A family history in trucking - Waianiwa Transport Ltd

A nice shot of the Waianiwa Transport fleet and three of the drivers.

Article first published July 2019, as part of the Neville Little story

Waianiwa Transport Ltd had a long running history in Southland. The business grew out of horse teams run by Albert McDowall in the 1920s. Having passed through several owners it was eventually sold to Ryal Bush Transport in 1980. We offer this brief history of its operations here.

Waianiwa Transport Ltd can trace its roots back to Albert McDowall who was still running horse teams in the early 1920s. Albert sold his business to JA “Jim” Brown.

An early JA Brown Carrier truck loaded and ready to go.

Jim Brown had decided that he could carry his own milk to the factory and stock to the Makarewa freezing works some time during the 1920s.

The Brown family were farmers. Once he’d finished his schooling, Jim found work in the Waianiwa dairy factory. With the outbreak of World War 1 Jim served with the armed services before returning home to Waianiwa.  

On his return Jim purchased the “Garryowen” farm from George Bennie. He later went on to marry George’s daughter Jean.

To ensure his milk was delivered to the local dairy factory, Jim purchased a truck which didn’t even have a roof or back wall to the cab. With this truck he carted the milk in cans as was the norm of the day.

This is believed to be Jim Brown with his trucks.

With a truck in the yard he felt that carting his stock would be another good idea so set about fashioning a single deck stock crate using wooden battens and No.8 wire. Not only did he cart his own stock but also that of others around the district. These efforts are believed to have made him one of the earliest commercial stock carriers in the Southland district.

Check out the wonderfully boxy locally coach built cab on this lime spreader.

His stock crate design was refined and improved during the early 1930s. Together with JK Stevenson, the pair designed and built a two deck wooden stock crate for the truck.

The business faced the usual communication issues in the days before a proper telephone service had been installed. To cope with this the local farmers would travel down to the local store and post messages explaining what cartage work they wanted done. These notes would be collected at intervals during the week.  

The company accepted substantial work from a lot of the back country runs around the district. Each year they would haul the stock from the annual draft for Tom Cochrane who farmed in the Lilburn Valley. To enhance the delivery of stock the pair worked out that if Jim drove the truck loaded with stock one way, one of Tom’s sons could drive the empty truck back whilst Jim slept. This way they could ensure an almost non-stop cartage regime.

An early Commer loaded with a Caterpillar dozer.

Another back country client was Hugh Gorrie of Motu Motu, whose property was situated on the western banks of the Waiau River near Blackmount. Getting there would have been a fair hike back then. Given the need for a river crossing, the sheep were either punted across to the truck, or the truck ferried across to pick up the loads of sheep.

Hay was a mainstay of most early rural carrying businesses.

In 1949 he sold the business to a partnership involving Bob Little and Johnny Nelson. By this stage Jim had accumulated a fleet of six trucks and held five transport licences. He had also expanded into agricultural contracting, but Jim retained this side of the business.

The truck fleet consisted of a variety of vehicles with a variety of Fords, Reos and a Thornycroft.

Johnny and Bob had both worked as part time taxi drivers in Invercargill in the past. When they found out Jim was going to sell the business it seemed the right time to give it a go.

Bob was no stranger to transport.

A venerable TK Bedford ready to tackle a load of stock.

His father had been a stationary engine driver at the saw mills around the Progress Valley. Bob followed in his father’s footsteps before the Second World War intervened and he went away to serve his country.

On his return home Bob found work laying new lines for the bush trams.

Bob moved to Invercargill in 1946 where he began a small trucking business. The two truck operation boasted a six ton Commer and a one ton Bedford.

The business was sold about three years later to JR Hamilton.

Bob then moved out to Dacre. He founded a lime cartage and spreading business there before entering into Waianiwa Transport with Johnny.

None of the trucking fleet was exactly first class. The early days involved many long nights spent trying to carry out repairs to keep the trucks the road. There were many occasions when Bob fell asleep while working under a truck during these long nights.

Mercedes-Benz trucks found favour for a number of years.

Over time, Waianiwa Transport grew and expanded its operation over a wider area. The decline of other carriers offered fresh opportunities for the business.

The small loads that the old trucks were capable of carting resulted in many trips having to be made just to get the job done. Long days and working well into the night helped keep the operation profitable.

Bob’s wife, Margaret, would be called on to drive the empty truck back to the yard at the end of the day so that Bob could grab some sleep. This was, of course, pretty interesting given that she didn’t hold a heavy traffic licence.

Some of the drivers.

Over time the business was able to secure extensions to their licences via the Transport Authority.

These extensions allowed stock to be carted all over the South Island, which was a major advantage.

Bob and Neville Little in front of the T-Line they contracted to Freight Haulage Ltd.

In 1961 John Nelson sold his shares to Bob and pursued a career in farming.

Waianiwa Transport continued to grow and improve. By 1980 the fleet comprised eight modern trucks and four trailers with Leyland, Austin, Scania, Scammell, Mercedes-Benz and Bedford all included in the line up. These were supplemented with a pair of front-end loaders.

The drivers that Neville and Audrey recall included Ray Henderson, Russell Lindsay, Ray MacMillan, Scottie McLeod, Roger Boath, Ken Shepherd, Norman Hamlin, Charlie and Russell Cathcart, who were all pretty loyal. Ray Henderson is understood to have been the longest serving driver and he lived beside the depot for 14 years.

The company assets were sold to Ryal Bush Transport Ltd.

The company name was retained and utilised (by Bob) for the logging operation which was to follow.

This 81 Scania and the above Scammell both passed to Ryal Bush Transport with the sale.