Rodney Bielenberg
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2011.
Rodney Bielenberg was born on the 20 November 1959 into a transport family from Longreach. Rodney spent his early days off-siding in trucks and working in the sheds until he was old enough to start driving. Straight into roadtrains carting livestock at the age of 17.
Rod worked in the family business alongside his father, uncle and cousin as driver and director of Longreach Transport Co for 13 years. At the age of 30 Rod and his wife moved out on their own to run R & K Bielenberg Transport hauling livestock around western Queensland, northern and western NSW, central NT and WA. All of the early years were spent driving Macks predominantly.
In 1994 Rod moved to Blackwater after selling his trucks and trailers and worked for Zeilke's Transport carting coal for two years. After going through a divorce Rod moved onto Gracermere to raise his 3 young daughters. He found work driving for a few local companies; Brian Keehn Transport, Jordan's Transport and Linfox to name a few.After carting milk for 10 years with Jordans and Linfox for Parmalat, Rod moved into a different area in transport. In 2010 Rod started working for LCR carting rock at Gladstone on the seawall project driving triple roadtrain side tippers. He moved on from driving to supervisor and then to project manager June 2011.Rod quoted, ... 'the most enjoyable part of my life in transport was the earlier days of comradeship carting livestock in the west working with the likes of Barry Myers, Jim Oliver, Greg and Bob Harris, Steve Doyle, Dave Bielenberg, Garry Ballard and Toby Harris."
He considers himself privileged to have had two great mentors: Rod's father Gundy Bielenberg, and Rod's Uncle John Bielenberg better known as Uncle. Both have been inducted into the National Road Transport Hall of Fame.He dedicated years to his daughters by working long hours away from his family to provide and to support them in all the things they want to do, nothing was ever too much. On many occasions Rod's youngest girl would be his offsider as they share a true passion for the transport industry.
Rod has been very fortunate to marry a local Rockhampton lady who stands behind him in his transport life. Now he is in a role where he hopes he can pass on his experience in the transport industry to help any new comers into the industry. Rod believes that young new drivers need encouraging and mentoring so that truckies like him can go on moving Australia's vast range of transportable goods.