When the world is against you, it’s time to think about taking drastic action, one of those seminal events, back in 1979, caused the trucking industry of Australia to begin moving into the modern world. Looking back, it is amazing to see how far we have come and how, in some cases, little has changed.
The “Razorback Blockade” began when a small group of truckies blocked the Hume Highway at Razorback between Camden and Picton, just south of Sydney. The five men who initiated the event, Colin Bird, Harry Grimson, Jack Hibburt, Ted Stevens and Spencer Watling, took the law into their own hands and parked their trucks across the road.
When they began their protest, these guys didn’t even have a list of demands. Therefore, as the news of their actions got out, the media arrived and the politicians got involved, their lack of coherent demands led to confusion about the reason for their actions.
As other trucks joined this Hume Highway blockade, violence broke out, both between the police and the truck drivers, and the truckies themselves. But after that first tense day, the truckies clarified the issues they were protesting about and published a set of demands that read like virtually every wish list compiled by the road transport industry since.
The list included the usual fare, such as improved rates, difficulties with union membership and inadequate back loading rates. But it also included specific demands about GCM rules, road tax and backdated prosecutions for failure to pay tax. A call for uniform weights and dimensions regulations across Australia has been a recurring theme throughout trucking history.
Attempts by the New South Wales government to introduce emergency legislation and remove the trucks from the blockade were initiated. However, the government held off using its new anti-blockade powers, and the situation was further defused when finance companies were convinced to grant a moratorium on the repossession of trucks which were behind in their road maintenance payments.
Negotiations continued and eventually a form of compromise was reached. Victoria, South Australia and Queensland all agreed to drop the Road Maintenance Tax, increase gross carrying mass (GCM) to 38 tonnes and set up an enquiry into freight rates. Eventually, then NSW premier Neville Wran agreed to match those promises and the blockade broke up on its ninth day.
