Peter Holt

Peter (Holty) Holt was born in Melbourne on the 7th June 1949. He was raised in West Footscray, went to Kingsville State School, then Altona North Tech and left school at 14. He started in the transport game with Brown & Mitchell in Footscray when he was 15 as a dock hand and in the office. At 17 Holty was doing local deliveries in tray around Melbourne. Upon getting his car licence at 18 he started doing country runs and a few runs to Adelaide.

Peter married Heather Lee in 1969 and not long after moved to Mooroopna, Victoria. After getting his semi licence he drove for a few different transport companies in the area doing country, local and interstate runs carting wool, grain, fresh fruit and general freight. Peter became an owner driver in 1978 and began doing interstate full time. His first truck was a 1418 COE which he later traded in on a White Road Commander. Unfortunately Peter's first trip in the Commander was short lived only getting as far as Yass. It was the first day of the Razorback Blockade and he was there for the entire duration. After the blockade finished, Peter pushed himself to the limit trying to make up for the lost revenue but after 12 months he handed back the truck and trailer, going bankrupt in 1981.

Peter and family moved to Geelong where he got a job with Baun & Wallace doing earth moving. He stuck this out for 18 months but the open road was calling him so he got a job with Rudd Transport carting livestock. This was not Peter's cup of tea so he went to McColl's in Geelong for the next 22 years doing mainly interstate runs.

One of McColls customers upon getting a new client would ask for Peter to do the first load as he was a patient man and would do anything to help unload the tanker. David Stevens from McColl's got Peter and Gary Byford from Byford Tankers to design the first road tanker made by Byford's. Peter had this for 2½ years and then received the first Mirror Finish Milk Tanker. He towed this for 14½ years keeping it looking like new for all that time.

Peter represented McColl's putting his International Transtar, then his Ford LTS with the mirror milk tank into shows, winning 17 trophies. His biggest win was in the 1993 at the Museum of Fire Trucks show in Penrith New South Wales. Peter took all the main trophies as well as Best Truck in Show.

In 1993 Peter was awarded the Pride of Workmanship by the Geelong Rotary club for his voluntary work with Convoy for Kids in Geelong and his respect for work and co-workers, the time and effort spent preparing his equipment for the truck shows and the PR work he did at customers sites.

In 2004 Peter went into semi-retirement and with Heather spent 2½ years touring Australia. Getting back to Geelong, McColl's asked Peter to come back and he settled on doing local work delivering latex chemicals to paint factories around Melbourne as well as the odd trip to Nhill and Tarcutta. He also took on training new drivers in loading and unloading tankers and the correct use of different pumps and the safety that goes with it. Peter made up a mud map book with all customers in it, how to get there, the layout and what was needed to do the job. These books were printed and put in all local trucks.

Peter finally retired in 2014 and now helps the family with what is needed. He is a good handyman doing gardening, carpentry and building things for the family