John Duffy
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2019.
JOHN (JD) DUFFYwas born in Murwillumbah in 1943. In 1964 John married Lyn Munt and today they are parents of three and grandparents to five. John first started driving at the age of 17 in 1960 for Load Carriers carting waste products from the BP Oil Refinery in Brisbane in a Bedford rigid truck. A year later he moved to the food distribution company of Barry & Roberts at Hamilton in Brisbane. He drove a Fargo rigid truck delivering general all around Brisbane and surrounding areas. In 1964 John moved over to Athol Flynn. Based out of Newstead he drove an a Austin body truck carting clay pigeons from the wharf to Belmont Rifle Range.
From 1965 through to 1975 John drove for the Department of Supply at Cannon Hill driving long bonneted Leylands, Leyland Comets, and bonneted Fords. He carted coins from the Mint and delivered to the Reserve Bank in each capitol city of Australia. He also did a stint driving government chauffeured cars during which time one well known passenger was Lyndon B Johnson, former President of the USA. In 1974 John went to work for Tom Meadows Transport at Rocklea driving long Transtars on the Gilgandra changeover. From 1977 to 1980 John worked for Brisbane Carrying Company driving a White Road Boss powered by 290 Cummins towing flat tops, floats and skells. He carted containers from country networks throughout Queensland and New South Wales including shale coal from Proserpine back to Brisbane and long wide loads of machinery.
In the early 1980s John drove a single axle 1370 for the late Keith Dowdel out of Cubico from Melbourne to Brisbane. This was followed by two years with Joe Bonnica doing triples to Darwin in a 480 Hp Gumboot Scania. From 1985 through to 1987 John drove a W Kenworth for Mick Travlos doing TNT overnight down the eastern seaboard. In 1988 he drove with Neville Volker running Brisbane to Rockhampton doing overnight parcel freight. When Neville decided to sell the truck John became a subbie for McPhees for the next 18 years. In that time he went through four Scanias and two Pantechs. When "overnight freight became a chaos game "John moved into general freight carting containers and wide loads throughout Queensland.
John retired in 2010 after 56 years in transport. He has fond memories of his time on the road and the mateship he found. Despite the hardships of the industry, for John, they really were "the good old days."