Former Tasmanian Damian Ardle moved to the tropics of north Queensland 15 years ago and hasn’t regretted it.
A truckie for the past 12 years, he has worked for Lindsay Transport, based at Innisfail, for the past seven. The company also has depots at Tully, Mareeba and in Mackay down south.
We caught up with Ardle, 43, after he parked his Kenworth K200 B-double beside Ingham Road in Townsville.
“I have produce to deliver to Cairns. This is a good company to work for,” he said.
Ardle said he mainly travels between the far north and Mackay and was quick to nominate the worst road he gets on. “A stretch of the Bruce Highway between Bowen and Mackay,” he said.
The first truck Ardle drove was an old Bedford. “My dad had a farm in the Derwent Valley region of Tasmania around New Norfolk and I moved up this way 15 years ago,” he said.
Ardle barracks for the NQ Cowboys in the NRL and the St Kilda Saints in the AFL.