Terry Dyer excited to explore after 51 years of livestock transportation

Having taken over the transport business from his parents Murray and Myra in 1984, Terry said he was eager to spend more time with his partner Tracey Anderson and travel.

"We bought a camper trailer and we want to go around Darwin and up along the Kimberley when we get around to it," he said.

From a young age Terry fell in love with trucks and shadowed his parents who after World War 2 began carting wood, furniture and livestock with their trucks.

"I got my truck license when I was 16 and then I left school and I started driving for Mum and Dad and have been there ever since," Terry said.

Terry had been taught everything he knew about truck driving from his Mum and Dad.

"Whatever they didn't know wasn't worth knowing I thought," Terry said.

"They'd been doing it for quite a few years and if there was a load to be done Mum would do it before Dad had to go, because she loved it."

While Terry transported different livestock breeds, he said the last few years had been largely dedicated to transporting pigs.

"We did a lot of sheep and cattle and we only did a few pigs early on, but later on in the years pigs was all I mainly transported," he said.

"I've been to Tasmania, KI, Perth, Alice Springs and Tambo in Queensland."

Through his travel experiences Terry said there was one area of Australia that particularly stood out to him as an enjoyable destination.

"Up around Mildura and Wentworth area we used to cart to the Elders sale yard there," he said.

"We'd go up there for three to four days before the sale and and go out to the stations and camp the night there.

"They would give us breakfast there and then we would load up and head down the to the Elders sale yards from there."

Through his experience transporting livestock Terry quickly learnt not every animal behaved the same.

"It's just about how you talk to them like if you get cranky and they know you're cranky then they get cranky too and they usually come off better," he said.

"Only six months ago I was loading pigs and I had a plastic board in front of me and he thought he was heavier than what I was and he lifted the bottom of the board up and took me with him.

"I got a heap of cuts on my shoulder and little things like that occur when you think you're safe, but you're not safe."

The job of a livestock carrier has got easier over the years, largely due to the ability to transfer livestock onto trucks.

"Years ago we had to carry a ramp because none of the farmers had any ramps," he said.

"When we first started the ramps used to be right on top of the stock crate and so people would have to climb up there.

"These days a lot of the ramps are there and if no one is there you can still load alright without their help."

To transport livestock, Terry said people had to be 100 per cent committed.

"For a lot of people when they can get the same amount of money driving a general truck without getting dirty, they're not gonna want to cart livestock,' he said.

"Either people wanna do it or they don't wanna do it, it's either-way and there's no in-between."

Along with carting livestock Terry and his family had also experienced carting grain during harvest seasons.

"Years ago we used to, we used to cart a bit of grain and stuff like that," he said.

"Then in the end we just got back to one truck and I had too much stock work to do, without doing any grain.

"I could do one load of grain a week and the farmers couldn't afford to wait around for one load a week."

The time spent working each day had changed in the past 20 years for truck drivers like Terry.

"Years ago we could drive for a whole week without stopping if we wanted to, but with the safety rules you wouldn't be able to do that anyway," he said.

"As long as you could stay awake you could keep going, but now with all the laws changing and the logbooks people are only allowed to drive 12 hours a day,

"People have got to have a few rests and then they've got to have seven consecutive hours of rest and now it's probably a lot safer for everyone now."

The trucks have constantly evolved since Terry first commenced carting livestock.

"Now you get into an automatic truck and it's just like driving a car, but you've got to realise that it's 4.6 metres high and sometimes it's a bit top heavy," he said.

Terry's partner Tracey has also offered him plenty of help and support through the years.

"She used to be a bank manager before I met her and then she got her truck license and started driving with me," he said.

"I'd be out in Port Wakefield washing the top deck out and she would be underneath the stock crate washing the bottom deck out.

"I wouldn't have even done that, but she did and she's a lovely woman."

While finding truck drivers could be easy it was a challenge finding someone who knew how to work with livestock.

"You had to have a bit of knowledge on livestock otherwise it could take you hours," he said.

"If you're paying a driver by the hour and then you tell the farmer how much it's gonna cost them, then the realise they're not making a profit.

"When I give farmers a price before the job that was what I stayed with, because then if I took three hours to load then that was my problem."

Through attending livestock sales over the years Terry said he had seen the price fluctuate many times.

"I was down at the Pinnaroo sale 45 years ago and I bought lambs there for 20 cents for my sister," he said.

"Even now a lot of sale prices are going down but the other commodities farmers are getting are going up."