Reginald Brien

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2006.

Reginald Brien started carrying produce from the Victoria Market in early 1922 for his parents' shop, The Croydon Fruit Palace, in Main Street, Croydon, and meat and small goods for the locally based Croydon Butchering Company.

His first truck was a 1922 T-model Ford van bought at a cost of £378.  This vehicle was also used for carrying furniture.  On weekends it was fitted with removable seats to take people on picnics and local footballers to matches.  It was one of the first dual-licence furniture vans in Victoria.

Over the years he carried local produce, furniture and farm machinery and also offered furniture storage.  Reg provided a daily service to Melbourne using a depot at Queens Wharf Carriers and, after the war, at All Red Carrying Company, Latrobe Street, Melbourne.  Amongst the more unusual freight carried were the mice used in experiments at the ICI Merrindale Research Station and the luggage and supplies (including the milking cows) for the Sacred Heart Monastery on their annual tip to their summer residence at Shoreham. 

In 1957, he won the cartage contract for Johnson Bros. Crockery and carted crockery through the Melbourne region.Return loads often consisted of bagged plaster and other materials used in crockery manufacture.  Bulk silica was unloaded at Croydon rail siding and transported to the Johnson Bros. Factory. 

Over the 54 years of the business he owned many trucks including Ford, Gray, Dodge, Chevrolet Reo and International with a variety of trays, semis and bodies.  The truck garage was situated in Main Street Croydon on the corner of a laneway.  It was later renamed Brien's Lane in recognition of Reg as a local pioneer.  Reg's, brother Les, also operated a similar transport business in Healesville.