The road transport industry is deeply engrained in Clynton Hawks’ family. “I’m a sixth generation in the industry, starting with bullock drawn wagons on the Darling Downs,” he told Big Rigs.
Both sides of my family are from transport. My mother’s side owned Eyers Brothers Transport out of Toowoomba and they had 65 trucks at their height, and owned Murrell Freightlines out of Wollongong.”
Both his mother and father worked there.
“As for my grandfathers, one carted logs in an old Dodge from Dalby to Sydney with my uncles and my other grandfather ran triples to Darwin for TNT,” he said.
Hawks’ father started Paul Hawks Transport 30 years ago but closed in 2016. The trucks carted general freight to the NT and Western Australia for cattle stations.
“I opened Hawks Freightlines in 2020. We have two trucks: one Ford LTL with a KTA19 600hp Cummins and an old Mack Value Liner with a Strait Six in her,” he said.
With the average age of truck drivers in Australia being in their fifties, at just 23, Hawks is part of the up-and-coming next generation of truckies, and he says he loves driving trucks too.
“It’s a great job and you get to see this beautiful country. In my spare time I’m a politician fighting the good fight on issues that matter to everyday Australians. I blew the lid off the AdBlue fiasco at the start of the year and forced the federal government to fork out tens of millions of dollars to make AdBlue available in Australia,” explained Hawks.
“But I advocate very strongly for bettering the transport industry and stopping the over regulation. After all, the transport industry is the most over regulated industry in this county,” he said.
Hawks is also a member of the Katter Australia Party.