Bill Weller

William Harry (Bill) Weller was born in September 1940 in Melbourne. He is known by his mates as Clodfoot. With no family history of trucks, Bill began driving in 1956 carting hay to local farms on a tray truck. He felt an immediate infinity with it. By the time he was 17 he was driving an R 160 International truck delivering milk cans around the Neerim district. Bill later began carting logs where he drove a number of different trucks for multiple companies.

Bill later returned to delivering milk cans before entering the fresh goods cartage carting tomatoes from Shepparton to the Heinz factory in Dandenong and tuna in bulk from Melbourne to Port Lincoln. In 1961 Bill started driving for McMullen's carting fuel and general. While working for McMullen's Bill drove a variety of trucks including a 90 Hp Leyland Comet. In the years following, Bill drove for some of the leading companies of the industry including Banavis Hancock and Jarvis where he carted various types of goods from scallops and livestock to timber all around Australia. During this time, Bill drove several types of trucks including a 1984 160Hp Cummins powered International and an R600 Mack Flintstone.

In 1975 Bill realised his dream of becoming an owner driver when he purchased a Fiat 619 to cart logs from Licola to Heyfield. In the winter months he carted containers to Melbourne. He later drove a 310 Hp Benz tandem V10 310 horsepower. In 1978, Bill upgraded by purchasing a 1970 250Hp Mack R 250 horsepower which he used to cart logs, tippers, stock crates, flattops and other general trailers. Bill upgraded trucks another four times. His final truck was a Mack 525Hp Superliner he named 'Wild Dog'.

In April 2000 Bill retired but will always keep close his memories of being on the road. One of his favourite memories is the day he and 32 other trucks were bogged for two days. Bill had to walk 12 miles to find the assistance of a grader. Everyone was helping each other and sharing food. Bill's most embarrassing memory was the day he was peeling an orange at the traffic lights only to find that he threw the peel on a police car and later had to pick each scrap off the ground.