Jack Bateman

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2002.

Jack Bateman, Bryan's brother, worked for Ed Cameron who is credited with introducing the Kenworth truck to Australia.  When Jack got married he took his new bride to the USA on their prolonged honeymoon where he ended up driving trucks for a short time in Canada.  Jack wrote back home about all his adventures but particularly about the trucks he had seen on the highways over there on the West Coast of America.

Jack sent particularly glowing reports about a brand of truck called 'Kenworth'.  In his letters, he told Ed Cameron all about them saying that Kenworth would be the best truck to buy for Australia's harsh conditions.  In 1958, Ed Cameron and George Blomfield visited the USA and came to the same conclusions; that the Kenworth marque was the best truck for Australia and the rest, as they say, is history.