Australia

I first started driving trucks in Longreach aged 18 with Bilenberg Bros. on a casual basis carting sheep; they had International body trucks in the 82 and 92

The next six years after that I spent in the RAAF as a welder general.

In 1958 I was posted to Darwin. When I arrived I met another Longreach man Les Ferret Sheppard who was driving for Outback Transport between Darwin-Mount Isa and Alice Springs. When I got a chance I went on an occasional trip with him.

Outback Transport worked in opposition to Co-Ord between these towns. Ted Stiles owned the business and when he needed drivers he would phone Longreach for experienced drivers who then came to Darwin, namely, Curly Milsom, Lizard Mulholland, Ossie McNeil and Gordon Hogan

I spent 3 years in Darwin in the RAAF and got to know a lot of drivers, so I decided to apply for work driving up here when my time in the RAAF finished in 1963. Some of the boys were driving for Noel Buntine who I had met a couple of times so I sprung him for a job and he accepted me, I started in 1963. At the time he had not been going all that long he had 2 body lorries and 3 semis, all Mack B-61's

Bobby Dodds was his foreman, who later went on to start his own company,

Buntine's was near the Katherine meatworks and had 2 units working between Katherine and Wyndham meatworks. I worked for 2 seasons with Noel and the business slowly got bigger. One of the interesting trailers I had to tow was a 55-foot self-tracker with a 6 wheeler on behind, you knew when you were going too fast when the self tracker started to move the back of the truck and the 6 wheeler from side to side. The self-tracker weighed in at 14 tons. The bitumen stopped at the Katherine meatworks then and all the roads were dirt.

One thing that I did learn was that once you could drive a Mack with a quad box you could pretty well drive anything.

After a couple of seasons I decided to go to Alice Springs and applied for a job with Fleet Owners. Peter Gunner was the Manager then and as there wasn't any immediate job available I went to Kittle Bros. in Tenant Creek to drive a Foden with a 6LX Gardner, after learning how to drive the epicyclical gearbox in the Foden I carted fuel from Larrimah to the Peko mine and Copper from Peko to Alice Springs. I also did a short stint with Dick Rodgers driving AECs with Stratty Bloomfield moving oil rigs.

When I got the start at Fleet Owners I stayed there for two years Carting between Darwin Mount Isa and Alice Springs, a lot of the work also terminated at Larrimah. The man at Larrimah was Lance Carew a thorough gentleman.

On the way south if spare trailers were available we loaded copper at Peko Mines to be delivered to the train in Alice Springs for the trip south. We also did perishable runs from Alice to Darwin leaving every Saturday night and arriving in Darwin early on Monday to unload before the shops opened.

Fleet Owners also did fuel runs from Darwin to Alice Springs for Shell Co. Sandy Mostran who handed over to his son Peter when he retired ran the Shell Alice depot. Fleet Owners needed drivers and mechanics so sent the message to Longreach once again and employed Bob O'Neil, Charlie Brown, Bob Wells, Tanks Bob Tidd, Graham Naylor and Curly Milsom who came over from Buntine's. Doug Foster who later managed Buntine and Doug Parks also worked there at the time.

I then returned to Darwin and worked for G & L Stevens carrying BP fuel to Alice Springs. I was with them for around a year when Shell decided to haul their own fuel so I applied for a job there, started in 1968, and was there for 30 years until NT fuels under Peter Mostran took over I moved to Rockhampton for a couple of years then returned and worked for NT fuels until North Fuels took over and I started with them where I am still employed.

 APART FROM THAT BIT OF DRIVING, THAT'S IT ------ LLOYD HUNT

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