Friendly driver Phill Blake had just fuelled up at a roadhouse when he stopped for a chat.
The 66-year-old drives a UD for Border Express which has its Townsville depot at the Bohle.
“I mainly do local runs around here and have been with this company for six months,” he said.
Originally from Berowra Waters in NSW, Blake arrived in Townsville back in 1976 and loves life in the tropics.
I saw him recently leaving a boat company in a nearby suburb after he had made a delivery.
Noticing his beard I had intended contacting the company to track him down for an interview.
Fate intervened and as I was leaving a roadhouse after smoko and saw Blake, who was happy to have a chin wag.
His beard is still growing and Blake said he had never been a Santa Claus and didn’t think he ever would.
“I used to have a long white beard in the nineties and wasn’t asked,” he said.
With the same name as a former quality rugby league player in Phil Blake, I asked if there was any relation. “He is my cousin,” Blake said.
That Phil Blake played 261 top grade rugby league games for six clubs – Manly, South Sydney, North Sydney, Canberra Raiders, Auckland Warriors and St George between 1992 and 1997.
“I barrack for the local team, the North Queensland Cowboys,” he said.