Legendary truckie Mavis Jarred will never forget the day she went in to ger her official licence as a teenager already well versed in negotiating Western Victoria’s most punishing roads.
“The police said take the bloody thing home, he knew I could drive it,” laughs Jarred who celebrated her 99th birthday recently by reflecting on her amazing career with ABC reporter Angus Verley on the Victorian Country Hour.
Listen to the full interview by clicking on the audio clip below.
Born in 1922, Jarred officially started driving trucks as a 19-year-old and went on to have a 50-year career on the road, only retiring in 1993 at the age of 71.
Today, Jarred has traded driving trucks for tending her garden with her husband Neville in the Wimmera town of Nhill.
But her amazing contribution to the industry will never be forgotten, her invaluable input memoralised with induction to the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame in 2010.
“I was always treated like a lady,” Jarred tells the ABC. “I was like a mum to all the other young truckies around here.”
