William Richardson
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2014.
William Billy Richardson was born in 1948 in Oakey, Queens- land. Young Billy did a variety of other jobs before settling into his career in the transport industry in 1979. His first job was driving for John Thies Transport on a daily run carrying hanging beef from the Toowoomba Abattoirs into Brisbane. A few years later, in 1982 Billy decided to start his own company and Richardson's Refrigerated Transport, based in Toowoomba, was created.
Billy bought his first truck, an ACCO, from Pat Tracey and used it to cart dairy products from Unity in Toowoomba to Brisbane. The business grew rapidly and soon expanded to include a mixed fleet of Mercedes Benz, Internationals, Road Commanders and Ford Louisvilles. By now Richardsons was carrying a diverse range of freight interstate including from Beef City near Oakey into Sydney and general freight to Brisbane and Melbourne.
One of Billy's most memorable and proud moments was when his daughter Tracey and son Brett used the Louisville prime movers as their wedding transportation. The wedding photographs made Truckin' Life magazine and were hung on the walls of truck-stops.
Billy and his wife Jenny ran their successful business up until 1991 when a large scale transport company undercut their prices which forced them into receivership. Even that could not keep Billy off the road. During this time he carted dangerous goods, drove gas tankers to Surat in western Queensland for Bill Atkins and carried general freight for Troncs for more than 10 years. He ended his career in the mining industry driving side tipper super trains for Brambles before moving onto water carts and 797 rear dumps at the Moura Mine in central Queensland
Billy continued in the transport industry until his retirement in late 2013 due to ill health. Although formally retired you can still find him driving his son-in-law's trucks for fun. He cant keep him- self out of them. Billy has been nominated by his wife Jenny and children Brett, Tracey and Hayley all of whom are proud of him.