John Dinan
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2014.
John Dinan (JD) was born in Mansfield in 1939. After leaving school in 1954 he started work as a dozer driver at Mt Buller in the alpine region of Victoria. As soon as he turned 18 he started his first truck driving job. It was with Clarence Hancock in a Bedford truck carting hardwood logs to the Mansfield sawmills.
After he married John moved to Albury and took a position with HR Hanel driving an International R190 semi truck from Albury to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. John says this truck was his favourite truck of all those he has driven over the years.
John went on to have driving stints with many companies over the years but most of his driving life was based around Albury and the surrounding area where he worked with many iconic companies such as Roadair, HR Hanel, AJ McLeish, John Corrigan Transport and Hurldawn Pty Ltd at Myrtleford where he spent over seven years carting pine logs.
During his diverse driving career John Dinan has carted most things including general freight, livestock, grain, wool, logs. He has seen a lot of changes in the industry, most of which, he says were good. He well recalls the days of loading by hand then tarping the load and then driving to Sydney and unloading by hand. He has driven from Albury to Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and travelled two up to Perth and other numerous places. One of Johns more adventurous trips was taking paper to Darwin for Corrigans. The roads were muddy and with the wet season arriving early John was stranded by flood waters and it took over three weeks to get back home. John's last job was running from Wagga Wagga to Euston with Epsom Express carting for Australia Post.
In May 2011, at the age of 73, John decided he'd had enough of being away from home and wanted to spend more time with the grandkids. He began his retirement. He had somehow managed to raise seven children while he was absent from home a lot over the years but is now content to spend his time with family.
