LOVE OF HEAVY METAL
WHEN it come comes t to b backyard k cookers are these the mother of all inventions? These postapocalyptic, boilerplate cookers that look as they have come off the set of a Mad Max movie are for genuine, heavy metal fans. Innisfail boilermaker Max Landouw makes them and because they are made from steel truck rims and iron he has collected over the years, he calls them Truk Bellys. I don’t know about the name. I’d call them Mad Max. This is the sort of brutal cooking tool that can be handed down through generations, right up until the time, whenever that may be, where there are no more generations. I couldn’t resist it and arranged to meet up with Max while he was on his way to drop off a couple of the beasts to a Tableland supplier. He builds them himself and says the reason he doesn’t employ anyone is because for other welders, it would “just be a job”. Max, you see, is an artist. This is his passion. Each of these barbecue space oddities have their own unique features.
They can be charcoal cookers, pizza ovens, smokers, steamers and barbecue all in one. The heaviest one he made weighed 340kg, but the average is around 140-160kg.
Don’t talk to Max about gas barbecues. In his opinion, they are effete. Max’s view of the world is that gas barbecues should only be used to cook nonfoods like vegetarian pizzas and vegan burgers. Max is a purist. His theory is that if it doesn’t run on wood or charcoal it’s not a barbecue. He also reckons that if the food you eat doesn’t bleed, it is not worth sinking your chompers into. Back in Neolithic times, Max would have made an awesome caveman.
He would have been leader of the Bear Clan.
Instead, he grew up on a scrub block out on the South Johnstone River. The hot water used for bathing, cooking and washing clothes and dishes all came from a 44 gallon drum sitting on a truck rim that was used as a fireplace.
The fire inside the rim never went out. Later on Max did his boilermaking apprenticeship.
He finished it, welding together Royal Australian Navy patrol boats that were being made in Cairns.
He’s graduated now to bigger and better things like the beasts in the photo. PS. Max is the good looking one in the middle.