Terry Douglas

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2021.

Terry Lewellyn Douglas was born in November, 1940 in Mentone, Victoria. His love of trucks began in his early school years in his father’s timber yard in Sandringham, Victoria, but once he left school Terry started as an apprentice fitter and turner. 

At age  20, Terry started work for National Development as a truck driver, based in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. He carted fuel and supplies to camps across the outback, regularly crossing The Great Sandy, Simpson and Tanami Deserts. It was common to sleep in a swag and survive on tinned tucker while on these trips. Terry stayed in this job for a number of years.

In 1966, Terry married Anita and they eventually had two children.  They bought a house in Frankston, Victoria and Terry’s first truck – a bogie drive Acco Tipper in which he hauled packing sand up to the Snowy-Cardinia Creek pipeline. Terry then upgraded to an International Loadstar, followed by a Mack Maxidyne and then a cabover Mack F700.

When Terry secured a job at the Northern Territory Jabiru Uranium Mine, digging the hole for the crusher to sit in, the family moved from Victoria to Darwin.  Terry swapped the tippers for turn-table trailers and dolly units to work for Brambles.  He drove the supply run from the Nabarlek Uranium Mine, back to Darwin, over to Mt Isa railhead and returned with transit-flats.  At times, Terry pulled trailers from Alice Springs to Darwin for Co-ord Transport.

An opportunity arose to buy a Kenworth W model towing Coles refrigerated vans off the Alice Springs rail and up to Darwin and back- loading produce, prawns and timber.  Eventually, Terry traded the W model in for a Kenworth C500 and with this prime mover, around 2000, he started pulling trailers out of Adelaide and Brisbane to Darwin for John Bain Transport.

In 2006, Terry and Anita sold their small mango farm and the truck in order to move to Charters Towers, Queensland to be closer to their grandchildren. For the next four years, Terry carted ore from the Surveyor Copper Mine in Queensland before taking up a job with the Ostojic Group to do Fly-In-Fly-Out work in the Northern Territory and Western Queensland. Terry continues to work for the company as a relief driver on the Tennant Creek - Mt Isa run hauling copper concentrate.