John Charman
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2015.
John Charman was born at the Grafton Base Hospital NSW on the 13th July 1953. His mother passed away when he was six years old. His step-mother nick-named him Boy. John married Angie on the 2nd May 2015 but they had been together for 10 years prior to that. He first met Angie when she was 16. He was driving a 650 MAN with a load of hay. He was chewing PK chewing gum and smelled of Old Spice. He was her hero then and still is today.
John was working on farms as a young Jackaroo driving tractors. He watched the semi-trailers go past and he would pretend he was driving one through the paddock. John's first driving job was as a 20 year old driving a 650 MAN for Orange Freight Lines before working for Lindsay Thompson carting roof tiles.
John's first interstate job was with KR & NJ Brown-Orange in a 1418 Mercedes Benz single drive. He then drove a White Roadboss for the Gilgandra Truck Stop carting fuel. John has driven Mack R600's, Fords, Kenworths, International, MAN's, Scania's and Volvos. He has carted cattle, sheep, grain and general freight. John worked for Shaw's in Darwin driving a Kenworth 909 roadtrain on the Dubbo, Perth, Darwin, Brisbane and Sydney runs carting general freight, mail and props for the movie Australia.
In October 1984, an accident between two large vehicles resulted in John crashing through the safety railing on the Gungal Bridge near Merriwa in NSW. He has been on nearly every road in Australia.
On New Year's Eve 2007 a convoy was allowed to leave Coolgardie WA on the Great Eastern Highway to Perth despite a warning of significant wind changes that were fanning a wild bush fire. 15 semi-trailers, cars and caravans were allowed through the roadblock. 45 minutes later four trucks were destroyed and three lives lost. The other 11 were able to turn around and flee. It was a convoy sent into the flames of hell.
John has a daughter Deborah, a granddaughter Zoe, two step-grandsons Riley and Alex and a step-granddaughter Brooke. He has driven for 42 years and is Angie's highway legend.