Graeme Burfoot
Graeme Burfoot, known to all as Trumby, was born in Rockhampton, Queensland in 1976. Trumby came from a transport family, his father, Graeme Burfoot Snr, was a coal train driver for the Queensland Rail for forty-seven years. Trumby made his start in the transport industry in 1993 as a seventeen-year-old, when he was offered a yardman position at McBride’s Transport. He had to jump off the Grey Hound bus in Tennant Creek and return to Alice Springs as he was on his way back to Queensland when the offer came in.
Graeme spent three years as a yardman for Dean McBride, where his duties included cleaning of the yard, pit and wash pad, general servicing and washing of trucks, replacing wheel bearings and greasing trailers. During this time, he was also fortunate enough to be given his nickname ‘Trumby’ by Dean McBride himself and in true Territory fashion, the nickname stuck.
At age 21, Trumby was given his first lap around the block in a Ford LNT9000, nicknamed ‘Bullant’. Guy Watts, McBride’s Workshop Manager, had tasked him with hooking-up some trailers and pulling them through the shed so they could be serviced. This turned into regular two-up trips to the rail yard where he loaded the mail before returning to the yard with fellow drivers such as Snow, Creeky & Stoney. This allowed Trumby to gain experience for an MC licence. Once he had obtained his licence, he started his regular twice a week hotshot route carting freight from Alice Springs to Darwin in a Ford LTL nicknamed ‘T-Model’.
Once McBride’s shut up shop in 2001, Trumby kept truckin’ for Line Haul NT, Tim McBride and Bunkers, still carting freight up and down the Stuart Highway and he even had a regular route to the scenic Ayres Rock and Kings Canyon over the years.
Trumby settled in at Directhaul in 2008, under the guidance of Tony ‘’Peachey’’ Petras. He was put through the relevant licences and accreditations to further his career in the transport industry as a fuel tank driver. Trumby would cart fuel from Alice Springs to Port Agusta, then Alice Springs to Darwin in a Kenworth C509 and T909 from 2008 until 2014 before deciding to stay closer to home and take on the responsibility of servicing Pine Gap and the remote communities and cattle stations surrounding Alice Springs in a Kenworth T404 or a Mack Titan when a bigger load was required.
Staying local meant maintaining the Directhaul Depot in Alice Springs for the last seventeen years and counting, which has resulted in Trumby gaining and maintaining many working relationships with fellow drivers, mechanics, station owners, operators as well as customers. Over the years Trumby has earnt himself a strong reputation as a reliable, knowledgeable, wild and well experienced ‘Territorian Truck Driving Legend’ who always puts a smile on the faces he comes across.
He might not venture far from the Plenty Highway nowadays, but every now and then he’ll fill in for a long-haul trip when he gets the itch and best believe he still pulls up for a feed at Three-Ways and remembers every bump in the road from Alice to Darwin and back again.
