Truckie Maarten Bramwell, 30, was unhooking trailers from his Kenworth T909 when Big Rigs saw him in the scorching heat.
He works for Townsville based Western Bulk Haulage and had been carting fuel in a triple road train out west.
It was at the breakdown pad locations on the Townsville Port Access Road and the temperature was around 36 degrees.
Not far away on the other side of the road two scalies were there ready to check trucks heading to the Port.
“I regularly take fuel out to Cloncurry and also to other places like Quilpie, Birdsville, Barcaldine and Aramac,” he said.
Between 2009 and 2016 Bramwell was in the Australian Army based at Townsville’s Lavarack Barracks and in Brisbane.
“I drove lots of Army trucks including a Kenworth 909 similar to this one, Macks and Unimogs. It was great and I learnt a lot,” he said.
When on the road Bramwell likes stopping at the Nindygully Hotel for a hearty feed and an icy cold soft drink.
Nindygully is 45km south-east of St George. “The Gully” as it’s locally known, is pretty much four houses and a pub on a riverbank.
Although Bramwell is also known as “Junior” he has already had extensive experience as a truck driver having been behind the wheel of many different models.
His previous job was driving a Mack Superliner for Lowes Petroleum Services and before that worked at a Central Queensland mine.
During his career Bramwell has driven along some bad roads and I asked him to nominate the worst.
“The road between Aramac and Torren’s Creek is very rough and so is the Flinders Highway in sections,” he said.
Outside work Bramwell enjoys pig hunting especially out west where many huge animals would damage the environment.