Shane Knight

Shane Knight bought his first truck off the milk truck driver when he was about 16. Clearly too young to have a licence, he travelled around with the driver picking up milk cans from the farms.

Shane started his livestock business on 24th June 1971 when he purchased a 1969 ACCO with 345 V8 petrol motor. He still has that truck to this day. His business involved carting sheep and cattle from farm pick-ups to local sale yards and the local abattoirs. Shane also moved cattle all over Gippsland. Within four years of starting the business in the 1970s, cattle prices crashed with cows being sold for $10, vealers for 0.50c and bullocks for $20. With things so bad on the farms this meant that the farmers couldn't pay their bills so Shane started working for larger local transport companies driving interstate to help make ends meet. He not only transported cattle but drove log trucks, milk tankers but later a Kenworth cab over carting bread from Moe Sunnicrust Bread factory to Bega six nights a week which at the time was the longest bread haul in Australia.

When Shane got married and had his own family he purchased two existing businesses from local carriers who were getting out of the industry.

Over the years Shane has seen many changes in the trucking industry with trucks and trailers getting bigger and trailers getting longer. Some of the trucks he has driven are a 610hp Mack Titan carting livestock from Roma Queensland to abattoirs in South Gippsland Victoria during the drought, Volvos, Kenworths, Ivecos and Mercedes Benz just to name a few. In fact there probably isn't a truck that he hasn't driven.

Shanes contributions to the transport industry include 45 years driving, Life Membership of the Victorian Livestock Association and fighting for better driver facilities both on the road and at sale yards for which he received a 2015 inaugural contribution award.

His pride and passion in his work should be honoured forever.