Brian Barrett

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2010.

Brian Barrett was born in Werrimull north-west Victoria in 1936. At the age of seven his farmer parents moved to South Australia.

After his father purchased an R7 Commer in 1954, Brian began his driving career, carting produce, refrigerators and washing machines from Adelaide to Sydney. The return trip was a load of foundry coke from the Wollongong area. Late in 1955 Brian purchased a Commer Knocker only the second one delivered into South Australia.

At the time he started carrying magazines (Women's Day, Pix and People) for Hopwell's Transport. This continued for 14 years. In 1969 Briain began running across the Nullarbor to Western Australia, Perth and the north-west mining towns. A major contract was with Goodyear Tyres from Sydney with tyres to Perth and earthmover tyres and conveyor belting to the north-west during the 1970s. Some of the conveyor belting never came across the Nullarbor but was delivered via the Northern Territory into Port Hedland, Dampier and Tom Price.

During the early to mid 1970s local work was undertaken in the north-west with consignments being picked up from the Meekatharra railhead and delivered to mine sites. This meant being away from home in Adelaide for months at a time. When Goodyear stopped producing tyres in Melbourne in 2007 the major contract ended. At this time the mining boom really hit Western Australia and mining equipment was transported from Melbourne to Perth for the next two years. Agricultural equipment was the main load from Perth through to South Australia and rural Victoria.

Retirement beckoned in January 2010 after 56 years of service to the transport industry.