John Soullier
John Soullier was born in December, 1959 in Perth, Western Australia into a trucking family as his father, George, owned trucks. When he was a youngster, John’s family bought a farm in Eneabba, Western Australia where his father also worked as the local cartage contractor. After school during harvest time, John would help out by shovelling grain from hessian and weld mesh field bins into a pencil auger which was then loaded onto a truck.
When John had finished boarding school in 1977, his parents sold the Eneabba farm and shifted to Dongara. There, John was able to get a job for a farmer, driving an eight-wheel Acco with a three-speed joey box, to cart grain to Geraldton.
In 1980 John bought a 250-horse powered 1973 Kenworth W series to cart grain, fertilizer and general freight. In 1993, he upgraded to a 350 horse power 1976 Kenworth SAR and road trained with trailers, grain and fertilizer from surrounding areas to Geraldton.
In 1985 John sold up and moved to Darwin, Northern Territory, where he worked in the logistics of freight between Darwin and Sydney, New South Wales.
Returning to Western Australia in 1996, John started working for Keune Transport. Driving a Volvo F series with triple belly dumpers, John carted Ammonium Nitrate to the Pilbara and Kimberlys. Soon after, he was one of the first in the state to operate a quad road train, hauling 170 gross tonnes with a 520-horse powered Volvo FH. The truck did a mighty job but was known on the road as ‘a mobile stop sign’!
John then went to work for Giacci in Geraldton in 2007 but when the business was taken over by Qube, John stayed on to do local work. He carted mineral sands from processing factories to the wharf for shipping, driving a 700-horse powered truck to do one-kilometre round trips!
Retiring in 2016 due to health issues, John still lives in Geraldton and goes caravanning every winter, ever mindful of not holding up the trucks on the road. Inducted in 2021