John (The Ferret) Moran

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2002.
John "The Ferret" Moran began his forty-year love affair with trucks in Rockhampton (QLD) in the late 1950s when he was just 23 years old.
He carted pineapples from Yeppoon to the C.O.D. Cannery at Koogal and later moved into stock carting for Stan Cook Transport.  He then worked a time for Hoffman Haulage when they were building the new airport in Rockhampton before later joining GF Wigginton Transport.John eventually moved to Bundaberg where he drove for McBride's Heavy Haulage and then onto Brisbane where he worked for a variety of transport companies including Vic Lago and Smith Bros Transport, McIntyre Freight Lines and in the latter part of his career Brambles Tanker Division.  With such a diverse range of trucking history behind him it is no doubt that John gained an exceptional insight into an industry he clearly loved and enjoyed working in throughout his entire life. The Ferret will be most remembered for the seventeen years that he wrote the "Gossip Column" and "People Column" in Truckin' Life magazine.  He also wrote and photographed a lot of pictorials in that time and put a smile on thousands of faces while he was doing it.  He had an uncanny knack for finding out things about people and telling the world about it through song, poetry or writings.The Ferret's other claim to fame is his unstinting work in founding Convoy for Kids where truckies raise money for children's charity.  However, he will also be remembered for the many things he wrote and sang about during his careers in trucking and writing.There is no doubt that it was those truck driving years that gave this man his wonderful insight into the camaraderie of the trucking industry.