William James Jackson

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2009.

William James (Jim) Jackson was reared on a dairy farm in Loch, Victoria.  He left school in 1947 to run the family farm.  A few years later Jim and his brother, Andy, were appointed Shell agents and delivered drums of fuel and oil products around farms in the region.
They also operated a tip-truck and had a smaller truck to deliver the drums.  The second truck was also used to put in a laneway through the farm for the cow track.  It was the first such laneway in south Gippsland.
In 1960 Jim married Lois and took over the family farm and in 1966 they bought their first semi-trailer and started carting grain to farms in the area.  As there were no silos at this time, farmers used a roll of weld mesh with hessian in which to keep grain.  By 1973 he had five trucks on this work.  In 1972 they started carting bricks into Wonthaggi, Inverloch and Phillip Island at the rate of 50,000 bricks a week until the union took this off them in 1978.  They also carted chipboard from Rosedale to Adelaide and grain and treated posts home until 1976.
Next they carted groceries for Permewen Half Case in Springvale to Gippsland via Albury as no permits were available.  This was until after a six and a half hour court case in Trafalgar court.  A carrier from the western district was also in court and both won their cases and the permit system was abolished.  Today cartage is allowed anywhere in Victoria and is permit-free.  After the court case Jim still carted grain in a smaller way until 1996 when he began to cart the offal from the Poowong abattoirs to Wodonga and brought a load of grain home.  He did two loads a day, five days a week right up until the time he sold his trucks in 2006.  During the 60s, 70s and 80s Jim spent his spare time building truck trays, lengthening truck chassis and building farm sheds in the district.
In 1963 Jim bought a square baler and baled hay until 1993.  Because of health issues Jim did not drive his trucks as much but he employed up to seven people.
In 2008 the farm was sold and Jim left Loch after 75 years and now lives in Lang Lang.