A win at Grafton Truck Drivers’ Memorial Wall

Following a story published by Big Rigs about the terrible state of the Truck Drivers’ Memorial Wall in Grafton, NSW, the site has been cleaned up.

For years, ongoing issues at the site had been largely ignored.

That was until Big Rigs published this story on June 13. It was shared 123 times on Facebook – highlighting the issue to a national audience and prompting a response from the Clarence Valley Council, which had workers cleaning up the site within days.

It was Hayley Kay, who contacted Big Rigs to share her concerns. A plaque for her late brother was added to the wall last year.

An experienced road train operator, Justin tragically lost his life on July 20, 2020, when his truck rolled on the Leichardt Highway, around 15km north of Taroom, Queensland. He was just 39.

Kay wrote a letter to the Clarence Valley Council on May 15 expressing her concerns about the Memorial Wall but it had gone unanswered.

In a Facebook comment on Big Rigs’ original story, Sue Pearce described her experience of visiting the site, “Tomorrow is 15 years since my kids lost their dad. I always leave him some flowers on his anniversary and his birthday. When I was last there in September the area around the Memorial Wall was horrendous and it wasn’t a calm space to sit and reflect and I didn’t feel safe there. Sadly this year will be the first time that I haven’t left him some flowers.”

A plaque for the father of her children, Neil, is on the wall. A Grafton local, he had been in the industry from the age of 16, when he started working in the yard for a trucking company. Sadly, he passed away on June 14, 2010, aged just 45.

After hearing that the council had responded to Big Rigs story by cleaning up the site, Pearce went to the Memorial Wall over the weekend – a week after Neil’s 15^th anniversary.

Big Rigs spoke with Pearce yesterday about the current state of the site. She confirmed, “The council did remove the rubbish, they mowed where the rubbish was, tidied the garden and did a strip of mowing around the area. The memorial is on a large reserve, so they haven’t done the rest of the space but it is much better than it was.

“I purposely went in the middle of the day, at about 11am, so that it was bright and sunny and it was on a Saturday so there was a lot of traffic as it’s on a main road. Nobody approached me when I was there. When I went in September last year, I didn’t feel safe.”

Pearce added that the site should have never gotten to such a bad state in the first place. “It was atrocious and disrespectful to the truck drivers whose names are on the wall. We don’t do that to our other memorials. Imagine if an Anzac memorial got to that state?

“I’m hopeful that the council will continue to maintain the area at regular intervals, but I am concerned it will be forgotten again. Only time will tell.”

Pearce also expressed her gratitude for shining a spotlight on the issues at the memorial site. “I wanted to thank Big Rigs and Hayley Kay for highlighting how horrendous the area was and helping to get this done. The locals have been trying to get this fixed for years. I’m very appreciative of what’s been done.”

While the recent clean-up is a big step in the right direction, Kay questions what the council’s long term plan for the site will be.

“They’ve blamed this on recent wet weather when there’s been a problem at the memorial site for the past three years,” she said.

Asked about the fact that it took recent media attention for the council to clean up the site, Kay added, “It shows their lack of accountability unless they’re forced into it. When I approached the council, I didn’t hide the fact that I was coming to Big Rigs. They’ve waited until it’s blown up. I want to know whether this is long term or just until the media attention dies down.”

Asked whether her family feels safe to visit following the site’s clean-up, Kay revealed, “They’re still a little iffy about going, especially with the homeless situation there. At least now it’s accessible which is a big advantage. But I think the council’s solution for the future needs to be addressed further.

“I think the council’s response was poor to be completely honest. It’s a cop out when people know this has been a problem for years. Yes, there has been recurrent wet weather but there’s also been dry periods where this could have been taken care of.”

And Pearce agreed, “I was a bit disappointed with the council statement where they blamed wet weather. It led readers to believe this had only happened over the last few months and didn’t explain why it was in the same state back in September last year when I visited.”