William Uebergang
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2015.
William (Bill) Uebergang aka 'Ganga' was born in Colac Victoria 1943. He began working in the transport industry in 1963 carting wood for Les Green of Robinvale in an old Commer. In the late 1970s he was pulling a 34 foot sheep crate out of Bourke and the northern sheep stations into the Yelta Saleyards, all before carting logs into the Robinvale Sawmill in a Ford 700. Bill also drove a Leyland Super Comet carting logs before his boss Mick McConnell put him in a new MAN 175hp.
After carting logs for around 20 years, he went on to drive interstate for Robinvale Transport pulling a fridge van in a White 1967 Cabover which he later bought off them along with the fridge van. Bill was then running Sydney to Adelaide with a couple of trips to Perth carting produce and margarine until he traded the White for a new Road Boss In 1977.
In 1990 after driving over 15 years interstate Bill gave it up and moved from Euston to Coleambally where he sold the fridge van and purchased a tipper. As work grew so did Bill's fleet and within three years he was running five trucks, a Transtar, a Ford LTL, a W model Kenworth, a Road Boss and a Peterbilt. He has since clocked up well over three million kilometres in the Road Boss and in 1979 it was featured on the front page of Truckin' Life.
For the past 10 years Bill and his partner Maureen Tarbett have been doing seasonal work at harvest time carting wheat or grain, with Maureen driving the Road Boss while Bill drives the Peterbilt. In between the seasonal work Bill was carting soy beans to Melbourne.
Now with 51 years up his sleeve in the transport industry Bill is trying to slow down as he nears towards retirement each year. He is now back to just two trucks and says being his own boss and being able to work when he wants is why he has stayed in the industry for all these years. The trucking industry has been his life and well, that's all his ever known!