Ian Farmers

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Re Union 2014.

Ian Farmers was born in Nhill, Victoria in 1935. By the age of 14 he was adept at driving the family's 1937 Maple Leaf Chev truck and dog trailer around the Tarranginnie silos. In 1952, when he was 17, he started working for Mavis Rethus (2010 Shell Rimula Hall of Fame Inductee). He drove either an International KB6 or a Leyland Beaver carting sheep in the Wimmera region of Victoria. Ian and his wife June settled on 640 acres at Biddaddaba Creek, near Beaudesert, Qld in 1966. During the drought of 1967-69, Ian drove a 1957 International AS160 with a single axle trailer carting feed from Nhill, back to Beaudesert.

In 1969 Ian decided to go into business for himself and purchased an International R190 and a triple deck sheep crate which was able to be converted into a single deck cattle trailer. He used this to transport sheep and cattle around the Beaudesert district. In 1970 Ian won a contract to cart sheep from the Goondiwindi and Cannon Hill sale yards to the Tancred's Meatworks which was the local abattoir for sheep and cattle. Initially it took Ian six hours one way to travel from Beaudesert to Goondiwindi and at times, it would take Ian a week to pick up Tancred's purchases from both Cannon Hill and Goondiwindi. Ian and June sold the farm and moved into the Beaudesert township and in 1974 they acquired Tranters Transport, which serviced Beaudesert and the surrounding areas. The International AS160 and his International R190 joined them in the renamed company of Farmers Transport. Ian built a shed and 500 tonne grain storage facility including a weighbridge. This was a first for the area.

Ian has owned many trucks over the years including International trucks such as AS160, R190, 1830, 2050, 3070 and Atkinson, Mack trucks such as the R-model, V-liner, Super-Liner and Tridents as well as 460, 404 SAR, T650, W-model and cab over Kenworths. The trailers started with flat tops with gates, tarps and grain traps to aluminium tippers and walking floor trailers. At 78 years of age, Ian has witnessed many changes to the transport industry over the past 64 years and still loves to drive his T650 Kenworth.