A butcher by trade, Larry Brewer, 61, has now been driving trucks for 17 years.
Larry says he had dreamed of being a truck driver since he was just eight years old, however life led him on a different path.
As Larry told Big Rigs, “I got my first job cleaning a meat room in a supermarket after school to earn some money but I really wanted to be a diesel mechanic. I applied for a diesel mechanic apprenticeship and a butcher apprenticeship. I got offered the job as a butcher and took it… then a few weeks later I got offered the diesel mechanic apprenticeship, but I’d already started working as a butcher.”
He eventually went on to manage a few butcher shops before starting his own butcher shops, which he ran for 25 years.
Then tragedy struck in 2008.
Larry and his wife Leanne lost their son Reece at just 13 years old. “He was sick for a couple of weeks. Then his lips turned blue and I tried to resuscitate him until the ambulance arrived. The ambulance came and worked on him for an hour but there was nothing they could do,” said Larry.
“Reece knew that one day I wanted to sell the butcher shop and buy a truck. After losing him, that gave me the drive to go out and do it.
“I had a brochure that was sitting in my drawer for a long time and then I went that’s it. The passion was always there for the big trucks. It was a passion burning inside. I thought stuff this, I’m going to get my licence, so I told the boys at the shop I was going for lessons each Thursday. It took me two and half years to work my way up to my MC.”
Larry said he was also lucky enough to have a great driver mentor too who took him under his wing. “Graeme Martin was a customer at the butcher shop and also Ryan’s school teacher. His brother used to have three trucks and for several years they did two-up together, before Graeme started teaching. He’d driven triple road trains from Brisbane to Perth. He was such a great mentor and I have the utmost respect for him.”
Larry and Leanne decided to put their butcher shop on the market and started their next venture, where he combined his butcher skills with trucking in a truly unique concept – a butcher shop on wheels that delivered and set up shop in some of the most remote areas of northern Western Australia. “A lot of people thought I was crazy!” laughed Larry.
He purchased a Western Star 4900 FXC and had a custom refrigerated trailer built. It took around three years to get North West Express up and running, from developing the concept, to researching the best equipment for the task at hand to having it built and hitting the road.
“I jumped in my car and drove to Port Hedland three times. It was stinking hot and dusty – and there were a lot of flies. So I figured I needed to be able to get people away from the heat and into the semi that would be set up as a shop. I started drawing with chalk on my garage floor to work out a plan of how the semi would work.”
The North West Express made its first run in July 2012. Once a month, Larry and his crew would set out in the truck to the outback. They’d spend two weeks cutting and preparing the meat, before heading off from Perth for eight to nine days on the road on a 4500-kilometre round trip.
They’d stop at Newman, Tom Price, Paraburdoo, Karratha, Roebourne, Wickham, and then finally, to Port Hedland, the furthest stop.
Larry quickly became known as the “outback butcher” – and many might also recognise him from his appearances in some of the earlier seasons of hit television show Outback Truckers.
Asked how he came up with the idea, Larry said it was after chatting with a customer who had visited his Perth butcher shop all the way from Karratha. “She said here’s an idea for you, we have a guy in a fish truck and he goes around the Pilbara every fortnight in a rigid. People line up waiting to buy his seafood. She said you should do something with meat because we’ve got no butchers up there,” recalled Larry.
“I went back to cutting up steak and I thought I reckon I could do something – I got home and told my wife Leanne. From that idea to doing the first trip, it took three years.”
Larry would travel with two butchers and the truck served as their home away from home.
“We had a double bunk put in the truck and then a fold-out bed in the trailer which was air conditioned. My wife would prepare our meals which we took with us. We were self-sufficient while away.
“Leanne organised where we were going and my son Ryan managed our website and social media.”
Ryan, 37, has muscular dystrophy and has been in a wheelchair since he was 12. “We didn’t know much about it when he was first diagnosed. He’s been in a wheelchair ever since. Ryan is a real fighter. He’s actually written a book about his life and created a short movie too, which he plans to launch through a fundraiser for muscular dystrophy. I’m really proud of him.”
Though business was doing well for North West Express, Larry made the decision to give it up so he could be closer to home to help care for his son. He embarked on his final trip as the outback butcher in April 2019.
The trusty Western Star was easy to sell, however Larry revealed that he still has the trailer. “It frustrates the hell out of me. I’ve been trying to sell it since 2019 and have had lots of time wasters,” he said.
Though he could have gone back to his trade as a butcher, Larry chose to stick with the trucks. “When I finished doing North West Express, I thought, well I still love driving,” said Larry. “I wanted something more local so I rang Colonial Freight Lines and they needed a driver. They used to bring lamb over for me from Melbourne to Perth,” explained Larry, who will have been driving for the company for seven years this coming April.
It’s predominantly B-double work, including meat for Aldi stores, as well as produce and general freight. “The furthest I’ll typically go is about 300-kilometres from Perth,” said Larry. “I’m in a 1998 Western Star – I call it the ‘Old Girl’ because it’s originally from the Northern Territory. It was a cattle road train and has probably done over 5 million kilometres, so it’s had a hard life. When I started, they asked if I wanted that truck and I said of course I want it, it’s a Western Star!”
Along with being behind the wheel, Larry is also helping to train up new drivers as they come into the business.
“I really enjoy being in the truck. This last week I slept in the truck three nights. I have everything in the truck set up,” Larry said.
“For me it was an idea and a dream to get into trucks. A friend at the butcher shop always said if you don’t go, you’ll never know.”
And now, with 17 years of driving under his belt, Larry’s glad he took the chance.