Phillip Hannant
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2023.
Phillip Keith Hannant, ‘Phil’, was born in February 1963 in Laidley, Queensland. As the son of Adrian and Gay Hannant of Forest Hill, the owners of Hannant’s Transport est. 1972, Phil was destined for a career in transport. Phil started as an offsider with his dad from the age of 15, in a 1975 V6 Mercedes Benz. One memorable trip included a nine-day stopover at the blockade at Bendeemer in 1979.
In 1980 Phil obtained his license and started work for Peter Joseph, carting produce from Brisbane Markets to Moree, New South Wales, and grain in a convertible tipper from Narrabri, New South Wales, to Beerwah, Queensland. Mid 1981 Peter Joseph ceased trading. This was when Hannant’s Transport purchased a 2238 Mercedes Benz which Phil and Adrian operated together for 6 months, prior to Adrian moving into mechanical work.
It was in 1981 that Phil took control of the family transport business, leaving his parents to focus on their service station business. In 1992 Phil married Michaela Moore and went on to have two girls – Erin in 1993 and Allysha in 1995.
In 1991 Phil was approached to directly cart Fowlerware/Caroma bathroom fixtures from Wetherill Park in Sydney to Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. During the 16 years he had this contract there was only one load that was damaged. Pretty incredible considering how fragile the freight was.
Phil was proud to be awarded runner-up Australian Trucking Association Driver of the year and like many others spent his weekends washing and polishing his truck. His theory was if it was clean and tidy the ‘scalies’ would leave you alone.
In 2005, Phil made the decision to take a role as a transport operations manager, working for two different companies before settling into a role at Nolan’s Interstate Transport, where he worked until his retirement in 2023. However, during that time Phil and Michaela continued to operate their business and faced many of the trials and tribulations that others in the industry would be familiar with. In 2022 due to ill health and economic conditions, a decision was made to take the business in a different direction.
When asked about his favourite trucks – Phil simply states, ‘All of them’. He describes his most memorable trip as one to Perth in the ‘Benz’, taking a load of James Hardie each way on a flat top. His most interesting load was a load of fireworks from Yandina, Queensland to Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, in 1994, accompanied by a Pyrotechnician by the name of Frank, who according to Phil, was a little crazy.
Phil is now ‘retired’, although, his definition of that is a bit interesting. He currently drives trucks as he pleases (which is all the time) and has plenty of offers of work from a variety of friends and acquaintances in the industry.
