Wayne Kingston

Wayne Kingston was born in April 1949 in Stawell, Victoria. After leaving school, he worked in the shearing industry and various other jobs for two years when an opportunity to work for Pickthalls Transport became available in 1968.

John's work with transport began from that point when he was able to learn a lot regarding business operations including livestock and some general carrying. At the beginning of the next two to three years, the bulk of John's work was stock cartage including sheep and cattle from St Arnaud to Newmarket Bendigo, and sucker lambs out of the Mallee to Portland. Over this period, he continued to work for Pickthalls and gradually transitioned toward general freight.

In 1974, John bought his own R Model Mack and ran from Melbourne to Brisbane carrying general freight, earning between $1200 and $1400 for a return trip, with fuel costing 25% of the gross. The following year John up-graded to a K125, which was a great decision, continuing the Melbourne to Brisbane work for another two years.

In 1978, due to a change in family circumstances, John bought a WS2 Kenworth and worked locally around Melbourne for the following 15 months but realised he needed to change as he found living and working around the city was not for him. A short time later John changed to a W Model and began running to Queensland and the Northern Territory with a road train which had been a strong desire for some time.

Work opportunities changed and John worked from Melbourne to Mt Isa, Townsville return to Melbourne which continued until the late 1980s. This was a great period of his career, with fuel costing 42 cents per litre, and loaded for three legs consistently every two weeks. It doesn't get much better!

Since then John has covered a variety of opportunities including towing a fridge van, to line haul for McColl's, followed by B-double grain tippers, through to flat top and drop deck open trailers up to the present time.

John has been involved in this industry for about 46 years has had the pleasure of meeting some great people and interesting characters. He has had many laughs and been confronted with his share of challenges.

John has witnessed some amazing scenery from Darwin to Adelaide, the east to western coast of Australia and many wonderful places between. How good can a job get?