Robbie Blott
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2005.
It was a young and willing sixteen year old Robert Blott who first took up the wheel of a Bedford truck back in 1961 to drive from Warooka on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia trucking bags of salt.
The old Bedford would lurch along the rough bitumen roadway to Adelaide where, as a young strapping lad, Robert would unload the 100kg bags by hand the same ones he'd just loaded by hand at the start of the journeyRobert then went interstate driving between Adelaide and Melbourne. He did this for a while before going driving for Smith's Earthmovers at Willunga, SA.
He arrived in Alice Springs and was soon hauling Coord freight for Buntine Freightways. He says he easily slipped into 'the Territorian' way of life'. Robert eventually went north to cart cattle for Buntine Roadways and consequently sat behind the wheel of that well-known B Model Mack 'The High and Mighty' driving many miles through the relentless bulldust and corrugations of the beef roads in the dry, and the boggy quagmires they turned into in the wet season.
After purchasing his own Mack, Robert started hauling for Ansett from Adelaide to Darwin. Following this, he 'subbied' for McDonald Transport doing a trip a fortnight for Coles in Darwin from Adelaide. At the time it was dirt from Pt. Augusta to Alice Springs and a single lane excuse for bitumen between there and Darwin. When he was sick of long distance he moved to Coober Pedy carting bitumen. Robert then relocated to Gawler, SA and became involved in the chicken growing industry.
In the last twenty years he has successfully created several businesses servicing this industry including the cleaning of sheds, mulching and spreading of straw litter, establishing two chicken growing farms and operating a medium size semi-trailer fleet for the loading and cartage of live chickens. Robbie Blott is one of those truckies who did the hard yards on the long runs and has well and truly earned himself his place on the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame.