25/09/2022
My Career as a truck driver started when I was 17yrs of age after joining the Australian Regular Armed Forces in January of 1967,
I never expected or even gave it any thought to become a truckie as i was keen to continue my job discription as a electrical mechanic and had only just aquired a car drivers license, so never thought I'd be driving a god damn truck Ha ha..
I was working in a electrical whitegoods shop in Quirindi, NSW fixing the older type washing machines, toasters, jugs and heaters
and anything else that needed new elements, not like todays appliances that get tossed once they've passed there use by date ..
Well after completing my Rookie training at Kapooka training base in Wagga Wagga NSW we were given 3 trade choices to consider and apply for which for me was Electrical Engineer, Carpentry (as my step father was a builder and had taught me a lot back then) or a comercial artist as I was somewhat of a scetch artist as well.. Loved to do drawings of animals and marine life..
Well to my disapointment they shoved me into Clerical work and shipped me of to Pukapunyal, Victoria.. I was so stressed out the weekend that I arrived i was determined to front the captain on the monday and ask for a transfer into a career that I would of been more suited for..
Anyway after some deliberation in which direction my life was headed for and to no avail as to get any of the choices I asked for due to no vacancies in those area's or so I was told.. I just blurted out that I would sooner drive a truck than push that pen in front of you Sir, Ha Ha..
Well bu**er me dead he turned around and said we may be able to do that private as there was vacancies in that field of work..
Next thing I know I was being shipped of back to Bandiana Driver training Camp near Wadonga NSW..
Well the fun began and I must say i was bloody nervous about the thought of wheeling these bloody great Tonka toys (International Mk 111 4x4s) around the traps but I settled into it after a while and started to enjoy the journey.
After 3mths of scrub bashing and general road and Highway driving and rigorous Training on how to get out of sticky situations I came away with what they call a drive only license.. wasn't allowed to carry personal or dangerous goods..
I didn't pass a full license exam due to many altercations with my instructor at the time..
A certain Corporal tried to tuck me under his wing and act as a father figure or so I thought anyway.. i put it down to being the youngest soldier in the course and the fact that I didn't know a bloody thing about motors or how they run, never knew what a distributor or starter motor was and where they were situated or any of those componants were at that stage. I was so let down and disapointed that I didn't get the career i was headed for in the first place I think I just shut down and couldn't really give a hoot..
I joined the Army thinking it was going to set me straight and put me on the right road to a better life, and the fact that I wanted to get away from home due to all the drama's that were going on with abuse and so forth..
The next thing to happen was our postings in which I thought was going to be in my own state of NSW. I put in for NSW as a number one choice followed by QLD and VIC. At least I was hoping to stay on the eastern seaboard and not far from family
to visit every now and again.. But once again it wasn't to be.. Got a 2yr posting to WA, bloody hell the stress levels were getting so much higher now.. I know!! Join the Army they said and see the other half of the world, Ha ha not wrong there!!
SO!!! without any more boring leadup to becoming a full time truckie I settled into a 2yr posting in Perth, got to know my way around by just driving blind in a city I didn't know in a little old Hilman Minx I purchased.. I began to fall in love with this place and the only hassle i had was the fact that it was so isolated from the eastern states..
I actually got to drive some weard and wonderful gear, MK3,Mk5, short and long wheel base Landrovers, Army Ducks, Harley davidson motor cycles, The old left hand drive crash gearbox Studiebakers and whatever else we had on Camp.
So done 18 months there before being deployed over to Veitnam for 12mths in 68-69.
Came back to Perth got my discharge and from there loved the Trucking industry so started my journey into Local, Intrastate and long distance driving till the end of 2010 when I finally gave it all away due to fatigue and being burnt out after 43 plus years..
