, a milestone that has seen more than 70,000 trucks roll off the production line at Bayswater since March 2nd, 1971.

A defining moment for the Australian road transport industry, PACCAR Australia Managing Director, Andrew Hadjikakou, paid tribute to the foresight of those that first brought Kenworth to this country, and those responsible for establishing the Bayswater plant.

"Today, the workforce behind each truck is measured in the thousands. An extended family of exceptional employees, dealers and suppliers that span the nation," he said.

"Not everything has changed though. Each Kenworth is still specifically application engineered for its intended task and the desire to build the world's best trucks still inspires and unites us."

A local legend and our valued customer, Darren Ross of Ross Contractors, has been behind the Kenworth badge for over 20 years. As a family owned and operated business here in South Australia, Ross Contractors run a range of different configurations from B-Double to PBS truck and dog carting various types of sand and clay out of their mine at One Tree Hill.

In case you missed it, you can watch the video about Ross Contractors here.

By fostering a culture of innovation and investing heavily in next generation technologies, Kenworth has risen to every challenge over the 50-year journey.

From the removal of import tariffs, soaring fuel costs, economic downturns, global recessions, dimensional changes, emission reductions, and most recently, a pandemic demanding changes to the production line to protect the workforce and maintain supply of trucks to the essential transport industry. "2020 showed how important Australian manufacturing is to this country," said Hadjikakou.