PANGQUEE
Leslie James Pangquee, also known as Shark, is Territorian born and bred, his family going back a thousand or more generations in
Australia.
His old man was an old buffalo and croc hunter, working with
Harold Knowles. Back in the day, when he was a young fella he met the renown and legendary Tom Cole when he came and checked his old shooting camps.
His mum, who he is looking after these days, as well as still running fuel between Alice Springs and Uluru from Darwin, is one of the
handful of people who have survived a croc attack in Australia!
In the early eighties, Les got a start with Quansing Transport, running around Darwin doing a bit of courier work with Quansing’s son’s.
After his Darwin courier job, he secured a position with Kwikasair in 1985, based in Alice Springs, driving Mt Isa connections between Mt Isa and Darwin for about 10 years. Halls transport had the contract then, Territorian Express.
Les then went to Gulf Transport from 1995 till 2004. He went to school with Robyn Cooper and was friends with the Cooper family.
He got his start with Gulf at the Granites Gold Mine where his boss was Johnny Blythe. This begun his Gulf depot tour! The Granites Gold Mine (then owned and operated by Normandy), Tanami, Wyndham, Argyle, Derby, Woodie Woodie and Nevada USA, (driver trainer over there for Gulf Power Trains).
In 1995 he went to Wyndham, to hang out with a couple of mates
(Jamie Obrien and Staaky). The late Lance Ward who was managing the yard then gave him a job running the Cadjebut/Wyndham run. This was just after two of the Bilato Brothers had just finished up there, John and Frank Bilato from G&S Transport.
The Wyndham job was pretty full on! Generally the day began with a late afternoon departure from Wyndham, load lead or zinc at Cadje,
return to Wyndham around mid morning, then do it again the
following afternoon, plus a service day. The round trip was 1,164
kilometres. After Gulf/Bulkhaul in 2003, Les slotted into the fuel
industry, starting with Peter Mostran at Shell based in Darwin, at the old terminal Daly Street, Northern Territory Fuel Service.
After his time there, he swapped shirts and drove for Bulk Haul
Fuels, at the Wishart Depot, BP Fuel, then Direct Haul, followed by Fueltrans/ Recharge Petroleum. He also helped commission Vopak, through Shell Daly Street back in the day.
Les is still with Recharge now and was involved with trialling and
setting up the new super quad which is now running on the road. He has over 20 years experience in the fuel industry.
Inducted in 2024
