TOYOTA NEWS
Story for Drivers World
Toyota National Farmers Ball

A VERY
LONG REACH

Country singer Lee Kernaghan stole the show during the Toyota National Farmers Ball in the Queensland outback town of Longreach, performing in front of almost 3000 locals, guests and delegates in town for the National Farmers Federation 20th Anniversary Conference.

Prime Minister John Howard, in Longreach for the conference and for a regional Cabinet Meeting, modified his schedule to attend the concert.

Lee Kernaghan's concert was a part of Toyota's sponsorship of the National Farmers Federation Conference - but the companies roots in the region run much deeper.

This is, in fact, Toyota country.

Just over 1270km north east of Brisbane and 700km west of Rockhampton, Longreach is the commercial hub for the surrounding 600 square kilometres.

The towns population may be just 3600 but the Toyota dealer Fairbairn Motors sells 10 to 15 new vehicles per month and makes a similar number of used vehicle sales. "A large proportion of our new vehicles are bought by people in surrouding towns, " said sales manager Dennis Reddy. "It's not uncommon for us to deliver new vehicles to customers long distances away then return to Longreach in the traded-in vehicle."

Fairbairn Motors' Glen Parker has become something of a celebrity in Longreach after missing out on the Guinness Book of Records Ultimate Sheep Shearing guernsey because of a rest-breaks technicality during a charity event.

Fairbairn Motors' newly created service department will soon be handling almost 30 vehicles a day.

They're there for the long run.