FIRST TIME TRUCKERS-25

I did my apprenticeship as a truck mechanic at Denmac Ford, the local Ford truck dealer here. I started my apprenticeship in 1980.My Father had always had trucks and Buses, as had my grandfather, so I grew up around them. When I was around 12 years old I used to wash the buses for my pocket money, the best bit was moving them around though, I was quite competent at reversing with mirrors at that age.

After I finished my apprenticeship I moved up to MacKay, about 600 miles north of here, and lived there for about 12 months. I worked for one of my cousins boyfriends, Toppo, (they later got married) and he taught me quite a lot. Denmac didn't really teach me much; in fact I didn't rebuild a motor, gearbox or diff there. So working for Toppo was great, he taught me a lot.

I went back to Brisbane for a little while and worked for a concrete pumping mob in the workshop, and then went to Adelaide, I was going to go around Australia, but that was as far as I got that time. I worked for Diesel Motors down there, the Scania dealer, they taught me a lot as well. I got a bit homesick and went back to Brisbane. I worked for Mack trucks briefly, and then started working for Denmac again, in the used truck yard, which was great. They didn't send anything out, we did everything, motor rebuilds, gearboxes, everything. There were only 3 of us in the workshop as well.

I learnt a bit about building truck bodies and chassis modification there as well. After about 18 months, Kevin, the head mechanic got very crook and had to retire, Danny the other mechanic left, and I was left in charge to a fair extent.

I had also bought my first truck by then, a 3070 International. My father drove it for a while, and they had a change of management and I got the flick. Since then I've worked as a bus driver, a mechanic and a motor body builder. I managed to get around Australia, and worked in Kalgoolie, Darwin and Cairns for a little while as a Mechanic. I also used to drive tour vehicles, 4 wheel drives and buses in Cairns. I've had a few trucks, Tippers and semi trailers over the years as well.

(Above) My first job as a bus driver

I started building tilt trays a bit over 12 years ago. I was pretty casual then. I used to buy a little truck, put a tilt tray on it, then sell it, or build one for someone else if they came along. A lot of my very first customers still deal with us today.

Anyway, times change, you get a mortgage, have a few kids and you've got to work a bit harder. We probably build more tilt trays in a month now than what I would have built in the first 2 years. We'll probably build 100 tilt trays this year; I think next year might be a bit quieter though.