Of Trucks and Love

In-depth

17 Jan

Part 1 – Paul Witte

Paul Witte's life could read 'of no fixed address', given the parts of Australia in which he has lived and worked. It is a life of trucks, quarries and love - lost and found.

Born in Wentworth, just over the border from Mildura, his parents split when Paul was just four. His first move was when mum got a job at the old Kraft factory in Port Melbourne. They returned to Wentworth where Paul went to primary school, followed by a short stint at Mildura Tech. At age 10 mum passed away and he went to live with an aunt and uncle.

"I ran off the rails a bit at that time, to the point where I was given an edict by both the cops and another uncle, that I had two choices – reformatory school or go to Darwin and live with the old man. Wasn't much of a choice, really."

So at 14, Paul found himself working alongside his dad in a quarry for the princely sum of five pounds a week.

"I spent the next six years pounding rocks and doing hard labour in the quarry. On reflection, Reform School would have been a doddle."

During this time he had picked up some part-time work driving a truck, carting a dozer around to house blocks.

"I had to back up an empty alleyway in the heart of Darwin. Unbeknown to me a car had pulled into the alley and I backed straight over it. This was a bit of a problem as I only had a car licence. Luckily I knew a sheila who worked at the registration office so I scarpered around there and she wrote me up a truck licence."

Being a legal truckie opened up a new world of opportunity, so it was off to Alice Springs hauling general freight in a Mack Maxidyne for Co-Ord Transport to the railhead at Darwin. Six months later Paul moved to Gulf Transport carrying cars, again from Alice to Darwin. During this time he came across a childhood mate, Pete Bottoms who convinced him to come and work for Cold Storage out of Melbourne, running to Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Darwin.

**Happiness is a green and white Kenworth**

"One time I was carrying a load of orange juice concentrate out of Berry. Figuring I was a bit overweight, I decided that it was best that I dodge the Marulan Weighbridge. Stupidly, I decided to go up by Wombeyen Caves. The road's so winding that semis (and caravans) were outlawed from using it. Cliffs on one side and straight drops on the other. Once a fool....

I got to a corner but didn't make it around and over she toppled. It was only the bull bar and the tyre rack that caught on something and stopped me from heading down a two hundred foot drop. I contacted Cold Storage owner, Tony Nivens and he said, "Does it look like going over?" I said, well, it does actually; it doesn't look too good. Tony replied, "Well make sure you're in the bastard if it does!"

"Tony was a great bloke, a real diamond. He went from a Lear jet and two Rolls-Royces to driving a taxi in Townsville. Who'd want to be in the transport industry? Cold Storage was without doubt the best company I've ever worked for. That was the period where I made lifelong friends."

After he left Cold Storage Paul headed back to Darwin and carted fuel for George Stevens. Then he drove two-up with Johnny Doyle, running to Melbourne. Three years with Ascott Transport followed (now Scott's of Mt Gambier), carting fuel out of Darwin to Alice, Mount Isa and sometimes over to the West.

**John Doyle’s funeral was the largest Darwin had ever seen.**

"There were a couple of hairy spots on the South Road. The '87 mile', out of Darwin was one. You'd come around this right-hand bend and it'd be straight up. You were supposed to be in first, but a lot of us used to fly it and just hope to hell you never missed a gear. Sometimes we used to get caught. You'd swing around the corner and an overloaded fuel tanker would've spilled some on the road - you'd be slipping and sliding everywhere. Then there was the '74 mile' going back into Darwin which was on such a camber that if you had a high load on, it would pick the drives up.”

**Paul, after his 2nd trailer loaded with fuel fell over just out of Dunmarra.**

The wet season was fun. Places like the Ferguson River in the wet season – and Katherine. We used to drive across the railway bridges because you couldn't use the roads. The Ferguson was pretty hairy because it had no side rails.

We could have got into trouble and sometimes we did, but there was a lot of courtesy on the road back then. The camaraderie was fantastic. If someone was broken down you'd pull up and stay with them until they were right to go. In those days, particularly in that part of the world, timetables were ignored. You'd get there when you got there. Often a breakdown would turn into a big party. Cold Storage carried something like 75% of the food into Darwin so we were never short of something to eat and drink on the side of the road."

With his father's health failing, Paul again joined forces with him.

"He had four road trains based out of Katherine. We carted gravel, concrete materials and aggregates from Katherine to Borroloola and out west, but most of it was local – within 2 or 3 hundred km. When he died he left the business to my stepmother and I bought it off her. The business went well until they finished Tindal airbase and the government stopped pouring money into the Territory. Things just dried up. At one time I had about $3.6 million worth of assets, owed about $1.2 million and I walked out with $80,000. I couldn't sell so I just folded it up. I suppose I should have learnt a lesson from Tony Nivens."

Time for a sea-change, and Paul moved to Airlie Beach. On the local quarry's application form it said, 'position applying for'. He wrote, 'anything but the shovel' - and walked into a manager's job. Then to Mackay with Boral for five years, back to Darwin, across to Innisfail and finally down in Victoria to start a new life with a new wife.

"Thirty-nine years ago I met her on the road and fell in love with her on the spot. Circumstances being what they were we didn't see each other for 39 years. We've got a lot of time to make up for."

Part 2: Brenda Doyle

Forty one years is one heck of a long time between falling in love and bringing that love to fruition in getting married. That's how long it took Brenda Doyle and Paul Witte, who were married at their home at Invergordon, north of Shepparton, Vic on Saturday, October 19,2013.

Even stranger is the fact that 39 years elapsed between their first meeting and their second. If the Guinness book of records had a section for two people holding the love of each other in their hearts, Paul and Brenda would surely top the chart.

The person responsible for both meetings was that irrepressible legend of the South Road, Brenda's dad, Ronald 'Ruffy' Doyle - although their second meeting was under vastly different, and much sadder circumstances.

Now we need to go back, way back in time to 1972. Brenda had grown up idolising Ruffy who had come into her life when she was not much more than a toddler. All she ever wanted to do was follow in her dad's footsteps and drive trucks across the outback. Ruffy would have none of it. He would, however, occasionally allow her to join him on one of his Cold Storage trips up the South Road. In 1972 on one such trip they pulled into a pub for a bite to eat.

Walking into the bar Brenda immediately laid eyes on a tall, deeply suntanned and extremely handsome young man. He in turn ran his eyes up and down the stunning young blonde in the leather miniskirt.

"Do you know who that is dad?" Asked Brenda of Ruffy.

"Paul Witte. Drives for Cold Storage too," responded Ruffy curtly, having noticed the pair eyeing each other off.

The trio came together for lunch and after much cajoling from Brenda, Ruffy agreed to let her travel up the highway a bit with Paul. "To this day I don't know how I talked the old man into letting me go with Paul," said Brenda. "He was always super protective of me."

Into the cab she jumped with Paul and off they headed up the South Road. With Paul pulling a single trailer and Ruffy a road train, they soon put plenty of miles between the two rigs. They drove until dark, then pulled off the side of the road and waited for Ruffy to catch up. Brenda has always declared that they just chatted whilst waiting for her father which doesn't really explain why they had the rear vision mirror angled to see upcoming headlights from the rear bunk. Popular folklore has it that their 'chatting' melted the contents in the Cold Storage trailer.

**Paul and Brenda on the South Rd after meeting at the Gepps Cross Hotel**.

Eventually Ruffy caught up with steam coming out of his ears and the radiator of his cab over Peterbilt. Brenda was ordered back into Ruffy's truck. But love had sewn its mystical seed for both her and Paul.

"That was the last time I saw Paul for 39 years," said Brenda. "My grandmother, a very strong-willed woman, painted Paul as a no good, ne’er do well lay about, and would let me have nothing to do with him."

Paul: "I tried to call Brenda on a number of occasions but her grandmother always answered, said that she was not interested in me and had, in fact moved away."

Fate conspired against the two, and although as it transpired, they had many mutual friends, their paths never crossed. Brenda married, had three children, got divorced, and married again on the rebound. Paul continued driving for Cold Storage and others, eventually moving into the quarry business. He also married during this period.

**Created by Brenda for Ruffy with love**

Their second meeting was again due to Ruffy – although under much sadder circumstances – at his funeral. Paul, living in far north Queensland heard of Ruffy's passing, got Brenda's phone number through her mother, Dot and rang to let her know he would be attending the funeral. Brenda, with fluttering heart told him that she didn't look quite as she did 39 years previously. Paul laughed and said, "Guess that makes two of us."

Paul arrived, they talked and realised that they had been constantly in each other's thoughts for all of those years. Paul returned home to Cairns, rang Brenda and announced that he was leaving his job as soon as possible to move to Victoria to be near her.

"I don't want you near me," replied Brenda. "I want you with me!"

The next 21 months were a crazy, frenzied time of buying a home together, moving belongings interstate and upstate, introductions to each other's families and finding jobs in their new surroundings. And of course there was a wedding to organise.

Saturday, October 19, 2013 arrived with clear skies and warm temperatures after a week of inclement weather. Eighty people gathered outside the marquee to watch Brenda - in a stunning wedding dress - arrive in Ruffy's 1949 International KB5. Many of the old South Road gang from the Cold Storage days were there along with old friends and new.

**The coming together of two trucking families**

The world is full of love stories but they’d have to be pretty good to beat this one.

Part 3: The wedding

This story would not be complete without The Wedding. It was heartwarming, it was funny. It was the culmination of two lives meant to be together. Enjoy. (The MC was pretty good too)