Kathleen “Kathy” Knee
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2022.
Kathleen Knee, better known as Kathy, was born in August 1948 in London, England and moved to Australia at the age of eight. The family settled in Victoria’s Dandenong area.
After meeting and then marrying Peter Knee in 1968, Kathy became involved with the transport industry, accompanying Peter on trips from Narre Warren in south eastern Melbourne to Robinvale in the north west of Victoria. They carted oranges with a Ford F500 which Peter named “Miss Kathy”.
By 1974 Kathy had joined the Knee family company in an administrative role. One of her duties was to track the road tax payable on general freight which was a very time consuming and frustrating task!
In 1978 Kathy and Peter settled in Piangil, north of Swan Hill in Victoria with their two children and in 1984, the family business changed direction into full-time transport. Kathy became the office manager, where she undertook all the administrative and book-keeping duties; in those days, all the ledgers were completed manually.
In 1998 Kathy, Peter and their son Barry started their very own transport business, Barry Knee Haulage, in which Kathy’s role was full time office manager. The business operated a daily freight service to Melbourne and Kathy immediately started organising loads for their small fleet. When the business grew to a fleet of seven prime movers and a variety of trailers, Kathy was kept busy organising produce freight to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane and backloads of general freight.
Industry compliance standards become a huge part of the business and Kathy implemented the programmes and maintained the records. Due to the increasing work load, two more office staff had to be employed. Kathy’s work ethic and organisational skills were exceptional and inspired many staff members to whom she was totally committed. Over the years Kathy built a great rapport not only with the staff and their families but also with the customers, suppliers and subcontractors.
Kathy also attended the annual Nat Road conferences as a means to stay up-to-date with the latest road transport industry developments, law changes, current issues and trends.
In 2016 the business moved into a new purpose-built depot complete with new offices. Kathy was delighted to be operating from these new premises until her retirement in March 2022. Having worked for some 47 years in the transport industry, Kathy has seen many changes from compliance standards and increased government regulations to computerization and better communications.