Cameron Interstate Name Passes into History

News

28 Apr

Truckin with Kermie follower and Cameron Interstate employee, Jamie Martin sent me these photographs today. Jamie writes:

“Hey buddie, just thought I’d let you know today is the last day for Cameron Interstate. The sign out the front is being changed to DHL. Here’s a few photos of the event.”

Thanks Jamie. An historic Victorian trucking name passes into history. May that history not be lost.

**The ‘Out of Service’ sign in the cab is sort of prophetic**

**No doubt the name on the prime mover will soon reflect that on the trailers**

Here are Glenn Cameron’s words about his father, Ed Cameron upon his passing in 2016:

“Legend. Pioneer. Gentleman. Icon. Generous. Visionary. Australia’s Mr. Kenworth.” Just a few of the words used to describe Mr. Edwin (Ed) Lindsay Cameron who passed from this life on July 16.

On Friday, July 22, family, friends, heads of industry and admirers packed the generational Cameron family church at Doncaster, Victoria to pay their respect and homage to a giant of the Australian Transport Industry. Amongst the many speakers was son, Glenn Cameron who has generously allowed Big Rigs to reproduce part of his impassioned and loving dedication to his father.

“Edwin Lindsay Cameron, or just plain Ed, or sometimes known as Flip, was born in Doncaster on the 15th June, 1923. Doncaster in those days was a large fruit growing area and Dad wrote in his book that as a boy he could recall the clip-clop of horses around 10 or 11 o’clock at night, as the fruit growers headed toward the Melbourne to sell their wares.

Dad’s father, Fred set up a business carrying produce for fruit growers in the region and introduced motorised transport in 1928 when he purchased a new GMC truck, capable of carrying 60 cases of fruit and able to get to the market in 30 minutes, rather than the several hours that it took the horse-drawn vehicles.

Dad’s father’s business grew and as a result he purchased a 1934 Dodge 2 tonne truck that could carry 150 cases – more than double that of the previous vehicle. Ed’s job after school was to knock the nails from fruit box lids so they could be reused, and also deliver chopped wood, bags of wheat and other produce via his billy cart to the customers from the general store. Transport was in his veins from a very young age. He was taught to drive at 11 and developed a love for anything mechanical from that time.

Leaving school at 14, he worked in the family business packing fruit, loading trucks, working in his father’s new cold store and driving any vehicle he could get his hands on.

When he turned 18 Dad tried to enlist in the RAAF but was directed to the Kew Army Drill Hall where he was informed he was now in the Army, after the recent bombing of Pearl harbour.

He was fortunate to get a role in the Transport Division where he was given control of an International K5 truck, which remained his until the unit was disbanded and merged into other units towards the end of 1942. He loved that truck!

After a couple of years in the army he was given compassionate leave to help his father, as food production in Australia was in huge demand for the war effort in the Pacific.

After the war Dad and his brothers bought their father’s truck and started D&E Cameron Transport, replicating their father’s business. As the business grew, they expanded their horizons by delivering to the Sydney markets. In those days permits were required to transport product from one state to another. These were expensive and made road transport less viable than rail, which was unreliable, had different gauges between states, and product arriving damaged or late.

To have genuine free trade between states, the Road Transport Industry got together and formed associations that lobbied governments for a better deal for truck operators and to eliminate the permit system.

Ed became president of the Victorian Road Transport Development Association. Under his leadership they took the matter to the Privy Council in London. They won the case and so began a new era for Australian road transport.

As Dad’s business experienced ever increasing volumes of freight, it became apparent that he needed better equipment with bigger horsepower, better brakes and bigger carrying capacity. In 1955, after speaking with a former employee and friend, Jack Bateman, who had been driving trucks in the USA and Canada, he set off to North America to see what was on offer.

He was impressed with what he saw and after driving across the States with mate, George Bloomfield, they made their way to the Kenworth factory in Seattle where they had discussions on the suitability of the product for the Australian market.

After seven years of negotiation and many more trips to America, the first Kenworth arrived in Australia in 1962. The rest is history. Today, Kenworth is the biggest selling heavy duty truck in the nation.

Through this time Dad and his brothers still ran the family company which continued to grow until they sold it to Mitchell Cotts in 1970. Dad retired from transport not long after and, at the tender age of 52 took up travelling, golf and farming. He started a Hereford Cattle Stud and won many prizes at the various shows. Ever the truckie, he named his bulls after trucks – Diamond T, Kenworth, Foden and so on.

Golf became a very important pastime and Dad ended up with a 7 or 8 handicap. In those days, if it rained, you were banned from using a golf buggy as the thin pneumatic tyres of the day put grooves in the fairway. To overcome this problem Dad designed a wider tyre that slipped over the pneumatic one and left no grooves. So began his new venture called ‘Wet-Slix’, which eventually became mandatory on just about every golf course in the country. Another Ed Cameron success story!

When he turned 80 I bought him a computer. Having never typed and with aging fingers, he found it difficult. Undaunted, he went to Harvey Norman, bought a voice recognition program and proceeded to write his life story, first published in 2008.

Ed Cameron was inducted into the Road Transport Hall of fame in 2002 and was named as one of the Four Industry Icons in 2015. An honourable and genuine man, he simply left an indelible impression on all whose path he crossed.”