Owner operator Phil McNamara enjoys life behind the wheel of his Western Star 6900, travelling far and wide.
He regularly delivers to remote Doomadgee on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, about 140km from the NT border and 95km west of Burketown.
“The last section of the road into Doomadgee is bitumen and beautiful to travel on. The people there are great and the mayor is a nice man,” he says.
However, he adds that the road from Julia Creek to the Burke n Wills Roadhouse needs work. “The Flinders Highway between Hughenden and Richmond also is difficult to drive along.”
Having worked in the Northern Territory for many years before moving to Queensland, McNamara says there are many good things about his work, such as “meeting lots of different people and catching up with drivers who have been around for a long time. The old school blokes are great,” he says. Though he adds, “The over regulating is a big killer.”
We bumped into 54-year-old McNamara at Townsville’s Port Access Road. He was delighted to hear he was going to be on the pages of Big Rigs.
Knowledgeable McNamara has been an owner-operator for the past decade and has had his Western Star for seven years. “It is a reliable truck and good for what I do,” he says.