Noon Mahomet

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2010.
Noon Mahomet is currently working fulltime still driving road trains with BIS, carting iron ore, and is based in Whyalla, SA.
Noon got involved in the road transport business in 1965 because his father Sallah Mahomet owned a truck. This was a 1960 model AEC cab-over. Noon remembers this model as being Old, Ugly & Rough as Guts. The company name was S Mahomet & Sons and they mainly carted livestock and general freight. Noon was an owner operator until 2000.
Noon and his brother John Mahomet each bought an International C-series as they both liked these models. Noon then bought a Marmon 1996 model. This prime-mover rode really well and most importantly was very comfortable on the dirt roads. Over Noon's years in the road transport game he travelled all through the top end of NT, WA and QLD and then went onto carting through SA. He had the convenience of having a truck that was able to access these remote regions especially during the wet seasons and on the narrow, rough dirt roads. Carting livestock and prawns required accessibility and reliability to get the perishables through on time. Noon delivered. Noon was renowned for working hard and determined to be on time.
Over the years there has been some highs and lows. The low being the day he came across a guy from Buntine that had been crushed in the cab and unfortunately killed. His rear trailers were up on top of his front trailers and it was a terrible sight!  Noon also came across his Dad's accident but thankfully Dad wasn't seriously hurt. On the other side of it Noon strongly remembers the day he got stuck at Mt. Willowby and Wintina Jump-up, getting bogged there for up to 10 days, going nowhere and then another 30 or 40 trucks doing the same. Those were the days when everyone knew each other and got on so well, it was really family friendly.
Noon feels that the rail will probably never beat the road transport game as it still arrives late and has to be delivered from the rail station where the trucks deliver straight to the door. The other good thing back in those days was there were no log books. Prime-movers were practical in the bush and did not fail because of modern computer electronics.