For this instalment of Truckies through Ararat I’ve gone over the border to South Australia to catch up with Joely Wilkosz who has been driving trucks since he started fixing them as an auto electrician at Daryl Robertson’s in Horsham back in 2008.
Joely is currently driving a Kenworth T409 for a farm in Callington to do the road train and B-double work, or a 2008 Mack Trident which is the farm truck and a L9000 Ford Louie for a bit of truck and dog stuff around the smaller paddocks.
He explains to me there was something about seeing a truck drive past him as a young tacker. He loved pumping his arm hoping they’d toot as they drove past that got him hooked and to this day, he does it himself to every young fella he sees.
The smile on their face, and the disgust on their parent’s face, makes it all worthwhile for him, laughs Joely.
Whenever Joely heads up to the river land in the road train for a load of red gum, the Chinese shop in Nyah is unbeatable when it comes to a good feed. Park the truck, sink a few longnecks with some honey soy chicken and he’s as happy as Larry.
When I asked him for some advice for the up-and-coming drivers he said, “Start small and don’t try and tackle the big gear before you’ve mastered the smaller combinations.” He explains it took him a long time to come to terms with that.
He remembers trying to reverse an A-double in his mid-20s and feeling like a complete failure when he couldn’t
reverse a B-double.
So, start with what you’re comfortable with first and don’t try and swing with the big guys when you can’t throw the small hammer around.
Joely grew up on a small family farm in Jeparit, Victoria, so in his spare time he loves growing things. Not under lights, but small garden things.
Now living in the Adelaide Hills, he loves growing a full patch of pumpkins and peas on dirt that’s only good enough for bark chips.
One of his favourite trucks he has driven was an A-double for the Furphy family farm in Pingrup in Western Australia in the great southern wheatbelt back in 2015.
It was an 1985 LTL9000 Ford and even though the sound of it would drive ya deaf each day, driving it to the CBH each day for his four loads was a feeling that’s hard to beat.