John Kelly
John Kelly 1932-1999 RIP
John Kelly was born on the 14th March 1932 at Warwick in Queensland. He always wanted to drive trucks and at age 16, after obtaining his drivers licence, he began working for Western Transport in Toowoomba. He lived in a boarding house within walking distance of the depot and this was where he met Pat, his future wife, who was literally the girl next door.
Western Transport, at that time, had acquired several different companies so they had a variety of different truck brands in the fleet including Leyland, Chev, Mack and Ford. Vehicles were scarce due to the war. Western Transport imported a Dennis and Scammel which came out to Australia as part cab chassis units. The cabs were completed in Western Transport’s own workshop by a Dutch coach builder. John recalls these trucks were slow and only had a top speed of about 40 miles per hour.
Later, Western Transport imported Mack trucks to Australia. John’s favourite was a B Model Mack V8 with a quad box and single drive which he used to pull a bogie refrigerated van to cart KR Darling Downs small goods to Sydney. In 1972 Western Transport sold the company to Bell Brothers in Western Australia and John remained an employee for a further four years.
In 1976 John left Western Bell and began helping his wife Pat in a convenience store and it didn’t take long before he decided that the shop needed a truck to cart groceries, fruit and vegetables. John found a near new R model Mack and this was the beginning of the transport company John Kelly & Sons which went from strength to strength under John’s guidance and leadership.
Over the years John built his own fleet to 14 prime movers and trailers. He ran his own workshop where he built his own trailers and tautliners and did all his own repairing and painting of his fleet. John’s three sons have all worked in the company in one capacity or another.
After a total of 53 years in the transport industry, John Kelly passed away in 1999 but the transport company he established still runs today (in 2015) in his honour.
