John(Doc) Holiday
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2005.
John (Doc) Holliday started working in the transport industry in the early 60s. Initially, he drove trucks for the Hydro Electric Commission in Tasmania. He later purchased his own truck, an R190 International tipper, and went working on dam sites in various places in Tasmania.
In the years that followed Doc drove all through NSW, mostly to the markets. He did this in just about every make of truck you could imagine including Commers, Albion Reivers, Leyland, Atkinson, Bedford, International, Mercedes Benz, White, Peterbuilt, Mack and of course, Kenworth.
In the late 70s Doc joined Cavpower, the Caterpillar Dealer in South Australia, driving a low-loader delivering earthmoving machinery around SA. Sometime later he was given the task of operator training and demonstrating new earthmoving machinery. About that time in Australia the minerals industry was starting to boom and the Caterpillar product was starting to make inroads into the on-highway truck market with the 3306, 3406 and 3208 truck engines .In the mid 80s he was promoted to Cavpower Truck Engines as the account manager where he worked until 1992.
He then joined Caterpillar of Australia Ltd as the area manager for Cat Truck Engines covering SA, WA and NT. It was hard going in those days but Doc is tremendously satisfied to see Caterpillar is the leading engine in the high horsepower market. Caterpillar is keen to support all the local and national industry bodies and this is a part of the job that Doc relishes as it enables him to meet and deal with many of the characters of the industry with many long-lasting friendships having evolved. Doc's genuine love of trucks and engines, and the people of the industry has not waned over the years, and with the support of Caterpillar, he hopes to continue for many more years to come.There is no doubt that Doc Holliday's early years in trucking gave him valuable insight into the problems experienced by truck operators in the fields, mines sites and on the highways of Australia. If ther is one thing all his clients, past and present, always say about Doc, it is that he knows his product inside out.
Those in the industry who have dealt with Doc over the years speak highly of his good character, his sense of humour and his unstinting professionalism and loyalty to his company and his job. Doc is representative of the people that work tirelessly behind the scenes in many ways to ensure that Australia keeps on trucking.
