Mick Stevens

In-depth

17 July

In 1963, Mr & Mrs Stevens gave birth to a boy they called Michael. The Stevens’ lived on Thomas Rd in Healesville, Vic, a part of town close to Richard’s and Pomeroy’s sawmills (now long gone). As a young tacker, Mick loved to hang around those sawmills, not for the love of timber but rather to watch the log trucks coming in and out. “Like many a young kid I did, at one stage, want to be a train driver. But those trucks converted me pretty quickly and I decided that it would be a trucking life for me,” he said.

At 15 Mick got his first job with trucks, not behind the wheel but behind the truck itself. “I got a job with Berkeley’s at Bayswater. They were a garbage collection mob and I spent my time running behind the truck tipping the bins into the old rear loaders. I was a bit fitter back then.”

It wasn’t long before they asked him if he could drive a truck and Mick was quick to answer that he could. “The only way to learn was to get behind the wheel, and it turned out that I could (drive). They didn’t care whether I had a licence or not. Their only comment was, ‘Just don’t crash it.’ This was around 1978.”

Mick drove the garbage truck for five years but his desire was to ply the highways. He applied for and got a job with Mal Wilkinson at Kilsyth, possibly because the bloke that interviewed him had also been a Garbo with Berkeley.

“I didn’t start on Interstate, but rather as a Chicken-catcher. Each night we’d go out to the chook farms and catch live chickens for the market. We would do something like 40,000 chooks a night around Redhill, Pakenham and the Peninsula. There were six of us in our gang. We’d clean out a couple of sheds every night. They were bastards to catch. They would scratch you, peck you and shit on you. We could fill a semi – which would hold about 8,000 chooks - in around 40 minutes.”

“Mal had other trucks doing interstate as well and moved me onto them which was great after the chooks. That was my first interstate job and I loved it. I was running to Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane out of Melbourne with a flat top, hauling general freight in an N Model Volvo and then an F model.

“I was with Wilkinson’s for about 12 months but got tired of chaining and tarping so I got a gig driving fridge fans for Mountain Valley Produce out of Healesville. I was carting to markets in Sydney and Brisbane behind the wheel of Ford Louisville’s.”

The time came to branch out on his own so Mick bought his first truck, a 1986 W model Kenworth and subbed for Lindsay Edwards out of Dandenong – again doing refrigerated from Adelaide to Cairns and everywhere in between. After Edwards Mick bought his own trailer and went freelance for a bit before finally subbing for Food Haul, out of Caboolture. “They were a good mob and I spent 12 years with them, before 12 months with Primo Haulage here in Healesville.”

A one truck business, Mick always put his faith in Kenworth – mostly W models. “They were a great truck. I had that first truck for a long time then I traded it in on a brand-new T 900 in 1995 which I had for three years before selling it and doing some local demolition work. Then Panasonic, whom I’d worked for in the past, contacted me and wanted me to buy a truck and come back and keep carting their stuff.

“Too many items were getting knocked off so they wanted a trustworthy bloke dedicated to the job. For some reason they thought that was me so I went out and bought an ’87 W model, a trailer and van. They were a terrific mob to work for. My run was Sydney to Melbourne and I was with them for around 12 years until they shut the factory. Along the way I bought a brand-new 2006 T604.”

“By 2013 I’d had enough. I just got sick of the coppers and all that nonsense. I got booked for not having my name on a truck which was insane. That sort of stuff makes it harder for the industry to attract people into it. So I bought a 20 tonne excavator and an R model Mack Econodyne (ex-Shell tanker) tipper as well as a T658 KW, and I do demolition and earthmoving.”

**For a Kenworth boy, MIck is full of praise for his R Model Mack Econodyne.**

Also in Mick’s back yard is an old Bedford which will be restored one day. “We had them at Berkeley’s and I liked them. Those V6 two-stroke diesels sound great.”

Mick calls the Bedford his ‘Ghost truck’. Loading a bobcat onto the back of the Mack one day and needing a bit more room, he nudged the Bedford along a little. “The bloody thing started up and took off! I just managed to stop it before it went through the fence at the back. You only have to rock it and she’ll start.”

Mick pays tribute to Dennis Cherry – known as Herbie to all in Healesville – who for years ran the Mobil garage opposite Mick’s home. “Herbie is a great bloke. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been in business. He carried me with fuel and everything for a long time when I had my back up against a wall. And I wasn’t the only one - he did it for a lot of people in Healesville. People like Herbie are why I love this town.”

“I’ve always been a one-man show but it’s paid for the kids and their education and put food on the table. I made money but you have to work. You can’t ever lay down. You have to put in. I’ve been happy being off the highway for the last six years. I wish I’d got off much earlier really. I don’t know why I did it for so long. I’m an idiot.”

Mick’s two trucks lay idle for a bit in 2019 as it turned out he had a bit of a dicky ticker. A quick Pacemaker inserted and it was back on the job for Mick, until that time when he can live out his ultimate dream - fishing at Harvey Bay.

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