Keith Houston with his award from the hall of fame. PICTURE: JUSTIN WHITELOCK
KEITH Houston always wanted to be a truck driver.
Even when he left school at 14 to work as an apprentice mechanic, Mr Houston had dreams of hitting the road in the cabin of a large truck.
The day he turned 18 he got his truck licence and he was behind the wheel for the next 50 years.
Mr Houston, widely known as “Cannonball”, was recently inducted into the National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs.
The veteran truckie from Wendouree said it was an honour to be inducted , although he had previously never thought about it before he was nominated by one of his colleagues
“Trucks always fascinated me from day one, I never wanted to do anything else,” Mr Houston said.
Originally from Great Western, Mr Houston started his career carting 30,000 litre fuel tankers from the Port Melbourne Refinery to the Ballarat and Stawell depots.
In 1976 he bought his first truck, which he drove between Melbourne and Geelong and throughout western Victoria.
He then worked for Comet Ballarat before a failed attempt at retirement in 2000.Mr Houston retired in 2002 before he was lured back, not once but twice.
“I kept trying to retire, but was bored and missed the company,” he said.
He retired for the last time in 2009 and is finally happy with his decision.
“It’s a real honour, I’m pretty proud,” he said.