Peter Rawlins

Peter Rawlins was born in Murray Bridge in 1949 and grew up on a farm in the area. At the age of 16 his family bought a dairy at Jervois. As there was not enough work on the dairy farm the family bought two trucks which were a Bedford and an International and became heavily involved in transport. Peter was carrying livestock, hay and fertilizer for the farms in the local area. They built their own business up until they had two trucks towing 8 wheeled trailers running full time. They ran them all over Australia until a family tragedy. They then sold up and went to work at Blenkiron's of Murray Bridge doing livestock, grain and general freight all over Australia.

In the late 70's Peter left Murray Bridge and went to live in Queensland. Peter settled in Dalby and started a job at McGiver Brothers where he worked for 10 years. This was quite different for Peter as he drove a W Model Kenworth with two double deck cattle trailers until they got permits to pull 3 trailers. This was a test of driving ability as most of their work was on dirt roads. The roads at that time were quite challenging. Peter only saw home one night a month if he was lucky. During this time he was promoted to road boss. Peter did a lot of work in the gulf country as McGiver's was one of the first transport companies to run road trains in that country as many of the roads were tracks they made through the scrub which soon turned to bull dust holes which really tested their skills. As Peter was the leading driver it was his job to make sure all trucks and drivers returned safely.

In the late 80's Peter moved back to Adelaide where he thought he could get a job driving local trucks but ended up driving triple road train from Adelaide to Darwin for the next four years.

Peter then went back to Murray Bridge to do livestock transport and carted grain all over Australia. Peter's next move was Scott's of Mount Gambier driving Kenworth B Doubles all over Australia.

Peter finished his career owning his own truck and doing local deliveries in Adelaide. He is now retired.