Daphne Salt has made a beautiful model of a 1943 NR Mack truck which Richard Hollis has loved all his life.

"I've known the truck since I was six-years-old," said Richard, who has always worked in the timber industry since he left school at 15.

"It travelled past our place in the Oxley HIghway when we waited to get on the school bus in the morning.

"A man called Glen Cook owned it, and he got killed years later.  It sat in the paddock.  A bloke bought the truck and took it to Walcha and left it to his stepson, and his wife asked me if I wanted that 'yellow heap of junk'. 

"I said I'd love to get it back to Wauchope where it belongs.  I fixed all the brakes, the windscreen and the dash and got it going after a fair bit of work. 

"It's not the original engine.  It's got a Rolls Royce engine. It's been to Alice Springs and Macksville over the past four years," he said.

Richard saw Daphne at the Wauchope Show and bought one of her other models of a timber truck and asked her to make a model of his.  She agreed, knowing it would be a labour of love.

.She said it was a tough job.

"I went out to Richard's place and took photos of the truck and engine from every angle.  When I make a model, I won't use anyone's preconceived pattern.  I use the original as my pattern.  I tried to keep it as true as possible to the original," said Daphne.

"Originally the American Army had them and they brought them out during World War Two.  Afterwards, they didn't want to bring them back to the States.  It's the only regional log truck from that era and Richard still shows it to the public.

"Now that I have finished the model, I don’t want to part with it, it is so beautiful," she added.

Richard is absolutely thrilled with the end result.

"It's hard to put words into it; it's just magic," said Richard.