The brand has figured highly in the lives of many Australians for a variety of reasons. At the start of Kenworth’s journey in this country, one man in particular went onto having a career with and respect for the brand, that being Alec Ireland.
Before Alec’s involvement with the brand, we need to go back to the 1950s when Ed Cameron and his brother Don had an established fruit carrying business based in Doncaster in Melbourne’s east. No matter what brand of truck they bought, they were always dissatisfied with their power, reliability and braking capacity.
The year 1952 was pivotal in this story as an ex-army mate of Ed’s who had driven for Camerons, Jack Bateman, went on a world tour with his wife and ‘jagged’ a job in America on the west coast driving up near the Canadian border.
Letters were the ‘preferred method of communication’ in those days and quite a number arrived on Ed’s desk from Jack. He enthused about the custom building
