Ted McIntyre

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2010.

Edward Wellington Palmer (Ted) McIntyre. 1891 1953, hailed from Port Macquarie where the family was engaged in farming and oyster leases.

As a young man he moved to McKinlay, Queensland in 1920, where he worked as a carpenter and butcher. He then pioneered a motorised transport business which operated from 1922 until the Great Depression put him out of business.

In those years, all mail, supplies and wool were hauled on large four wheel wagons, pulled by horse teams, to and from the Rail Head at Gilliat. Ted saw an opportunity to introduce a truck to do the same. In 1922 he purchased a new Model 41 International 2 ton truck competing directly with the teamsters. Ted was successful and over the following years he increased his fleet to six vehicles, the largest being a new 1926 three ton model 63 International truck and trailer. His business centred around Eulolo Station, McKinlay, Kynuna and Gilliat, carrying station supplies, fuel, wool and bailed hay. In 1930, Ted carried 1645 bales of wool from Eulolo Station. The Mckinlay/Kynuna mail contract was won in 1925 and he operated this service until 1930 with a new Dodge utility. In 1929, he built single and double deck sheep crates to move sheep on his three ton truck. One trip was from Eulolo to the Riverina to bring new breeders back to Eulolo, a round trip of 2700 miles. Ted sold Chevrolet, Ford and Overland trucks, motor cycles, shearing plants, engines, Lister parts, as well as fuel.

Ted McIntyre was the Qantas Airways Agent, servicing and fuelling their planes at McKinlay. He recovered a Qantas De Havilland DH50 air craft with a call sign GAUER that had crashed at McKinlay in 1927 and took it to the Qantas workshop at Longreach for repair. Ted ushered in a new era of motorised transport and services, operating in harsh, remote country where communication was poor and road were not much more then tracks in the dry and bog holes in the wet. The challenges were great and required Ted's determination, business acumen and good bush mechanical skills to succeed.

Ted McIntyre was the father of Doug McIntyre, who founded McIntyre Freight Lines Brisbane/Darwin Service in 1964-71. Doug was inducted in 2003. Ted is remembered in the area as the man who kickstarted the motor transport industry there.