Lawrie Morgan
Raymond Lawrence Morgan, known as Lawrie, was born in June 1947. Lawrie was bought up on a dairy farm beside the Bruce Highway with lots of trucks grinding up and down the hills. His father had a 6 ton truck that he used to carry pineapples to the rail head and pigs, calves and cattle to the Gympie sale yards which introduced Lawrie to the transport game.
Lawrie started working at the Gympie Co-operative, sometimes driving an old Morris Commercial 4 tonner, which is how he got to know Ken Cullen, an interstate truck driver. Ken would give Lawrie an occasional drive in his AB184 International before he went on to get Lawrie a trailer licence. I was so excited I told Mum, her stern words were, ‘You won’t be driving trucks for a living.’
The next job took Lawrie to Inglewood, Queensland, selling International for Bob Tait Machinery. The job included lots of driving, picking up new trucks in Brisbane and Lawrie loved every bit of it. He was in his glory!
Around that time, Lawrie sold some Transtars to Cullen and traded in an Acco 185V8 cummins with bogey Haulmark trailer. He bought the unit for $6,000 and was so excited – he truly felt like he was in the transport game.
In 1973, Lawrie and his wife Dulcie, moved back to Gympie. Lawrie carted timber to Brisbane and cement and hardware back to Gympie.
James Hardie soon became a major client and most of the hardware on the Sunshine Coast followed. More trucks, more drivers. The free lifestyle Laurie loved so much in his Atkinson 3800 was coming to an end as he became confined to the depot, with Dulcie as the office lady and boss.
Lawrie and Dulcie opened a Brisbane depot around 1979, offering a daily general freight service to the Sunshine Coast. There was a wide variety of loads to all areas but mostly on the Eastern seaboard. Parcels, pallets, timber, fibro sheets, bag cement, machinery, large trees, steel, bricks and a three bedroom home to Moranbah, Qld. You name it, they carted it. Of the 55 trucks and trailers Lawrie and Dulcie purchased, Internationals were a prominent make, and they were mainly purchased from Bob Tait.
The worst trip Lawrie recalls was when he slipped in black soil on the River Road to Dirranbandi in Qld, after a storm. Lawrie had to jack up each wheel and put tree branches underneath each one. After four hours he made it back onto the road. While that trip doesn’t bring a smile Lawrie does smile as he remembers the fun he had in his Atkinson, carrying 40 ton and successfully dodging the Burpengary Weighbridge on many occasions.
Lawrie is proud of the way he and Dulcie treated their staff over the years and of the young ones he was able to mentor. Many staff stayed with them for many years. Lawrie and his wife’s last job, after running the business for 47 years, was to train Craig and Nicole Tesch to take over Morgan’s Long Distance Transport, and as they have continued on successfully, Lawrie feels pleased that he did that job well too. Although Lawrie has retired, his mind is still trucking and he is still in the game.
