Father & Son. Part 1: The Father

In-depth

30 Aug

1. Running the Centre Rd. Hooking up at Port Augusta..jpg

Wilf Hayward

Wilfred Haywood was posthumously inducted into the National Transport Hall of Fame in 2014, joining his lifelong mate, Angus McNabb. Wilf ran Melbourne to Darwin from the late fifties and would have been one of the more popular drivers to arrive in Darwin, given the loads he hauled were for Carlton & United Breweries.

It was a good job. If he had been a drinker it may have been the best job in the world!

**Late 50's or early 60's. There's a lot of CUB product under that tarp.**

"I don't think one load of beer ever arrived at Darwin intact," said son, Neil. "They were always short somewhere along the line. There was beer flowing everywhere. Of all the drivers running CUB product, only dad and Angus were non-drinkers - which made them pretty reliable employees from the company's point of view. It would be fair to say that when he got bogged - a common occurrence in those days - his mates loved him."

In the mid '60's the Darwin Brewery was very small. CUB would send beer by ship and then supplement with the trucks.

Back then it was all hand stacking on the trailers. Wilf started off with a Leyland (now there's a long trip in an unreliable truck) with 34 foot-long strap trailers which carried about a 26 ton payload. In the mid-60s the company progressed to Kenworth. Carlton and United were the biggest fleet owner of Kenworth outside of Camerons.

The drivers said they needed better trailers so the company went to Haulmark (which Noel Buntine apparently had a lot to do with). They built 38 foot bogie trailers and would travel from Melbourne to Hillston, in central New South Wales near Griffith, where they would hand stack another 10 ton on each trailer and go with a 60 ton payload, via Mt Isa and on to Darwin. Mostly they would return empty.

**Wilfred at Hillston, NSW, ready to leave for Darwin.**

Later on they changed their route to go through central Australia and run up through Alice. At one time the Darwin beer stockpile had dwindled to dangerously low levels, so they loaded every truck that they had. None of the trucks had long-range fuel capabilities, so they took their own fuel loaded up on a dog trailer so that they wouldn't drain all the depots dry.

There were many times when trucks got bogged or rolled over in the horrendous road conditions. The single axle dollies would get off the edge of the road, and track the dog trailer over. The drivers would then have to hand stack 30 ton of beer off one trailer onto another. Then there were other distractions to the other drivers - namely said cargo, which at least eased the pain of being stuck in the middle of nowhere. That, unfortunately didn't help Wilf.

**Somewhere in Qld. Wilfred waited a few days for help.…**

**.… Meanwhile, determined not to have the truck 'lay over', he dug out under the wheels.**

With containerisation and more reliable shipping, CUB started using alternatives. At the same time the Darwin Brewery expanded into a vastly bigger operation - and that made sense because there is a town that doesn't mind a beer.

With the expansion they didn't need the same supply from Victoria and that was scaled-back. The trucks were then utilised into carting the empty bottles around Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, back to the Brewery. So Wilf went local, carting the bottles for refilling.

**Wilfred, 2nd from left and good mate, Angus McNabb on right**

That stopped in the early 90s when CUB was owned by John Elliott who changed the policy on bottles. Working with Australian Glass Manufacturers, they made a new style bottle which was a lot thinner. The result was that bottles were recycled rather than refilled. Wilf's job gradually diminished and he ended up taking early retirement before redundancy struck.

Wilf, now in his late 50's, worked a few little driving jobs around Melbourne, but his passion then became goldmining. He grabbed a metal detector and headed bush for, sometimes quite long periods.

Did he ever find anything?

"Yes he did," said Neil. "The goldmining kept him alive, kept him active, and he loved it. He found some wonderful gold over the years. He found his Eldorado. I won't mention how much it was, but it was a substantial five figure sum. It was his passion and he was constantly out looking. He disappeared one time for eight weeks and when he resurfaced he returned my many messages and said, "I just went for a bit of a drive." Dad was well into his 70s and the 'drive' was to Western Australia. All the grandchildren in the family got gold jewellery that was handmade by him from gold that he had found."

**Wilf with daughter, Deb at the goldmine after he retired**

Wilfred Haywood passed away from stomach cancer on 10 March, 2014. He found gold on two fronts - the real stuff, and the gold that comes with friendship made by the common hardship of a life on the road.

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