Alan “Chummy” Adams

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2008.

Alan "Chummy" Adams was a truck driver for many years driving mainly on the Hume Highway.  When Alan came out from England in the early 50s he started driving for Kraft Cheese doing local and country work.

In 1952 he was lured to Albury, southern NSW to earn the big dollars at Roadair; fourteen pounds a week.  The first truck he drove for Roadair was a Chev Maple Leaf with a single-axle trailer.  The trip from Melbourne to Albury used to take six and a half hours.

In those days drivers had to cross the main rail-line eight times resulting in numerous flat tyres and broken springs.  As well as general freight, Alan carted beer from the Richmond Brewery to southern NSW.  In those days bottled beer was packed in paper  bags similar to cement bags.  Regulations meant all loads needed a permit so often a load of tin plate would be covered with a load of vegies.

Later Chummy drove a 190 Inter pulling a refrigerated trailer from Sydney to Melbourne and returned carting goods such as pork and margarine.  In 1955 he started driving petrol tankers between Albury and Melbourne and continued until 1973.  After taking long service leave in 1973, Chummy gave the highway a spell and went driving local trucks, but this only lasted for a short while and he was back on the highway as a shuttle driver in a Ford Louisville.

In 1979 Chummy was back on the tanker run and stayed for a few years.  The company had undergone several name changes over the years to Yellow Express, Fleet Express and Luya Julias.  In the late 1980s Finemores owned the company and Chummy was carting logs from the pine forest all around Tumbarumba, Tumut, and the Batlow region to the mill at Albury.  It was hard physical work but kept him fit.

Alan retired from the road in 1989 aged 61 having spent 37 years working for the same company.

However, he still keeps an active interest in what is happening within the industry.