John Barrie Sculley

John (Barrie) Sculley was born in 1928 and one of his first jobs was a sub contractor for Wridgway Furniture Removals.  He was one of the early pioneers transporting furniture across Australia from Melbourne to Perth on a regular basis in the 1950s across the 1,000 miles of Nullarbor Plain. This was when it was a dirt track, sandy and bumpy when dry or muddy and slippery when it occasionally rained.

Barrie started with a 1952 Commer and then moved up to a Foden which Barrie couldn't fault with its reliable Gardner motor.  He clocked up 400,000 miles in the first Foden before he sold it and most of that was over some of the worst roads in Australia.

He was the unofficial postman for Balladonia, Madura, Eucla, Koonalda and Nullarbor stations, doing any shopping for them in the big cities and then delivering all the 'goodies' on the return trip.  He made over a hundred crossings of the Nullarbor Plain.

With two companions John was the first to deliver furniture from Melbourne to Darwin overland via Alice Springs in a Commer fitted with a Perkins P6 diesel motor.  They delivered the first furniture to fit out the new Fannie Bay Hotel in Darwin in 1955.  The track north from Pt. Augusta went through dry creek beds and even disappeared at times.

After 20 years with Wridgways John Sculley purchased Gold Coast Removals from Reg Ansett in 1971 and started operating as an Ansett Wridgway's agent.  He sold the business and decided to retire in 2006.  John comes from a good solid transport family.  His grandfather, EA Watts, operated a furniture removal and storage company with horse-drawn vans back at the turn of the century in Gore St, Fitzroy, Melbourne, having the only telephone in the district.

That enthusiasm for trucking has carried on down through the generations.