Kevin Maxwell

Kevin (Kirby) Maxwell was born on the 22ndApril 1944. His first introduction to trucks was when he was 10 days old and his father picked up his mother from the hospital in a 1942 Mack Log truck.

His first job was at Rootes Group Dealer working on cars and trucks so after a while he moved into his own business in 1969 at a service station at North Haven.

Considering Kevin started life in a log truck it was no surprise that when a log truck was traded in at Wauchope, Kevin snapped it up. It was a 1970 Oshkosh. He then went onto buying an old 1942 AEC which was very slow but in fact also very reliable, and he took the towing gear off and fitted it to the Oshkosh. As the work became more complex he went on to buy truck number nine, a DA series Toyota Diesel eight Ton tow truck to assist the dependable Oshkosh.

This is just a snippet of 19 years in the towing industry. It is a difficult life with many hurdles and many heartaches. One of the hardest jobs he worked on forms a part of Australian history, the 1989 Kempsey bus crash, where 36 people lost their lives when two Denning buses collided head on just north of Fredrickton.

In 2011 he came across his old Oshkosh for sale in Adelaide. It was pretty knocked about and in need of a lot of repair but Kevin couldn't resist bringing the old girl home. Of course, fixing up the Oshkosh is just a hobby. Kevin will still not let go of the industry and his latest truck is number 15, one of the very last of the Freightliner Sterlings out of North America and the truck is still working.

Kevin is still working too. Nowadays he attends as many truck and trailer shows as he can, mainly vintage because he has such a long history behind him, he is also vintage. He will never be lost from the road transport industry. He will always be there in so many ways and the Road Transport Hall of Fame could be just one of them.