Driver profile from this year's Lights On The Hill is Jason Maracic whose rig honours his mum
Jason Maracic’s 2020 Kenworth K200 big cab has done almost 460,000km so despite being pretty new it’s run out a few ks already.
“I do the Cloncurry run, all supermarket stuff and freeze/chiller goods, so I shoot over to Mareeba or Bowen, wherever the produce is,” Maracic explained.
“I was in WA before that. The first time I drove into the Pilbara I said there’s no way you could pay me enough to live in this joint but I ended up spending the best part of 15 years there.”
So what was the lure of the west?
“The people, the atmosphere and the work,” Maracic said. “I got to do really big oversize stuff and then just running up the coast from Perth to Darwin, it’s the best part of the country to drive a truck.
Check out our gallery of all the Lights on the Hill trucks, here
“Also, the transport scene is so much more well-managed than what it is over here.
“I just think the fatigue management system in WA is far better than what we have to go through here. It’s not about revenue raising, it’s about safety; y’know not taking points off your licence or fining you because you spelt something wrong.
“The way they’re doing the BFM I’m pretty happy with but all the crap you gotta go through to get accredited; if they just adopted more of what WA does and take all the admin strain out of it, it’d be much better.”
Jason has come out with a couple of the company’s trucks and they all wear a banner in honour of Jason’s mum who was in the game for decades and who only just recently passed away.
“I’m here for my mum who is on the front of the truck, she was in transport all her life.
“We’re a fourth generation transport family, my great grandfathers were bullockies and teamsters and mum and dad have had their own trucks forever. I started when I was 18 in trucks, in semis and then road trains later on.
“Mum was also the longest living constantly transplanted organ recipient in the world. She got her first kidney transplant when she was 14.”
The banner on the truck reads, ‘Five Foot Tall and Bulletproof’ with Jason recounting an old family tale to let us know his mum, Cheryl Maracic, was no pushover.
“She used to have a bit of a temper on her,” Maracic smiles.
“When she just got her licence and first car, she saw a bloke on the street who had given her little brother a hiding for no reason, so she lined him up with the car and old mate legged it over the fence. She didn’t get him, but she took out two fences trying,” Jason laughs adding, “No one saw that bloke around after that.
“She left it all out on the field and she’s my hero and I reckon she’s here today,” Maracic says.
Photography: Ben Dillon