John Leeds

John (Leedys) Leeds was born on the 7th August 1950 at Mt Magnet Western Australia. He grew up on Austin Downs station, Cue and from a young age was always interested in trucks. After leaving school he worked for Elders Ltd in Geraldton but he only ever dreamed of owning his own truck. In 1969 he moved to Carnarvon where he drove a Leyland petrol to Texada Salt Mines five days a week delivering mail and workshop parts.

In 1972 John purchased his first truck, a Dodge from John Court Motors, Como and bought a single deck cattle trailer. He was living his dream, building his family business with wife Pam and sons Justin and Matthew to 11 prime movers and 65 trailers and was named the 16th largest cattle transporter in Australia. John worked mainly in the Pilbra and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia with yearly trips to Queensland to pick up stud bulls for clients.

John has carted cattle, sheep and goats over the years but now specialising in cattle transport, operating nine Kenworths and two Macks. He is a hoarder of old trucks and recently started a restoration project that will last for many years to come.

John tells a story of when he was to load at a station south of Carnarvon in the 1970s. He had 23 gates to go through to meet his destination and 99% of the time had to open them himself.

One of his major achievements was designing and building a seven deck cattle roadtrain with the help of the late Dennis Buntine. It was the first in Western Australia to comply with the length rules. Another achievement was being responsible for getting triple roadtrain permits from Carnarvon to Ogilvie and ongoing drought permits for Binnu to Regans Ford in Western Australia.

John is extremely passionate about trucks and road rules and appears in many news items putting his case to the Main Roads which are sometimes taken on board. If he sees something dangerous in the industry then he feels it is his job to rectify the problem.