Columnist writes about the tank that said goodbye to ute

EVERYONE should tie down their loads properly according to columnist.

The Cunningham Highway west of Warwick. Picture: Gerard Walsh

DRY AS A BONE with Gerard Walsh - Opinion

TIE, tighten and check is my message to readers after loosing a tank off the back of the ute between Warwick and Greymare on Saturday night.

I pulled up at our mailbox at the entrance to the farm and I realised the tank was gone, a 1000-litre poly tank. It wasn't one of those tanks in a cage, just poly.

My first concern was hopefully it wasn't on the road and could be a traffic hazard.

I called some Greymare residents who I knew were in town and they were about 20 minutes behind me and assured me they hadn't seen it so I rested a bit easier knowing the tank was not a hazard.

The only other possibility was it was taken from the back of the ute in the five minutes I called in at the Daily News.

If someone or some people got my tank in a couple of minutes off a ute in Albion St, my suggestion is if they enjoy a bit of crime is to move to Brisbane or the Gold Coast.

The CEO was on overtime when she left town to follow my tracks with our two sons in the car looking at the side of the road for the tank. I was coming from the farm backtracking my route and met the CEO and her two PAs at the Leslie Dam turnoff.

I headed west early on Sunday to find the tank in daylight hours without luck. One suggestion was a good citizen saw it close to the road and pushed it over the embankment and out of sight to make the road safe.

I called the police but they had no reports of a tank being found and also went to the service stations still open to ask if anyone had "found” a tank.

I still have to check down every embankment but early Sunday the first thing I did was check under the two railway brigades just in case it was on the line.

What did I find?

There was a major washout south east of the rail bridge near the turnoff to Scots PGC College and some drawings on the one at Sandy Creek. I also saw steel sleepers for the first time.

When I worked as a fettler on the railways from the Karara Railway Station in 1975, all of the sleepers were timber.

I can rate my trip about the same level as the Parramatta Eels who were having a shocker in the NRL.

A couple of suggestions for a load; You will need extra ties for a 100km/h trip particularly when a semi trailer goes the other way at 100km/h also. Regardless of how well the load is tied, check it regularly and in my case, use the brakes to turn on the brake light to check the load.

I have just paid for a "lost” add in the Daily News, you never know who might see the add and the tank.