Falcon Ute's Deni swansong

The last Ford Falcon ute rolled down the production line in late July and mourning for the iconic Aussie hauler was in full swing at last weekend's 2016 Deniliquin Ute Muster.

Campers had set up at ‘Deni’ and, at first glance, bar the bright blue Ford FGX Falcon XR6 we’d driven up in, we were hard pressed to find any Falcon utes among the camp sites that were steadily sinking as the rain continued to drizzle.

While the alcohol continues to flow freely, the crowd appears to have moved on, with every second vehicle being a Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux.

Seeing how I promptly bogged the low-slung XR6 on entry, the practicality of the high-riding 4x4 one-tonners makes sense, especially among the thousands of farmers and country folk here who actually use the vehicles as a tool of trade every day. These are no weekend fashion accessories.

The Falcon ute has been built Down Under for 55 years -- a good innings in automotive terms – after its world-first predecessor, the 1934 Coupe Utility, became an invention of necessity when a Gippsland farmer famously asked Ford to build him a car to take his wife to church on Sunday and carry his pigs to market on Monday.

The resulting Lewis Bandt-designed car-based ute was a success and the car was exported to America, where it was christened the ‘kangaroo chaser’.

The Aussie design also inspired international spin-offs, such as the Ford Ranchero -- a vehicle long lost in its market to the likes of larger F-Series, Tundra and RAM pick-up trucks. Perhaps it’s just taken Australia a little longer to catch up and let go?

But if the passion of the Deni crowd for the Aussie ute is anything to go by, we’d have it for another 55 years. In the kilometre-long traffic jam that enters the ute muster, there ware endless nods, cheers and shouts from the crowd as we negotiated the muddy road around the camp sites.

The bright blue Falcon we’re in was almost out of place -- at a ute muster -- and was a novelty among a swathe of foreign-built high-riding utilities.

The reality of why Falcon ute sales have dwindled to a tenth of the Australian-designed (but Thai-built) Ranger was rammed home when I get bogged and a flock of blue singlet-wearing bystanders run over and pushed us out while carefully balancing their Bundys and UDLs.

“What ya doing bringing this old girl in here? There’s no way you’ll get out without the tractor,” said one.

“Nice ute mate, looks sweet! Pity you haven’t got four-wheel drive though,” yells another, reinforcing the sense in trading up to something more practical.

The camp sites surrounding the muster resembled a scene from war-time Kosovo as the rain continued to chop the ground into a muddy batter, causing tents to almost float on the muck, but it didn't have any effect on the enthusiasm of the ute-goers.

Further into the make-shift camp communities we began to spot some 'old classics’, with Holden Crewmans and AU XR8s the most popular ute of choice.

Unlike the rear-drive utes that had been marooned, the all-wheel drive Crewmans set off every 10 minutes to do a ‘mud-lap’, and some unofficial improvised circle-work. One of the owners, Dave, tells me it’s the best ute ever built.

“The Crewman is bloody brilliant -- the best ute ever made, probably by either Ford or Holden. It’s just practical and fun to drive.”

“Why not just get a Colorado or a Ranger?” chips in his mate.

“Because it’s not a real Holden!," says Dave, “and neither of them are proper utes -- neither of them are Aussie”.

The battle between which is better – the traditional Aussie ute or the newer imported breed – was a conversation that could have filled a book at Deni, with the former camp emotionally attached and the latter erring towards practicality.

But when we asked for their opinion on the departure of vehicle manufacturing in Australia, and in particular the loss of our ute, the feeling was unanimous.

“It’s just terrible, a real loss for Australian culture,” said Megan, who owns an AU Falcon XR8 ute.

“My dad had a ute and I can remember being a kid and going into town to pick up supplies. He’s still got the old ute and I’ll hang onto mine too, especially now that you won’t be able to buy them anymore.

"I don’t think there’s anything more Australian than driving through the country in your ute with the window down. It’s just such a loss to Australia.”

Away from the camps and inside Deni it was more Country Fair than car show, with a large part of the focus on live music and events such as the rodeo.

The show'n'shine wasn’t helped by the bleak weather and some of the circle-work and driving events didn’t go ahead due to the muddy conditions, but there was a pocket of ute owners who stuck it out all weekend to show off their creations.

Rumble Princess, an AU XR8 dressed in pink and black with showgirl accessories, took the second-place trophy. The owners had driven from Perth and spent more time on the road than at the ute muster, but it’s one of the biggest events of the year for them and they were already planning time off work for next year.

Most of the cars were an over-the-top exaggeration of a theme, except for 88-year-old Shirley Humphreys’ 1977 Ford XR Falcon ute, which has been slowly restored over the years by her and her son. Originally her husband’s car, Shirley started the restoration after her husband passed away.

“It’s a great car," she said. "I can’t drive it now but it’s taken us everywhere and it’s a workhorse. It’s as old as a lot of the people here and it’s still going strong. I’m not sure we’ll say the same in the future of the new ones they make now."

Although not built quite the same, there’s no doubt that an original FGX Ute will draw a similar amount of attention in 40 years as Shirley’s XR does now – perhaps more because there won’t be a modern equivalent to compare it to. The last of the Falcon utes have rolled off the line and the number of these beaut Aussie utes on the road can only decline.

No, there won’t be a bevy of old Falcon utes holed up in barns or kept under wraps away from the showroom floor because of the utilitarian reasons for which they were designed: to haul hay or, in this case, provide alternative accommodation to the tent that’s floating away at the ute muster.

Whether you grew up in the country or the suburbs, most of us have enjoyed that moment when you’ve loaded up the ute -- either while helping a mate move house or picking up a new barbie -- and felt true-blue.

For me it was sitting in my dad’s Apollo Blue XB Falcon ute as a kid, a memory that makes driving the blue FGX feel like I've come full circle.

The Deni Ute Muster might be as much an excuse to have a great party as it is about celebrating the ute, but it's clear the people here all share a universal passion for one of Australia’s great inventions.

Although the industry will now move on, the people here won’t forget. If you ever need a crash course in Australian ute culture, the good folk at Deni will always be happy to help out.