William Brockman

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2016.

William Joseph Brockman (Brocky), was born in Perth, Western Australia on 5thNovember 1947. Bill's working life started after he left school in Port Hedland where he was employed with his good mate Kevin Hull on ships charged with dredging the harbor to accommodate what was to become the export hub of the Pilbara Iron ore industry.

After a couple of years on the ships Bill decided a change in career was in order and so began his interest in trucks. Starting at the age of 19 in 1966 he worked for MKMO (Morrison, Knudson, Mannix & Oman) for five years as a driver carting sleepers for the construction of Mount Newman and Robe River Iron Ore rail lines.

In 1971 Bill started work as a driver with Vaughan Transport driving a Dodge 7 petrol hauling Roadtrains from Geraldton to Port Hedland, mostly carting building materials for the new Goldsworthy Iron Ore town of South Hedland. Three years after joining Vaughan Transport, Bill purchased a 230hp Volvo N7 from the company and continued to work for them as a sub-contractor, four years on Bill upgraded to a 385hp Volvo N12 and went on to cart food and general freight from Perth to Coles and Kmart in Port Hedland for a further two years. The next four years were spent carting general freight for TNT from Perth to Darwin with a turnaround time of seven days in good conditions.

Bill's next job for lasting 20 years was carting Coca Cola on Roadtrains from Perth to Broome, Derby, Wyndham and Kununurra. Included in his run was general freight and building materials for remote aboriginal communities in the North West.

Bill's sons Murray and David have followed him into the trucking game and both work in the long distance heavy industry and still cart Coke to the North West.

Bill is still in the game after 50 years and is working a transport supervisor for his original employer, Vaughan Transport.