Greg Brooksby

Inducted into the Rimula Hall of Fame at ReUnion 2015.

Greg Brookbsy was born in and raised in Naracoorte in regional South Australia. His first job on leaving school was at Padthaway Transport as a yard hand helping wash trucks and load trailers. He loved watching the trucks come and go and yearned for the day he could drive a truck and purchase one of his own. In 1972 Greg worked for Crisp Transport driving local and interstate, carting livestock to Melbourne and Adelaide in a D Series Ford tray truck and later in a F700 Ford.

In 1976 he decided to have a go as an owner driver and bought an N series Volvo and stock crate off Sid Crisp. Greg later traded the Volvo on a new 3070 Acco powered by a V8 903 Cummins. It was set up with a trailer for general freight and a stock crate that could carry 2 1/2 decks of sheep or 1 1/2 decks of cattle.

Greg's work was predominately carting livestock, however he also carted general freight and the odd load of grapes. In 1984 he upgraded to a cabover Kenworth powered by a 350Hp Cummins. He bought a new trailer set up for general freight and then a convertible crate, two deck cattle and the three deck sheep. Greg continued to cart livestock until 1988 when he decided to sell up and work as a driver. He then pulled tankers all over the country for Gerickes of Naracoorte starting in a 320Hp Mack. For six years he operated a B-Double carting fuel, oil and tallow.

In 2012, after 24 years of service with Gericke's, Greg decided to head out west to join his good mate 'Pancho' in Port Hedland. He got a job driving a Kenworth T909 tri-drive quad carting iron ore from various mines into Port Hedland.

In recent years Greg has been pulling triple tankers carting fuel out to remote mine sites from Port Hedland, in a Freightliner or Volvo on a fly in- fly out roster. This sees him spending two weeks in Port Hedland and flying back home for one week to spend quality time with his wife Lindy and their four sons.

Greg has made a lot of good mates working in the transport industry over the past 40 years. He is recognised as one of Australia's peers of industry. At the end of the day he says “that’s what trucking is all about."

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Wilfred Brooks Snr

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Darrell Brown