Classic pick-up trucks from around the world (well in Australia anyway) AtkiPete supplies the pictures to Biglorryblog!

Don't know about the yank tank but thanks Brian for the helpful hint under tags - Volkswagen it is then for the German one. The pommie is an Austin A40 Devon, and the term ute .... derived from utility. I don't think it's quite as quaintly old fashioned as the "tilly" term coined during the war for the lovely Hillman utility pick up though.

Ute is a short word for utility.

If an Australian can`t lengthen a word/name (John becomes Johnno) we must shorten it (utility becomes Ute,or in some parts Tilly) or turn it into strine (ryming slang) as in to do the bolt,becomes do the Harold Holt (after one of our prime ministers who dissapeared in the 60`s)

The green ute is a single spinner Cusso (customline) or Mainline Ford

I think the custom Ozzie plate helps but I am going to hazard a guess that this is a very rare Austin A40 Farina pickup, mid 1950's vintage? Three speed "handbag holder" column shift gearbox and a lovely old thing to drive. A mates dad had a four door saloon version when I was a recently-qualified 17 year-old and I remember being allowed to drive it to the Beauleau autojumble in 1979.

Well, since the Aussies and Africans are getting into the act, a Kiwi had better have a go!

I reckon the top one is not a single spinner Customline; it is a Mercury. The single-spinner came out in 1949 (the Ford Fortyniner) the twin-spinner in about 1951 and the triple-spinner in about 1953; I'm not sure of the exact dates. This, I'm almost certain, is the Mercury equivalent of the Ford triple-spinner.

Sorry, JB, the next photo is an Austin A40, but certainly not a Farina model, which was a completely different animal. Also this one, like virtually all Austins, had a 4-speed gearbox, not a 3-speed one, although bottom gear was so low that a lot of drivers didn't use it.

the word "ute", of course, comes from "utility vehicle".

The real ute IE the VW is a'72' T3 but short a few factory parts like the woodend side panels bumpers and hubcaps, VW has quite a history in light comercial vehicles with a pile of first's too many for here still all good ...

Now it is an Austin A40 ute, but is it a "Farina" or a "Devon"? The big green one is a Ford Mainline ute, probably a 272 OHV engine and three speed box.

jerry Burley has sent in this post to me via his Blackberry and says:"I would like to correct a post on the pickup's pie. I am indeed a clown. Its an austin a40 somerset, not a farina which was the square ugly one. I rushed a response and now feel a clown. Idiot is me as I have no internet now! J." Jerry, as ther saying goes..."To err is human, to forgive divine. " And considering the stuff you've been sending me you're definitely forgiven mate!

The Austin van and pick-up were called simply A40 with the two door car being the Dorset and the four door car, the Devon. The Somerset was the 4door car version of the A70 (a larger car with more 'rotund' styling) with the Hereford being the similar 2 door car, there was an A70 pick-up but I am not sure if there was an A70 van.

Devon not Somerset. The Somerset was the roundy one and I'll go with Vic on the Mercury. The front is not like the Mainline utes we had out here.
The ute name is a contraction of Coupe Utility and its heritage can be traced to a letter dictated to his wife by a farmer in 1933, in an area called Gippsland in rural south-east Victoria and sent to the Managing Director of Ford Australia at the time - Hubert French.
"Would Ford build for me a vehicle: the front is the Coupe, to suit my need of taking the family to Church on Sunday; the back is to be the Roadster Utility box, so I can take the pigs to town on Monday"
Passed on to Lewis T.Bandt, who was the only designer Ford had at the time, and only aged 22, he came up with the bright idea of combining the style of a Ford coupe with an integrated utility tray, and it had the luxury style, and importantly for wealthy sheep farmers, the status of the coupe, instead of the utilitarian look and build of previous 'utes' which just had a tray or box body behind a square passenger area.
Two 34 Coupe Utilities built at Ford's plant at Geelong were taken to Canada and shown to Henry Ford who was very impressed and they were built into the Ford America line as the Ranchero, based on the Australian Coupe Utility.
Bandt built a replica (which differed slightly in the roofline as no originals had survived) after he retired in 76 but was tragically killed in the ute in 1987 on the way back from filming a documentary on his invention. It has since been rebuilt by the Early Ford v8 club of Victoria and Ford Australia and is on display at the Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong.
While Australia MAY be able to claim the ute, NZ can claim the double cab ute as our invention, as when a German immigrant and keen skier, Oscar Coberger wanted a vehicle to transport his family around NZ with room to carry the ski equipment he imported, demonstrated and sold to keen NZers, he got Ford NZ to built him a flat bed with double cab in 1936.

The Mercury seems logical,the single spinners had a much larger spinner,it`s a nice looking car.

The Ford has a V8 Mainline badge on the LH mudguard, so I have ordered a large humble pie to be baked for the Kiwis. It might have been a marketing thing, Mercury was not a seperate brand out here.
As for the little Austin, I am not too sure.

Sorry Pete, I won't be eating that humble pie just because you Aussies put strange badges and grilles on your vehicles! I'll have roast lamb instead, please.

The ute in that middle photo IS an Austin A40 Devon pick-up, to give it its proper name. They were first built in 1949 and were sold for quite a few years. They all had 4-speed gearboxes, the original ones with a floor change and the later ones with a completely horrible column change, probably the worst column change ever on any vehicle, which just to make things even worse worked the opposite way around to the roughly equivalent Morris Oxfords.

I was a 10 year old boy when these first came out, and like all 10 year old boys I knew about these things. Cheers, Vic

It seems you had your own version of the Austin A40 ute in Australia - have a look here;

http://www.austinworks.com/aussie.html

although it is hard to see if the one in your shot has the Coupe Utility style rounded back of cab. The rear wheels don't seem to be covered in like your shot, and it is hard to see the swage line dropping down over the rear wheel.

It looks more like the A40 utilities we got out here shown here;

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/utes.htm

of which there are a number still left in NZ, as well as panel van versions of the Devon.

I can't speak for the Ford or the VW, but I can help out with info on the Austin. It's a GQU2 pickup derivative of the GS2 Austin A40 Devon car and would date somewhere between 1950-52, when the more rounded A40 Somerset saloon was introduced. How can I be sure of the dates? The quarterlights in the doors are a giveaway (not on 48-mid50 models), as is the grille; although the Devon-based commercials carried on until 1956, they acquired a simplified pressed steel grille with chrome highlights after 1952, rather than the cast grille shown in the picture. At some time post-1952, the trucks lost the full spats on the real wheels and the arches were profiled in a very similar shape to the Somerset rear arches; again, a pretty good dating point. On this truck, the gearbox is most likely 4-on-the-floor with a cream plastic gearknob. Late '51 commercials could have had the early grille and the 3-on-the-tree gear change, which I remember as being very nasty. Very late commercials acquired the B-Series 1200cc motor and gearbox and there are rumours that the 1500cc was available to special order. No idea how many escaped Longbridge in that guise, though. Incidentally, ute is indeed a derivative of 'coupe utility' - but this is a true pickup, as it has a separate cab and pickup box. Sorry to go on - hope this is useful.

Hey guys just found this pic on the net
This is my A40 pickup and is as described above by Rob. English body GQU2 Floor shift,mechanical rear brakes etc.
Resides in Melbourne Australia
Note the blue "ute" beside mine is a later Aussie bodied A40 known as a "Hi Lite" due to its wrap around rear screen, running a B series 1200cc motor and Mowog running gear with the column gear change.
Hope this clears things up