Colin Vine
Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2011.
Colin Vine migrated to Australia in 1960 at the age of 15. His first job was as a painter, but with a love of steam trains he decided to go into the transport industry. His first job was driving a removalist truck and then he drove coaches doing day tours around Sydney for Pikes Tours.
Colin decided he would like to see a little of Australia and got a job with Ansett Pioneer. He worked for Ansett for 15 years and they were the best 15 years of his working life. He met many wonderful people from all parts of the world and got to see a lot of Australia in the process. One of the most interesting men he met while working for Ansett was an aboriginal man who was a jackaroo. He was travelling to Darwin to have his leg amputated. He was very well educated and had many wonderful life stories to tell. Ansett Pioneer was a great company to work for, one big family. John Morgan was the boss and expected shoes polished, uniforms immaculate and hair cut. He would walk around saying, Do you like working here? to which all replied in the affirmative. He always responded, Get a haircut. There are 44 people looking at the back of your head all night! Ansett Pioneer merged with Greyhound in 1985 and Colin stayed for another 2 years before leaving to work for CSR Readymix in Penrith driving truck and dog, tip over axle trailers for 10 years. Colin then moved to the North Coast and went back on the coaches driving for Premier Motor Services out of Sydney to Brisbane to Sydney. He was then offered a job with Scotts Refrigeration Transport driving interstate Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. His love of Kenworth trucks made him accept the offer. He stayed with them until he was retrenched 4 years later.Deciding to take a holiday he went to Europe and England for a while having not been back in 50 years. Coming home he did a few more stints on the highway with various companies driving B-doubles and singles. Having reached the age of 66 it was time to retire and get off the highway after over 40 years of driving.Colin made many friends and met people from all over the world in his working life on the highway and would not have it any other way.