Rex Millard

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2008.

Rex was born in Horsham, Vic on Friday 13th May, 1938.  He left school when he was 13 and worked for Gaynors Transport, Harrow as a jockey carting wool, wood and wattlebark to Melbourne and Geelong.

The truck was a 1950, three-ton Austin Loadstar tray and dog-trailer carrying 54 bales of wool, (7 tons), doing three trips per week on very rough roads until reaching Horsham and the Western Highway.  All loading and unloading was done by hand in those days keeping him fit.

Driving records were by time cards.  Speed limits were 40mph in VIC and 25mph in SA.  Rex finally got his licence in 1956 driving for Brown and Mitchell in Harrow.  In 1957, Rex went driving for Barrett's in Naracoote, SA, carting livestock and general freight.  In 1958, he bought his first truck, an AA180 Inter, later an AB184, then a C1820.  In 1970, he sold out and went to Melbourne driving interstate for Ansett Kwikasair, Comet and Vaughans.  In 1976, Rex bought a Mercedes Benz 1418 cab-over, the best owner-driver truck at the time.  He had it for 11 years and got more for it than he paid.  He worked local for Manns, Coynes, Fleetxpress and Finemores doing containers.

His last truck was a Scania 111.  In 1966, he sold out and returned to Apsley, VIC, where he worked as a casual driver until his retirement in 2003.   Rex has great memories of his time on the road; the mateship and friends he will never forget.  He was a TWU member for 25 years.  Rex's lowest moment was when his 21 year old brother was killed in a truck accident.  On looking back, from 1952-2003, the biggest improvements in the industry were, for Rex, the increase from 65hp to 600hp, sleeper-cabs, air-con, power-steering.  All in all, it has been a fifty-year experience that he has thoroughly enjoyed.  Rex has given fifty years to the transport industry and he says he "loved it", thriving on the good times and surviving the bad.