Darren Mitchell

Darren Geoffery Mitchell was born on the 27th of November 1967. He was bought home from hospital to the family home which was part of the Spot Cafe Truck Stop in Tynong. Trucks would be stopping day and night.

The family then moved to Trafalgar where Darren attended kindergarten. The next move was to Box Hill where he attended three schools and on the weekends he would operate his father's MF200 Drott while his brother Brendon drove the tipper on the family property in Rushworth. At the age of 11 Darren drove his father's tipper at the Gas & Fuel in Preston being loaded by a Chamberlain backhoe.

After moving to Lilydale, Darren attended Mt Evelyn Tech only passing grade subjects. On leaving school he started working for Eastbank Constructions servicing trucks as well as loading and unloading machines.

Darren got his licence and started working for Complete Storage Systems delivering pallet racking. He then went to work at Readymix Spray Division operating bitumen sprayers. Darren met his partner in 1987 and later went to work for Johnson & Morrison delivering furniture throughout Victoria. He also picked up work at Waste Not Recycling.

Darren bought his first truck, a Toyota Dyna from his mother in 1991 and formed his business, DGM Transport. He would deliver furniture for various companies. Darren went on to get an ACCO furniture truck with a bigger body when he worked alongside his late father Graham carting lounge suites to Billy Guyatts and Sydney Lounges. Darren then bought a FF Hino in 1999 and then a new Iveco ML120 furniture van which he worked seven days a week. Later he purchased a Hino Pro 6 which was the last furniture van he owned.

In 2007 the trucks were sold and Darren began work at Quality Roads driving a float carting asphalt equipment. After the 2009 Victorian bush fires, he bought a R686 Mack Hook Truck with a 25 metre bin. This was used to clear trees from fence lines for the farmers. When this contract finished Darren began working for 1300 Rubbish.

Darren has had three trucks in Australian films, a 1942 Lendlease Chev in Snowy, a 1942 GMC 6x6 in Pacific and a W Model Kenworth in Wolf creek 2.