John Blyth
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2007.
John Blyth was born in Darwin in 1955 and 13 years later he was behind the wheel of a Chev Blitz, out on the Marrakia Plains, south of Darwin, driving for Laurie Howard. At 16 he went to work for McKay Transport (Lyall and Robbie) carting livestock.
From there John drove for Stevens Transport in Darwin, hauling fuel down the Stuart Highway. In 1974 John went into business with Phil and Pat Witte, his sister and brother-in-law. They started B & W Transport hauling mainly fuel and general around the Top End and out to McArthur River.
John also spent some time pulling fuel tanks for Ascot up and down the track, which was at the time, the name given to the single-lane, poorly maintained bitumen road called the Stuart Highway. This partnership ran for some four years. John then went carting livestock again. In 1979 he married Tess and the couple went on to have two children. John drove for Sherwin (which later became Barkly Transport), and later for Buntine in Katherine and Crow Chapman at Cloncurry. John and Tess decided to start their own business and subbied for MacKays in the Top End on livestock haulage before eventually moving their four units to Katherine to haul aggregates and quarry material for Territory Aggregate Supplies and Shorty Hayes. Later, they moved to Toowoomba and John started carting freight on the long haul between Brisbane and Darwin.
John gave away the open road in late 1991 and joined Gulf Transport in January 1992, firstly as a driver, then shift boss, then manager of Granites and Tanami operations for some years. During this time the Blythe family was firmly based in Alice Springs but in 1996 moved back to Darwin with John taking on the role as Groups Operations Manager where he still is today. John knows road transport, knows and understands drivers and knows the Territory.
John Blyth has certainly made an important contribution to the Remote Australian Road Transport Industry and his knowledge is well respected by all in the industry.