STORIES FROM THE ROAD MUSEUM in Solomontown, South Australia, Australia | Museum

STORIES FROM THE ROAD MUSEUM

Locality: Solomontown, South Australia, Australia

Phone: +61 429 201 549

Address: 196 Warnertown Rd 5540 Solomontown, SA, Australia

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24.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Loal Coughran was born in Lismore, New South Wales, in January 1926. He was just two years old when he moved to Piggabeen with his family. His father had just purchased a carrying business to service the local rural community. Once predominantly a dairy farming town Piggabeen now consists of acreage homesites and small hobby farms...Continue reading

22.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Gordon Cupper was born in 1928 and went on to become a much respected pioneering carrier in Victoria. ... Cuppers Transport was based in the township of Merbein in a large horticultural, dried fruit and wine region near Mildura in Victoria. Cuppers Transport provides services in transport and warehousing of dry and frozen goods. The current depot was first established in 1962 by Gordon Cupper. Gordon was keen to get into the trucking industry so started the business because he saw there was a need for a reliable transport service. A large number of recent rail strikes had increased demand for road transport. Gordon started off with one truck, a decidedly second hand Ford ex-army Blitz. He managed to replace this with a new Austin in 1949 which he operated for four months before acquiring two new White Super Powers WC Series 22 prime-movers with diesel engines. In the following years Gordon operated a variety of trucks including Ford and Foden. By 1951 Gordon had acquired six trucks. In those days they ran one dedicated truck driver to each truck running Merbein to Melbourne eventually expanding the runs to cover Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and numerous small towns in between. The first transport depot was 80 feet x 40 feet, growing to a size of 30.5 metres to 45.7 metres with a covered loading area and a freezer storage building for frozen goods. Gordon pioneered use of the first semi-trailer in the Merbien region. This lead to the establishment of the first semi-trailer haulage service from Merbein to Melbourne. The business continued to grow with good cartage contracts including transporting beer and supplies to Broken Hill and Wentworth. In 1960 Gordon set up a depot in Melbourne to receive material and products for delivery to Merbein and Sunraysia with Merbein produce being delivered to Melbourne and the markets. This helped the local farming districts to grow and prosper. In the late 1970s Gordon set up a new freight forwarding transport operation to handle bottled wine and orange juice as well as cartage for the local wineries and fruit processors. The addition of frozen product storage was revolutionary at the time. This continued with the support of John Nicholls. Gordon Cupper passed away in February 2012. He is remembered not only as a hard working old school truckie who would give anything a go but a smart businessman who supported his local community and the industry at large. Gordon was well respected among his peers and by his employees.

21.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin Martin William Smith was born in Sydney in May 1947. Known to his mates as Marty, he was an adventurous young man keen to make more of a life for himself than the city could offer. With his tucker bag full and his swag rolled he ventured off to explore Australia. His intention was to work his way around this great wide land. ...Continue reading

21.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Cedric Abood was born in Lebanon in 1930. It was a time of political turmoil and the country was under the control of the French Government. In 1936, with pre WWII unrest spreading through the European and Middle Eastern continents, the Abood family decided to immigrate to Australia. Cedric was six years old at the time....Continue reading

20.01.2022 LEST WE FORGET For my Dad, Ronny Ball, on Remembrance Day. I write this post in memory of my father, Ronny Ball, who passed away in 2017. We took his ashes to the Pioneer Cemetery on this day two years ago. He was a tough old bastard by any ones measure, probably best known for his wild buffalo shooting and croc hunting days in the Northern Territory. However, like hundreds of thousands of others of that era he was toughened by the horrors war long before. ...Continue reading

17.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Jacqueline Emily Baldwin was born to dairy farmer parents in the small NSW town of Urbenville on 1 April 1929; the eve of the Great Depression. ...Continue reading

16.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM HILTON EVERSON was born on the Macleay River in 1916 in the midst of the turmoil of WWI. He was the son of Charles and Florence Everson. Sadly, his mother died when he was just five years old and he was raised by relatives Magnus and Ollie Everson of Kinchela. ...Continue reading

15.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Mervyn Forrester was born on the 5th of July 1938, and grew up on a dairy farm at Woreen in South Gippsland Victoria where he worked the family farm with his parents, two brothers and a sister....Continue reading

13.01.2022 NEW IN THE COLLECTION is this ripper little TK Bedford which hails from Murray Town area. Needs a good clean up but by all accounts runs pretty well. Dont know too much if it's history yet but the TK was manufactured by Bedford and Launched in Australia in 1960 to replace the Bedford S. The TK was meant to be replaced by the TL in 1981 however, the economic turmoil of the day manufacturing of the TK continued as a cheaper alternative.

12.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Alison (Aly) Coop always had a desire to see the real Australia and what better way than a traveling holiday. Her involvement with the coach industry started in earnest in March 1975 when she undertook a crew training trip with Centralian Staff Pty Ltd. The company had founded from the ashes of Centralian Tours just a year earlier and traded as Camping Tours of Australia....Continue reading

12.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM Frank Fidler grew up on the family farm in South Australia. Like most Australians he was keen to enlist when World War Two started but, as farmers, the Fidler family was considered too important to the home front. They spent the war years cropping. ...Continue reading

12.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM RIP Doylie - 32 years John Doyle (Doylie) is a legend in the trucking industry throughout the country, especially in the Northern Territory where he made his mark. He first caught the "driving bug" while offsiding on a trip to Western Australia with his brother Ronnie, at the ripe old age of 18. He loved the driving and the open spaces but especially the characters he met along the way. ... On returning east John enlisted in the CMF in the transport division where he rose to the rank of corporal. In the Army John developed his driving and logistic skills in all modes of transport. On discharge from the army Doylie went to work for Taylor Dalton, behind the wheel of a 1418 Mercedes Benz carting along the Eastern Seaboard. He later moved on to Eagles & Braham, and then carted interstate for Tony Niven at Cold Storage doing the Melbourne to Darwin run. However John's dream, right from the days he travelled with his brother Ron as a teenager, was to own his own rig. He worked tirelessly towards that goal. Eventually his business was born with the purchase of a cab-over Kenworth he called ‘Happiness and his lifelong love affair with the trucking industry began. John moved to the Northern Territory with his young family and formed a partnership with his mate Gary Robinson (Robbo). Soon a W-model Kenworth, and R-model Mack joined their own rigs and the legendary ‘Tipper City’ became a reality. Sadly, John Doyle was tragically killed in an horrific roadtrain accident in Darwin on 11 November 1988. It left us all stunned. Doylie was a legend in his beloved trucking industry, and his exploits are still talked about today. Those who knew him speak of the big man with the big gap in his grin with fondness and love. Doyle is remembered as a true character of the trucking industry, a quick witted larrikan who worked hard and played hard and enjoyed a beer and a joke with his mates. As John used to say Happy Days. Everyone knew, if Doyle said he'd see you on the office at noon, it meant a counter lunch at the Maranga! I knew Doylie quiet well and was good friends with his brother Ronnie from the time I was 18 until he passed a few years ago. I remember John and Ronnie coming out to Marrakai to load buffalo meat when they worked for Cold Storage. I was just 18 at the time. Mum was stressing because the meat buyer in Melbourne was stressing as we couldnt get the load out earlier because rain had blocked the roads. Mum said as they left. "Get going boys. I dont ever want to see that meat again!" That night we went to speedway in Darwin and the boys were there racing their trucks. Mum had a pink fit. Doylie just laughed and told her he was just getting some fast driving practice in so he could get it to Melbourne quickly. Mum forgave him (who wouldnt) but she made sure he was gone the next day. Lol. What a bloke. What a legend. RIP Doylie.

11.01.2022 What happened 100 years ago today. May we never forget. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them. LEST WE FORGET On November 7th, 1920, in strictest secrecy, four unidentified British bodies were exhumed from temporary battlefield cemeteries at Ypres, Arras, the Asine and the Somme. ... None of the soldiers who did the digging were told why. The bodies were taken by field ambulance to GHQ at St-Pol-Sur-Ter Noise. Once there, the bodies were draped with the union flag. Sentries were posted and Brigadier-General Wyatt and a Colonel Gell selected one body at random. The other three were reburied. A French Honour Guard was selected and stood by the coffin of the chosen soldier overnight. On the morning of the 8th November, a specially designed coffin made of oak from the grounds of Hampton Court arrived and the Unknown Warrior was placed inside. On top was placed a crusaders sword and a shield on which was inscribed: "A British Warrior who fell in the GREAT WAR 1914-1918 for King and Country". On the 9th of November, the Unknown Warrior was taken by horse-drawn carriage through Guards of Honour and the sound of tolling bells and bugle calls to the quayside. There, he was saluted by Marechal Foche and loaded onto HMS Vernon bound for Dover. The coffin stood on the deck covered in wreaths, surrounded by the French Honour Guard. Upon arrival at Dover, the Unknown Warrior was met with a nineteen gun salute - something that was normally only reserved for Field Marshals. A special train had been arranged and he was then conveyed to Victoria Station, London. He remained there overnight, and, on the morning of the 11th of November, he was finally taken to Westminster Abbey. The idea of the unknown warrior was thought of by a Padre called David Railton who had served on the front line during the Great War. The union flag he had used as an altar cloth whilst at the front, was the one that had been draped over the coffin. It was his intention that all of the relatives of the 517,773 combatants whose bodies had not been identified could believe that the Unknown Warrior could very well be their lost husband, father, brother or son. THIS is the reason we wear poppies. We do not glorify war. We remember - with humility - the great and the ultimate sacrifices that were made, not just in this war, but in every war and conflict where our service personnel have fought - to ensure the liberty and freedoms that we now take for granted. Every year, on the 11th of November, we remember the Unknown Warrior. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

08.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD RIP Philip (Toby) Harris By Liz Martin OAM Philip Edward Harris (better known as Toby) was born on 7 January 1949 in Longreach, Central Queensland. When he left school he mucked around doing a few offsiding and station jobs here and there before wandering off to the Northern Territory. He always thought he'd like to drive a truck. ...Continue reading

06.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM William (Bill) Hunter grew up in New South Wales primarily in the Sydney and Horsham and areas. After he left school he trained as an accountant working for Permewan Wright, a chain of retail stores. It gave him an interest in retail and an insight into opportunities. It was always young Bill's goal to start his own business. ...Continue reading

05.01.2022 I SPOKE TO YOU IN WHISPERS By Neil Andrew I spoke to you in whispers... As shells made the ground beneath us quake We both trembled in that crater A toxic muddy bloody lake I spoke to you and pulled your ears To try and quell your fearful eye As bullets whizzed through the raindrops And we watched the men around us die I spoke to you in stable tones A quiet tranquil voice At least I volunteered to fight You didn't get to make the choice I spoke to you of old times Perhaps you went before the plough And pulled the haycart from the meadow Far from where we're dying now I spoke to you of grooming Of when the ploughman made you shine Not the shrapnel wounds and bleeding flanks Mane filled with mud and wire and grime I spoke to you of courage As gas filled the Flanders air Watched you struggle in the mud Harness acting like a snare I spoke to you of peaceful fields Grazing beneath a setting sun Time to rest your torn and tired body Your working day is done I spoke to you of promises If from this maelstrom I survive By pen and prose and poetry I'll keep your sacrifice alive I spoke to you of legacy For when this hellish time is through All those who hauled or charged or carried Will be regarded heroes too I spoke to you in dulcet tones Your eye told me you understood As I squeezed my trigger to bring you peace The the only way I could And I spoke to you in whispers...... See more

01.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM For my lovely friends Kelly Butt and Claire Woolmer ...Continue reading

01.01.2022 STORIES FROM THE ROAD By Liz Martin OAM John (Jack) Ancich was born in Newtown, Sydney on the 17th May 1926. His family moved to West Hoxton Park where they had a tomato farm and grew other vegetables. Growing up in a rural environment Jack developed an early fascination for all things mechanical. He was on and off the farm tractor at every opportunity. ...Continue reading