William Goldsack

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Re Union 2003.

The first twelve years of Bill Goldsacks working life were spent in the sawmill industry.  After that he made the decision to buy a truck and make his fortune.  He traded his Austin A70 on a new 160 International tip truck and began working for the Dandenong quarries.  This was 1955 and on a good day he would make 24 pounds.

The lure of long distance transport got to him and he convinced his wife that was the way to go.  With a 24' semi and a load of Victa mowers, he was off to Brisbane via Sydney and the New England Highway. He had only been north of Melbourne once before and that was to Sydney on a trip with the late Norm Robinson in a 4-cylinder Foden.  He was 17 at the time and vividly recalls how it was the excitement of that trip that gave him the urge to travel interstate.  Bill eventually progressed from his original trailer to a car carrier and carted Volkswagons to Sydney and Brisbane.  Later the International was replaced by AECs which served him well.  Later he pulled trailers for Ansett for 18 months before deciding to have a go at something else.

Bill considers himself to be very fortunate in that he has seen such great changes in road transport over the last 48 years.  He remembers seeing the first Kenworths on the Sydney to Brisbane run, and like a lot of others at the time, especially truck drivers, he thought the cabins would fall off on the then rough roads.  How wrong they all were.  He saw the rough, dirt, back road between Sydney and Brisbane develop into the Newell Highway.  Later of course the Hume Highway was duplicated and major towns were by-passed. The Princess Highway opened to semi-trailers between Eden and Orbost.

Bill's only regret as a truck driver is that he feels he probably influenced his only son Trevor to be the same.  Regrettably Trevor was killed in a truck accident at the young age of 34. Bill retired in 2003 at 80 years of age following a long career in trucking.