Owner/Driver #339
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“I know he’s capable and he can do lots of things but it<br />
would’ve been good to help him. Besides, I miss driving. A lot.”<br />
Pictured: The Cummins NH220<br />
engine runs as sweet as it looks<br />
while the finish on the inside of<br />
the ’55 White is brilliant, right<br />
down to the rosewood fascia in the<br />
centre of the dash<br />
much work remaining but it’s a modest Quinten Mathie who<br />
casually mentions there was no shortage of work for two of his<br />
tanker combinations during the fires, hauling water almost<br />
non-stop over several months to fire tankers and large water<br />
pods used for reloading helicopter buckets.<br />
For driver and close mate Shannon Doherty, the fires came a<br />
tad too close for comfort as night and blinding smoke settled<br />
in on one particularly nasty day, punching a B-double load of<br />
fuel ahead of a fast moving fire front as Police were closing the<br />
road behind him.<br />
“The smoke was really bad and I never knew whether I would<br />
run into fire around the next bend,” he now calmly recalls.<br />
“There was no mobile phone service and the UHF was useless<br />
over distance. I just had to push on as hard as I could.<br />
“It’s something I’m in no hurry to do again, that’s for sure.”<br />
As Quinten adds though, these were difficult days and<br />
difficult things had to be done. The diesel bowser at the Mathie<br />
depot, for example, became one of very few refuelling points in<br />
the entire district for emergency services vehicles.<br />
Yet, no sooner were the fires out, then COVID-19 hit and, this<br />
time, with almost no traffic moving anywhere along the coast<br />
for months, the normally busy fuel haulage operation went<br />
into an unwelcome hiatus.<br />
“Like I said, the dynamics are entirely different and<br />
they can change very quickly,” Quinten remarks with a<br />
shrewd grin and a maturity that seems to have softened<br />
the abrupt and occasionally antagonistic mannerisms of<br />
earlier years.<br />
Still, it’s a familial trait that he does not suffer fools easily,<br />
setting high standards for himself and consequently, others.<br />
As his wife, Tennealle, attests from the Mathie office: “No one is<br />
harder on Quinten, than Quinten.”<br />
Likewise, a formidable work ethic either in the cab of a truck<br />
or swinging spanners in the workshop is a characteristic<br />
moulded in early childhood.<br />
“I have my own standards,” Quinten continues, “and I<br />
suppose that can make me hard to work for at times, so I<br />
have to remind myself that not everyone has had the same<br />
background or experience I’ve had.<br />
“The fuse definitely isn’t as short as it used to be, so I<br />
guess I’ve learned something about tolerance,” he says<br />
with a wry grin.<br />
Sitting quietly a few metres behind his son, Phillip listens<br />
and suddenly, the same grin appears.<br />
The similarities run deep and from somewhere in the cranial<br />
cavern, the thought hits me: ‘I never knew Bruce Mathie but I<br />
reckon he’d be proud. Very proud.’<br />
70 APRIL 2021 ownerdriver.com.au