Aged 70, veteran driver Garry King drove numerous military trucks after he joined the Australian Army in 1973 and served for 15 years.
He was based at Townsville’s Lavarack Barracks, in Brisbane, and at Penrith in NSW and loves trucks.
These days Garry works for Carey’s Freight Lines out of Tamworth and travels as far as Sydney and to many other places in the region.
“I am carrying frozen meat and am at Wyong today and was at Wagga few days ago,” he said.
Friendly Garry is a popular driver with colleagues who affectionately have nicknamed him “Grandfather”.
“They also call me lots of other names and give me curry when my NRL team the Brisbane Broncos lose and I return serve when they win,” he said.
Garry is extremely proud of his 17-year-old son Rory who has landed a job as a first year apprentice fitter with another road transport company, AJM Transport at Beresfield.
“Rory just loves trucks and I would describe him as a road transport tragedy,” Garry said.
The worst road Garry has travelled on is the Gore Highway out from Goondiwindi which he said is very rough.
On rest areas, Garry doesn’t stop at many because he usually does a run of no more than six hours duration and will just pull over if required.
“I do like stopping at the Wyong Canteen,” he said.
Over the years, Garry has overcome adversity in the form of bad health but has got over those setbacks and will have an opportunity to retire on September 14.
“I don’t know about that yet and maybe I will just slow down and do some local work,” he said.
Garry also keeps in close contact with his former army mates who live around Australia.