Sean Hinds from Beaconsfield in Tasmania first burst into my life as an ebullient 13-year-old who had come to Adelaide to go for a ride with Robert Nicholson in his ‘Rig of the Month’ 1982 LNT 9000.
It seems that Sean was already an aficionado of trucking publications and had written to Robert requesting a trip in his new truck, to which Robert happily agreed, after chatting with Sean’s parents, Kevin and Pat.
Robert recalls how much he had enjoyed the trip and Sean’s enthusiasm, and he subsequently went to stay for a few enjoyable days at Beaconsfield with the family.
Then a year later I had a phone call from Sean’s father, Kevin, asking if we could put Sean up for a couple of weeks during his school holidays, and take him around with me while doing my Big Rigs rounds and interviews and maybe get him a ride in a truck or two.
Kevin, who was then driving for Boral, explained that Sean had recently achieved straight A’s in all his subjects, with a 100 per cent attendance, and that his teachers believed he was capable of a university career.
Kevin and Pat had discussed it and decided that perhaps the best way to get Sean over his obsession with trucks was to let him ‘overdose’ on diesel, and maybe experience a trip or two away to see the reality of life on the road.
I discussed this with my friends and family and we were all happy to co-operate. So finally, there we were at the airport picking up this 14-year-old young man, who spoke endlessly about trucks, and life in the Boral Quarry where his father was based, in between drinking cappuccinos and packing up with laughter.
First to the BP Truckstop at Wingfield and introductions to all my personal friends and acquaintances, who immediately began planning when and where they could take him.
And take him they did, and by all accounts they all enjoyed doing so greatly, and found him witty and entertaining, if prone to taking an occasional nap, and then needing a cappuccino or two at every truck stop!
His first trip away was with Harry Stamoulis in a car carrier to Brisbane and return. This must have been an entertaining trip all round with Harry’s endless fund of stories and also his willingness to stop over at truck stops along the way between Adelaide and Brisbane and a highlight for Sean was going out on the town with Michael Papametis, Paul’s brother.
Sean fondly recalls that “apart from meeting all these interesting friends Harry had along the way, and his interesting stories, mainly I was impressed at the vast distances between towns along the way. Especially out Broken Hill way, and also the stop overs at Little Topar which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.”
Then there were a couple of trips to the south-east with Des Meier in the T600, where Sean tells us he had a great practical introduction to the job.
“Being young, and fit as I was, made stacking the cartons in the pan easy, and it was interesting seeing the origins of toilet paper and tissues! That trip with Des has seen a good friendship develop that lasts to this day.”
Next was a trip to Woomera with Gary Sheahan in his “Chug Along Transport” SAR which gave Sean a desert and mining experience and a lesson in forgoing his regular coffee stops, “but as I remember, it was the amazing outback/desert scenery that really impressed me, and the colours of the Flinders Ranges.”
And there was one memorable trip to Ceduna with “Agro” and Pharen, doing a changeover at Ceduna and then return to Adelaide.
“That was a great experience on many levels,” Sean recalls. “It was also my first long trip in a cabover Kenworth and it opened my eyes to the many road trains we saw, especially at Port Augusta, coming down from Darwin, and the sheer size of the trucks as well. It was like a window into another world in fact.”
In between trips away there were the times spend chatting freely with all and sundry at the BP in Wingfield, which was always like a family gathering.
Here he could enjoy his coffees and reminisce about his times spent working in the quarry.
He also met some real legends of the industry here such as Gerry Hoare, the first woman to drive a road train in the Northern Territory (for Downard Pickford’s) and whose W-Model Kenworth was always immaculately detailed, right down to having doilies on the dashboard.
It was Gerry who pulled Sean up in full stride talking about his experiences in the quarry with a quiet remark one evening that: “Yes Sean, but it would have been easy work for you in the quarry as all you had to do was say ‘giddy up Dobbin!’ every now and then.”
There were also the girls and Barry on the consol, and Eileen and John in the kitchen, all of whom accepted him as part of the family.
Of the BP, Sean remembers: “It was such a great place, great stories and great mates, and tucker, and coffees. It was sort of like coming home every time I went there.”
So, did he overdose on trucks? It only appeared to increase his appetite for a life on the road, and it was a reluctant Sean that we took to the airport to return to Tasmania and school.
Well, much to his father Kevin’s sorrow, on leaving school Sean steadfastly stuck to his stated ambition of driving, trucks mainly, but also some earth moving and heavy equipment as well.
But before that, with a little persuasion and a friendly Big Rigs editor (John Pickford) Sean was to add another accomplishment to his belt, while he was 15 and still at school, he became the “Tassie Devil” with his own column in this esteemed masthead which ran for about 18 months.
Admittedly this was done with a lot of help from his mother, Pat, who drove him here and there, distributing copies of the paper as far as Epping Forest.
Well trucks were really a Hinds family affair and with his late father still driving for Boral and his brother Tony a professional driver as well, Sean went straight from the schoolroom into the Stornoway Quarry and up at Breadalbane, also working with the Stornoway road-gang.
At 18, Sean began his career at Boral, working the quarries. When he turned 19, he obtained his HR licence and began driving 10-yard tippers, also loading ships at Bell Bay, for different companies to gain as much experience as he could.
At 21 he gained his HC and moved from the quarries to Boral’s logistics team.
After some years Sean’s career took him from quarry worker to driver to field supervisor/allocator and this entailed office work, which combined with management and staff changes didn’t fit well, so he pulled up his pegs and found work driving for Prospect Timber and Landscaping, where he was really happy for a couple of years.
“During this time, I sourced a Super-Liner Mack tipper up in Queensland. With the help of my brother, Tony, we organised it to be floated to Melbourne, then across the water to Tasmania. Back home, I restored it and showed it proudly at Epping Forest in memory of my dad in January of 2018.
“By now there had been a change in management at Boral and I went back to them again and stayed there for another six months.
“I then followed this manager back to Prospect Timber and Landscaping which suited me down to the ground.”
There was lots of excavator work in the company’s sand pit at Cleveland and home every night to wife Susan and their three girls, Jordan, now 17, Prudence now 20 and Maddison now aged 22.
Sean then heard of a good job over on the West Coast in the iron ore mines at Savage River mainly driving dump trucks and associated heavy equipment.
“I applied for the job, was duly interviewed, and accepted, and went off to Savage River working shifts and on a rotating roster of four days on, four days off.
“It was a great experience, but it soon became obvious there were some serious drawbacks, even though I did enjoy working with some amazing heavy machinery.
“I really enjoyed the job, and the crew, but by the end of the day I had to come home and be with the Susan, who was having health issues again, and the family as they had to come first.”
We have watched Sean over the years looking after his father, and then 15 years ago, on December 28, 2009, Susan suffered a major stroke with the necessity of removing a section of her skull to alleviate the swelling. Subsequently the bone was found to have an infection involving the insertion of a titanium plate and more trauma.
We have watched her heroic battle to return to health and reclaim the lawnmower from Sean, who had indeed done a splendid job of being nurse and housekeeper for the girls.
Recently, she suffered from another episode but happily Sean has been home with her, and she is once again returning to her old self.
“Susan is just the most courageous and amazing lady you could imagine, and I look with pride and love at our family, the three girls, Jordan, Prudence, and Maddison, and all we have been through, and all the ups and downs we have survived right up to today, and it has all been worthwhile.
“And whilst Pat guided me through my career from being Big Rigs’ “Tassie Devil” to being on hand, with Max [Pat’s second husband], to help out here and there at home today, I count myself a lucky man indeed.”
Sean, now 45, also quickly found a job closer to home with Gradco, and what a top job it is too, he enthuses.
“Top outfit, top crew and I am driving a top truck, a T610 Kenworth with a 550 X-15 Cummins up front towing a quad dog and happily I still have a gear stick as I always prefer a manual.
“This turns out to have been a timely return to being out on the road, as I had lost the passion a bit, I have to admit. A brand-new Kenworth and being home-based has refuelled my vocation and keeping busy carrying products from our many quarries to projects all over the state.”
So, does he regret forgoing that academic career, which had beckoned in his younger years, for a career in trucking?
“Not really as I always knew what I wanted to be, simply a truck driver. And I count it as a great fortune that I have been able to stay true to my dreams and to achieve that.
“I do take pride in being one of a large brotherhood of drivers out there across the nation, day to day, keeping the country running and taking a great deal of pride at doing it without undue fuss and professionally. And I still reckon young people could do far worse than finding themselves a foothold in the industry, and that there is still a great future in driving today.”