John McDonald
John McDonald known as 'Macca' to his mates was 'truck mad' as a kid and on his school holidays never passed an opportunity to head to Sydney in family friend Ronnie Heffernan's S2 Kenworth. John's first gig in the transport industry was with K & S Freighters in Mt Gambier carting timber and paper in a 1418 Cabover Benz before going to work for Dave Hecker running Perth in a V8 Mack carting steel.
A few years later he was pulling out of Brambles in Footscray carting express freight to Sydney in a V8 Mack for Constantino Cartage, working alongside his good mate 'Pig', where they were carting band equipment to the concerts for the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Skyhooks, John Farnham and Kiss, just to name a few.
John later went on to work for Patterson Bulk Transport in Cooke Plains carting gypsum to Brisbane/Sydney or grain to the locals in bulk tippers and in the off season pulling road trains to Darwin carting general. After 20 years of service with Patterson Bulk he left to drive quads in Port Headland.
Four out of John's five children are also involved in the transport industry and thank their mother Raelene for a great job raising them whilst he was away driving interstate.
John is now working for McAleese Resources in Port Headland carting iron ore out of the Atlas mine sites and back into Port Headland wharf driving a 909 Kenworth tri-drive with quad side tippers, 170 tonnes when fully loaded and a beautiful truck to drive. Working on a fly in, fly out roster John looks forward to spending one of every three weeks back home with his partner Kaye at their Wellington home on the Murray River.
It's a great industry; If John could get one thing across to new drivers it would be to drive safely and take care on the roads. Accidents happen, but be that extra bit careful as to not go down that road. He has met some fantastic people and driven with some great mates over his 41 years within the transport industry and John says a special thanks to everyone in his extended transport family, they know who they are.