Wayne Cross, also known as “Crossy”, is a well-known and respected truck driver of Bairnsdale.
With his career spanning more than 60 years, Wayne has recently been inducted into the 2024 National Road Transport Hall of Fame.
Wayne’s love for truck driving began when he was just 12 years old, driving with his uncle carting cattle and sheep around East Gippsland in a Commer Knocker livestock tray truck.
From those early days until this year when he retired, Crossy was a truck driver and only the best could keep up with him on the bush roads.
Wayne drove a number of different trucks for numerous different employers over the years, carting logs, pulp and machinery.
In 2009, after 37 years of driving trucks for other people, Crossy decided to become his own boss, purchasing his first truck, a Kenworth T908 along with a logging cartage contract, this was the start of his company WC & EA Cross Pty Ltd.
Over the next 13 years he worked for himself carting logs throughout Victoria, NSW and even in QLD carting salvage timber from Cyclone Yasi clean up.
In that time, he bought numerous new Kenworth trucks with folding Kennedy log trailer set ups on the back, it was always “Just one more truck and that’ll do me until I retire,” that was about four trucks ago.
Wayne reluctantly retired in early 2024 after the government put a stop to native logging. Wayne is now catching up on jobs for his wife Elaine as well as working on his farm. There’s plenty to keep him busy however, for those who know Crossy, know he would much rather be in the driver’s seat of a truck.
