William Lowery
William ‘Bill’ Charles Lowrey was born in Nambour Queensland, in September 1951. He was first introduced to trucking as a young child as his father drove trucks and Bill would go with him learning how to drive in the yard. On leaving school Bill did an apprenticeship as an electrical fitter with Queensland Rail.
When that finished, Bill still wanted to give trucking ago. In 1971, at age 20, he got a casual job for a printing company driving a 1 tonne van. After that finished Bill got a job driving a 4 tonne Bedford Pan for Permarest bedding. That finished when they sold the trucks.
After that, Bill went to ABC Taxi Trucks driving a 12 tonne Bedford delivering roof tiles which were hand unloaded - bloody hard work. He then worked for Trevor Hawkins who had six Austin trucks doing deliveries for Elders. Bill then went with Harry Treeby driving a body truck before driving one of his semi-trailers, an AB International with a Perkins motor towing a single axle trailer which required tarps and gates.
Bill then went to Top Dog Transport, which did a general run from Brisbane to Biloela and surrounds and Tamworth to Biloela driving Accos. Returning to Harry Treeby, Bill drove a 1418 Benz with a Hallmark widespread trailer to Young, Parkes and Sunshine Coast areas. Then Bill drove a brand new Dodge V6 536M carting around Queensland and New South Wales. The worst trips in that truck was when he was carting steel for a hospital in Cunnamulla as he would have to wait for the road, which was red dirt, to dry after rain - it could take days. The next truck Bill drove was an Atkinson Bogie drive and tri axle trailer doing general. The flat top was later replaced with a fridge van where he carried Mr Juicy Fruit Juice around Queensland and New South Wales.
Bill’s next job was with Coast Refrigerated Transport. Soon after he started, they were bought out by Mayne Nickless. He carried a varied range of refrigerated products. While Bill was there, he was awarded the employee of the year for the refrigeration section. Mayne Nickless had one of the first B-doubles in Queensland, which Bill drove taking coffee beans to Nestle Gympie and soft drinks to Rockhampton. Bill then swapped to the container section, carrying export containers on B doubles to both Brisbane and Sydney ports, working there for many years.
Bill and his wife Dorothy sold their home in Brisbane and moved to Hervey Bay. He then joined Richers Transport, which in his opinion, was a good company to work for, very professional and with good gear. Bill has worn out four trucks - CH Mack Valueliner, Mack Vision, Western star and Mack Trident. Bill is currently driving the fifth truck, a 600HP Mack Superliner which he is very happy with. He tows B-doubles from the Wide Bay region to Brisbane and back.
After 54 years in the industry, and as Bill will be 74 this year (in 2025) he believes this will be the last company he will work for. Over the years Bill has spent many hours over the weekends cleaning trucks as he always liked a clean truck going up the highway.
