Don Evans 2005
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2005.
Don Evans was born into the transport industry in 1936 when his father was operating a carrying business and bus run in the Matcham, Holgate area on the central coast of New South Wales. At this time produce was carried from the farms to the Gosford railhead for delivery to the Sydney markets.
To improve the delivery time to market, Henry pioneered the cartage of produce direct from Matcham to Sydney. This was quite an achievement as the crossing of the Hawkesbury River was by way of Peats Ferry and the road from Gosford to Sydney was noted as having more corners and hills over 50 miles than any road in Australia.
Henry purchased a 2 tonne International and both he and Don stayed loyal to International for their entire business life. Don's early life involved offsiding and learning the transport trade from his father. He obtained his driver's licence at 16 years of age. The direct transportation of produce to markets proved to be a successful move and although it was only on a gentleman's agreement, cartage of beer, oil and petrol and other products were backloaded.As the carrying business grew, the buses were sold off and semi-trailers introduced for better efficiency.
Tragically Don's father was killed in 1958 and Don assumed the management of the business at just 22 years of age. Don purchased the business from his mother in 1964 and concentrated mainly on beer deliveries to the Central Coast. In 1976, when industrial problems escalated, Don sold the trucks and the business was eventually absorbed by Mayne-Nickless. He then became a sub-contractor with Gosford City Council. In 1980 he purchased a new Acco which he operated with a water cart right up until he decided to retire in 2003. Now, he finally had time to restore his 1944 K5 International which the family decided to display in Alice Springs at the National Road Transport museum after Don's untimely passing.Don Evans was involved in transport all his life and on the Central Coast was recognized as a popular and competent business person in road transport in his district.
