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Snowcat used in Australia

sports850

sports850

Member
While chasing up the mini-trac's I've been in contact with various government agencies and large corporations trying to find where one of them ended up . The Snowy Mountains Hydro corporation used a snowcat at some stage (but can't find the mini-trac they were supposedly sold ...) and this is supposed to be the only photo on file of it . It's long gone now according to the guy I spoke to .

snocat.jpg


I'll post up whatever else I find while searching for the mini-tracs .
 
bobpierce said:
Would you call that a 'good tucker' down there? :smileywac :hide:
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You'd better find a bigger chair to hide under with jokes like that ...

Unfortunately their archives seem to be living memory and some old photo's only as they had nothing apart from that photo about any snow vehicles
 
sports850 said:
You'd better find a bigger chair to hide under with jokes like that ...

Unfortunately their archives seem to be living memory and some old photo's only as they had nothing apart from that photo about any snow vehicles
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What are the areas there that you get enough snow to use a snowcat or other related toy. I don't recall every seeing "Snowmachine" in any photos or threads I have seen of the area down under.
 
Since I've been talking to the mini-trac's creator he's sent me some copies of newspaper clippings from the 60's , including this one of one of his custom snow-tracs . It's not the clearest but it's readable and the photo can be seen .

snowtrac.jpg


And also the "hydratrac" he designed and built from scratch . From memory I think he said it was the first hydraulic powered vehicle built in Australia with a hydraulic motor driving each track from the rear .

hydratrack.jpg
 
That 'hydratrac' is an interesting looking beastie. Any more pictures of that one? What's the name on the front?
 

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Unfortunately that's the only photo I currently know of , it was built using a Holden Motor (our version of Chevrolet) driving a hydraulic pump with a hydraulic motor at the rear of each track . Each track could operate forwards and backwards independently of the other allowing it to turn 360 degrees in it's own length . Prior to that they only had Nodwell and snow-trac chassis with bodies built by Terry so this system was advanced for them . I've rescanned and zoomed on the hydrotrac so it's better detail .

hydrotrac.jpg
 
sports850 said:
There's not a lot , some snowfields in NSW and Victoria but they don't really have snow all year round (the odd patch stays but not much )...
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??? No place but the Poles (that is North and South Arctic Areas) have snow all year long!!!:glare:

And a few Glacier Areas in the mountains and such are the exceptions..
 
A mate sent me the photo from Charlotte Pass's website of the snow truck he rode between Perrisher Blue and Charlottes Pass ski resorts , maybe not really a snowcat but still , it's what's currently in use down here ...

gettinghere.html_PHOTO1.jpg
 
While digging through an old photo album I found this photo , I took the photo in either Bright or Mount Beauty (can't remember which one now but both towns are close) in 1989 , both towns are sort of gateways to the Victorian Ski fields and this was in a paddock beside the main road . No other details about it I'm affraid , to me then it was just an odd vehicle (coming from a tropical climate) and worth a photo .

catatbright.jpg
 
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