Gary Baldry
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2015.
Gary Baldry known as ‘Pugsley” was born in Sydney where he attended Port Hacking High School. For most of his adult life he has worked in the trucking industry.
Gary started his career working on tow trucks in Sydney and the outer suburbs. He saw the inception of the tilt tray tow truck. He mainly drove Dodges doing various jobs until he started work with Ian May who is the owner of Peak Transport and contracted to deliver newspapers out of Sydney to Canberra, Cooma and Jindabyne. Gary has done this run for 35 years.
Gary has witnessed many changes on the route from Sydney to Canberra with new highways being constructed so towns were bypassed as well as changes to the operating regulations. Just like mail nothing can stop the papers from getting through so Gary developed an amazing adeptness in circumnavigating problematic traffic hold ups to ensure that newspapers were delivered on time.
There wouldn’t be too many roads in various areas of the Hume and Federal Highway that Gary hasn’t been down, detouring an accident or blockage. For 35 years Gary has started his work day at 8.00 pm making his way to the Telegraph loading dock to load up and start his run to Canberra and beyond, usually arriving in Canberra around 3.00 am.
Timing is crucial as the papers must arrive by a specific time to be offloaded to other waiting vehicles for the continuation of their journey or start of their delivery. Leaving Canberra around 5.00am daily Gary heads back to Sydney, a trip he does five times a week, sometimes more often if required by special request.
Gary’s brother, who was also in the trucking industry, is now one of the names upon the Australian Truck Drivers Memorial Wall in Tarcutta. He is fondly remembered as “Capricorn 1”.
Along the road Gary has made many friends and acquaintances; many are like family. He has a voice that is easy to identify across radio channels. Gary continues to run the Hume and Federal Highways delivering his consignment of papers.