Mountain logistics prove tricky

That's why Barnawatha-based freight contractor Domenic Shanahan instructs his drivers to take their time on the alpine passes, which claim several lives each year.

"My theory is you've just got to treat those roads with respect and drive accordingly, it's not a thing you can rush," he said.

During the annual calf sales, the Shanahans Livestock Transport boss will send up to five of his nine-truck fleet to the High Country to distribute the cattle to potential buyers from South Australia to southern Queensland.

Stocked to capacity, a fully loaded B-Double can weigh in excess of 65 tonnes, however Mr Shanahan said giving the calves a bit of extra leg room was paramount to getting them off the mountain in good health.

On a good day, drivers can do two trips up and down the mountain, he said.

In the Shanahans' case, they often take a double-decker trailer up and back, offload the cattle at their Barnawartha yard complex, and return for a second load.

After several loads of cattle trickle into the yards and are spelled, cattle heading in similar directions are combined on a B-double truck, usually northbound.

The calves can sit at offloading points for several days until they are fed and watered ready for the second leg of the journey - or are ready to be received - at a rate of about $10 per head each per day.

"We've had them there for a week when there's been rain in Queensland ... but every day it rains up there the cattle are going to pay more," Mr Shanahan said.

Since his 12 years going up into the High Country to service the Mountain Calf Sales, producers had often quizzed him on how it was economical to buy the cattle in given the extra freight.

"A lot of people get scared what it costs to get cattle out of the hills; It's not going to cost them anymore to get the cattle from the Wodonga, and getting them off the hill isn't a huge amount extra either, so it's not a lot of difference," Mr Shanahan said.-

Mr Shanahan said the stop-start nature of loading and unloading on and off the mountain meant the legal limit of 14 hours a driver can do in one day wasn't a problem.-

Driving in the dark however was not ideal, and Mr Shanahan never liked to risk the safety of the driver or the truck if loading after the sale was slow.

"If we didn't have the truck loaded by five in the evening, we'll send the driver over to the pub and just say 'Have a break, get some rest and leave it until the morning, because it's just not worth being dangerous'," he said.

There are three routes that can take trucks in and out of the High Country.

According to local freight contractor John Cook, Benambra, nearly half take the southern portion of the Great Alpine Road via Bairnsdale with cattle heading to the Western District or South Australia.

Northbound cattle often take the northern part of the Great Alpine Road via Harrietville.

The windy Omeo Highway (which ends after Mitta Mitta), is less appealing for trucks, and the 67 unsealed kilometres of the Corryong Road is also less frequently used.

However the fate of the Corryong Road has long been contested.

For almost 20 years, Mr Cook has been at the fore of a group to get the road sealed.

"We've been trying to get it going because it's the main route from Wagga Wagga and southern NSW - it's the quickest way to the ocean," Mr Cook said.

"It's a lot easier for stock along the Corryong Road because you can only go a certain pace, you're not swinging them around."

"You've got to look at the welfare of the cattle and the welfare of the sheep you're carting.

"It's such great access to the High Country, we've got to keep it going - we've got to get it going."

This year VicRoads made permits available for B-double trucks to use the Corryong route, providing the trucking company could prove their safety.

While this is a good development for trucking companies and farmers footing the freight bill, the future role the road can play is still uncertain.

According to Mr Cook, the group has been close to getting the tick of approval for sealing the road several times on the basis of industry, health, and tourism benefits to the area, but dealing with up to five levels of bureaucracy and competing interests ultimately meant it hadn't happened.

"We nearly had it done in the early '90s when a mine started out here ... but the trouble was they stuck up in Bairnsdale because they thought they'd lose all of the trade from the High Country," Mr Cook said.

MOBILE phone signal is rare in the High Country, but standard Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radios play a huge role in keeping trucks and and other vehicles safe on the mountain passes.

"It's nothing to see coming up Mount Hotham a truck pulled over because he's empty and there's three full ones coming down," trucking operator Dominic Shanahan said.

"It's a good system, it doesn't matter whose truck it is, even if we're in opposition they communicate very well."

Benambra truck driver John Cook was also constantly tuned into the airwaves, and said it was rare that a driver without experience on the mountain would be put behind the wheel of stock truck.

"The companies pick the drivers that are used to the road," he said.

"It's not a difficult road, but it's a dangerous road. They talk to each other on the UHF, they give the location where they are so you know exactly where each other are so it's a good system."-

"It's quite safe if the people are capable of driving those machines over it.

"But the company won't let just anyone do it anyhow, because they've got to look after half a million dollars-worth of truck too."-

Mr Cook had been driving the trucks on High Country roads for over four decades, and said there was no reason there should be much more stress on the machine than normal.

"I can go to Corryong and might only use my brakes only two or three times," he said.

"You sit on your gears and you sit on your jake (brake), and you drive accordingly," Mr Cook said.