Every truckie who stops at the Auski Roadhouse Munjina Village in WA is offered a free meal with a choice of anything on the menu.
It is located on the corner of Great Northern Highway and Munjina Road and is about 200km from Newman and 260km from Port Hedland.
Truckies will often remark “that nobody gets anything for free these days”.
I spoke to roadhouse manager Lee Beaton and asked him how truckies qualify for the free tucker.
“All they have to do is tell us their birth date which we register on our computer,” Lee said.
“They have to come in a week before or a week after their birthday and get a free meal with their choice from our menu.
“Many of them can’t believe it. We call it our truckies’ birthday club.”
Lee was coy about revealing how many had received the meal but he did say “it was quite a lot”.
The roadhouse employs 25 staff and is open from 5am until 9pm.
Fuel is available and there are clean toilets and showers plus an extensive menu.
“Just today we sold 18,000 litres of diesel and the favourite food for drivers is steak, chips and salad and our famous burgers. We also offer our truckies a roast of the day or a curry so that they will have a quick and easy meal and go,” Lee said.
Hundreds of trucks a week stop there and there is extensive parking.
“We get a lot of heavy vehicles carrying machinery,” he said.