Terrain Tamer Chief Executive Officer Brent Hutchinson often refers to Papua New Guinea as “the real wild west”

Infamous for unpredictable civil unrest, highly publicised crime rates, rugged terrain and diverse tribal cultures, on the surface Terrain Tamer notes that PNG hardly fits the mould of an ideal location for an Australian 4WD Parts brand to expand into.
However, in the past few years, Terrain Tamer has not only opened its doors at two branches in the Capital City of Port Moesby and the largest cargo port in Lae, it has seen exceptional success exporting into the area thanks to a strong agricultural industry and extensive mining network, including supply to some operators who now utilise Terrain Tamer parts for 100 percent of their light vehicle parts needs.
With existing international branches already in New Zealand, Fiji, and the south of France, Terrain Tamer has a long history of success in overseas markets, and these mature branches have seen exponential growth in recent times.
It is off the back of this success that the company has been given the confidence to focus on expanding its export strategy, more than doubling the number of warehouses outside of Australia.
Despite various cultural and linguistic barriers, Terrain Tamer’s success has been replicated into several other locations since 2018, with branches added in the strategic locations of Cape Town in South Africa, Santiago in Chile, and most recently California, United States.
The brand has been on an upward trajectory since first opening in 1969, and now, with these new warehouses, it boasts a total of 19 branches, including 10 around Australia, and nine international, as well as a strong Dedicated Stockist network, all of whom contribute to the export of Terrain Tamer 4WD Parts into more than 80 countries worldwide.
The most recent of these opened in October 2024, in Stockton, California, a short drive from San Francisco and far from Terrain Tamer’s headquarters in Melbourne’s inner west.
Tasked with taking the brand’s catalogue of 4WD Parts into the North American region, former operator of Californian business ‘Cruiser Brothers’ Georg Esterer, who was a Terrain Tamer reseller for the 10 years prior to the branch’s opening, has taken the helm as Manager, using his and his team’s extensive industry knowledge and connections to help build the brand throughout the area.
“We’ve had a number of wholesale customers in North America for almost 40 years, but to do our brand justice, with over 60,000 lines, our own operation is required,” Terrain Tamer Chief Executive Officer, Brent Hutchinson, said.
“The US consistently has the third highest number of visitors to our website in the world, even though we have never been on the ground ourselves.
“It may seem strange after 55 years, but we have only recently become ready for the rapid product development that the US demands, as with this new market comes a need to adapt our offering for their car parc, and popular vehicles such as the Dodge Ram, Ford F150 and 250 and the Toyota Tacoma and Tundra.
“When we reached out to one of our distributors about being part of our journey, we quickly realised it was a natural fit.
“Georg, Roark, and their team have robust knowledge of the North American 4WD market, and are rusted on to their customer base.

“We understand the challenge of taking an Australian brand into the American market but we are all excited by the work and adaption ahead of us and the already promising results we’ve seen just in the first 12 months since opening in California.”
In the early days, Georg travelled to Terrain Tamer’s Melbourne head office for a week of on-site training with the brand’s management team, who ensured he is well versed in the company culture and operations, and ready to adapt it to his well-known local market.
Only 12 months after opening, Georg’s previous ten-years advocating for Terrain Tamer as a Stockist has paid off, with the branch ahead of the company’s planned projections.
This has proven no mean feat, considering the challenges posed to the industry by recent US tariffs, and further gradual growth is also expected in the coming years as the brand becomes better understood and relationships form and strengthen over time.
Opening in Santiago, Chile in early 2023, Terrain Tamer South America has spent the past two years building a customer base in the region.
Despite geographical distance, as well as obvious language differences, Terrain Tamer South America has been built from the ground up and proven a successful market due to a similar reliance on heavy duty vehicles, a strong mining industry, and a shared passion for 4WDriving.
Terrain Tamer’s presence as an exhibitor at key mining trade fairs and expos in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru, as well as large automotive events such as Motortec, has proven essential to strengthening the brand’s network and growth throughout the Latin American region, and has been a core driver in creating relationships with stockists and brand ambassadors in the area.
A strong relationship with Austrade and the Victorian Government has also complemented this, with the State Government hosting pavilions, hubs and spaces at events, providing business development opportunities and activities, as well as an attractive platform for showcasing Terrain Tamer’s solutions for mining, tactical fleets, and other 4×4 applications.
The local team’s hard work over these infancy years has now started to see results, with several record-breaking sales months so far this year, and year-on-year growth already forecast to be over 50 percent by the end of 2025.
Earlier this year, the branch celebrated its growth with an official opening party attended by 4WD industry stalwart John ‘Roothy’ Rooth and Australian Trade and Investment Commissioner, Alvin D’Almeida, both of whom met with attendees made up of business owners, decision makers and 4WD enthusiasts from the local customer base.
The Victorian Government’s senior trade and investment director for Latin America, Natalia Gorrõno, has worked closely with Terrain Tamer’s Chilean team, headed up by manager Simon Torrealba, and has been impressed by this growth.
“Terrain Tamer has been the fastest-growing company we’ve had the pleasure of working with in recent years,” Natalia said.
“The growth achieved has been impressive.”

Opened during the COVID pandemic period in 2020, Terrain Tamer’s South African base in Bellville, an inner suburb of Cape Town, was opened to facilitate the service of the African mining and wider 4WD communities, particularly in the South Eastern countries of Africa, with the company’s existing French branch already reaching the North Western region.
Similar to the United States branch, Terrain Tamer’s South African warehouse is managed by a previous Dedicated Stockist of Terrain Tamer parts in the area, Marinus Potgieter, an experienced and well-connected former business owner with a vast working knowledge of the local industry.
“Setting up South Africa during COVID was definitely challenging, due to the education process happening widely on zoom,” Brent said.
“The road conditions, speeds and mechanical training have tested the product team, however it has only bettered us, by offering clearer instructions, over engineering parts and challenging previously held assumptions, and a recent two-week trip through Namibia and Botswana has allowed us to really stretch the capability of the range and see it perform in its full glory”.
The branch has steadily grown each year since opening, as it has become more accepted by the sub-Sahara 4WD community as a premium alternative to the local price-driven aftermarket industry.
The international growth that Terrain Tamer has seen in recent years is a far cry from their beginnings in Melbourne’s South East, when Frank Hutchinson and the late Don Kyatt started the company with only $300 each.
Frank remains the Managing Director of the company, with his son Brent acting as Chief Executive Officer, while Terrain Tamer’s company ethos of service, innovation and quality that was born from designing parts that would provide solutions for real outback 4WD problems still drives everything the brand does today.
The Terrain Tamer range now features more than 60,000 unique part numbers, essentially formed by parts that will keep a 4WD running – from suspension, brakes, bearing kits, clutches, filtration, radiators and cooling, as well as engine, transmission and driveline parts.
Each one goes through rigorous research, development and testing to ensure it is at least equal in quality and strength to its original equipment equivalent before it can bear the brand’s stamp.
Having now spent 57 years building its expertise and knowledge base, Terrain Tamer says its parts now often exceed the required standard, addressing many of the problems faced by customers in industries such as agriculture, emergency services, military and mining, where strong, reliable parts are essential to avoid potentially dangerous breakages and expensive downtime.

For more information, visit www.terraintamer.com