Les Maggs

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at ReUnion 2003.
At the age of 16, Les Maggs was at the controls of a giant Euclid earthmover helping to build Eildon Weir.  When he turned 18, he did what many of our early drivers did, and went to a country Police Station and obtained a driver's licence from the policeman who had seen him driving around for the past couple of years and thought he already had one.
After getting his licence, he started his "official" lifelong career in driving and operating trucks on interstate haulage.  Later he was carting sand and screenings to Pioneer concrete plants.During his many years driving interstate on Australian highways, Les spent a great deal of time delivering fruit and vegetables from the prime growing areas of Victoria to both the Sydney and Brisbane markets. His first trips, in 1952, were in Albions and AECs and it took him thirty-four hours to get to the Sydney markets.  Les reckons that the single biggest revolution in this country was in 1962 when the first batch of KENWORTHs was imported into Australia by D. & E. Cameron Transport.  He was offered a job driving one......can you imagine? From one extreme to another; a six cylinder Albion to a GM6V71 Kenworth in one lifetime!  It was like a dream come true for a man born to be a truckie.  Apart from that Kenworth, his favouritte was a new 1957 Diamond T 630 model he drove for Oppermans Transport.  From his very earliest days in transport up until his retirement he has always been known simply as "Maggsie".