Brett Harder was born on the 31st May 1966 in Cummins, South Australia. His love of all things farming and trucks started from a very young age. On the farm, trucks were a plenty with Leyland, Bedfords and Dodges being the work horses that carted the grain, wool and livestock around Kimba and to Adelaide. Brett was hoisted into the drivers seat as young as 5 years old and helping to
complete jobs around the farm was normality for many years to come. This is where Brett’s extremely hard work ethic came from and his willingness to not give in till a task was complete was ingrained.
As he grew up, he always had an eye for the big shiny rigs whizzing past the front gate on the Eyre highway admiring them as they flew past.
Brett’s first real truck driving job was with Kenny Lamb where he took the wheel of a Kenworth S2 and then onto a cab over Kenworth with a 400 big cam in it by the name of ‘Cannon Ball Run’. From Kimba Brett then made the move down to Port Lincoln where he took up a job with Eyre Transporters doing many different jobs but his favourite was hot seating an ex Cleveland’s Mack Muncher cab over Kenworth with a 400 in it. With general and fish to be delivered to Adelaide they kept that truck ticking over right round the clock having to make deadlines at the Adelaide airport.
Brett eventually made the move to Adelaide where he took up a position with
Titans, and at the age of 25 he bought his first truck, a 1993 Western Star
Heritage with a 425 cat in it. He was subbying for Titans carting dry cement in tankers and within the next two years had purchased three Western Stars in
total.
His work only grew from there acquiring his own work and implementing tipper work into his busy business, Harder Transport.
Brett had always wanted to move back to Port Lincoln, so after buying a yard and moving his business and family back to Port Lincoln he successfully continued to build the company purchasing drop deck trailers and more tippers to expand and support the agricultural industry of Eyre Peninsula.
Over the time he purchased 13 brand new Western Star trucks, but his fixation with Kenworths and their reputation, slowly took hold and saw the whole fleet move to all Kenworths over time. At the peak of Harder Transport, Brett had 15 prime movers running around constantly carting grain, super, wool, machinery and general freight. His passion for Kenworth trucks has saw him purchase 26 new rigs in total with the last being in 2022, an SAR W900 Legend 50th Annivery. His pride and joy though being his 408 SAR that he himself did a massive amount of kilometres in.
The grain and drop deck work has seen his fleet all over Australia, and at times having prime movers in every state across our beautiful national. With this though came the pressure of running a big business and being a Dad to his three children. With all this going on though Brett always prides himself on his entire fleet looking immaculate and being presented impeccably with his signature paint designs and accessories choices on his trucks making them catch your eye anywhere and anytime. His famous saying painted on his trucks ‘no rain, no grain’, a reflection of the down to earth nature of this hard working man, and his connection to the agriculture industry and Eyre Peninsula community and what makes it all tick.
A loyal farming customer telling of the 28 years that he has been using Harder Transport as his carrier not once have any of his trucks ever held up their
headers or been late for a load. This again is a testimony to his hard work and dedication.
Bretts dedication to his business Harder Transport and his passion for trucks and the transport industry sees this man held in extremely high regard not only on Eyre Peninsula, or South Australia but Australia wide.
Inducted in 2024
