You could liken Grant Samson to the travelling salesmen of the old days, but it’s not a vacuum cleaner he’s sold you that he’s checking to see doesn’t need upgrading - more likely a motor grader or wheel loader.
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When you’re calling someone on a satellite phone you know they’re covering some bitumen: but hitting the road for Samson is more than going the extra mile – it’s more likely to be upwards of 75,000.
That’s how many kilometres he travels every year from Birdsville to the Gulf and the west to east. He’s been Hastings Deering’s local CAT man for 26 years so you’d think Samson would be best known for black and yellow – but ask anyone from ‘the Curry’ to Croydon they’ll tell you he’s true blue.
His contact book reads like a who’s who of the construction and pastoral industries. Legends in the bush like Birdsville’s Nell and David Brook and one of the nation’s biggest private cattle station owners Alister and Jo McClymont. The Brooks may run a 40,000 certified Organic cattle on 3.49 million hectares but to Samson they’re the owners of a CAT 140H II Motor Grader he delivered last year.
Same story for McClymonts. “I delivered a D6T dozer to his station Burleigh, in the Gulf country near Richmond, earlier this year,” Samson, says, “I have known him 26 years and that was the first machine I’ve sold him. We had a laugh about that. Sometimes it takes awhile to make a sale.”
His territory size may be extraordinary but to him, it’s just his patch. He’s plied these roads so long remoteness is in his blood. Hastings Deering brass reckon if they didn’t employ Samson, he’d find some other way to be a part of these communities.
What makes Samson’s story more than another guy travelling long distances for work – is he is famous for ringing up his customers before heading out to see if there are any necessities he can bring with him. For 26 years he has taken out supplies like fresh bread, milk, groceries and even medications. He runs around Mount Isa collecting goods and then packs up his wagon.
“My story is pretty much like many of the people you meet out here,” Samson says, “I thought I would come for about three or four years and that was 26 years ago. I know so many people and most of them are like family. My bread and butter have always been the local government sector – whether that was dealing with guys in the workshop to mayors and CEOs of the councils they deal with. It’s always been about relationships.
“When I first came out here that may have just been ‘living in the bush’ but that was okay. You could always build on things from that. Now we talk about the cattle, talk about the weather – actually the truth is I could always talk about anything.
“Nothing surprises me; if someone knows I am coming out and asks for something - I just make sure I can get it. It started off with me grabbing some bread and the local papers for a customer here and there. Now if someone needs something they all say, ‘ring Grant’.”
He scratches his head when you ask what has been the most unusual request: “A fridge to Bedourie: before it was bitumen – it was a challenging road. It was a two door commercial fridge for the Roadhouse, so I laid all the back seats down in the wagon to get it in.”
In Richmond, Samson has been working with the Shire Council’s Workshop Manager Phillip “Chappy” Chappell since he started with the council as a machine operator 26 years ago. In November last year the Council took delivery of a CAT 966K Wheel Loader.
“As a machine operator I would see him as I came in and out of the workshops,” Chappy says, “what you see is what you get. People can sniff out if you are not genuine. He treats everyone like gold. He is always bringing something out for us- nothing is too much of a bother. He is so devoted to CAT that we have played a few tricks on him too. One time he brought his mower out cause he was having trouble with it so while we had it we painted it CAT yellow and replaced the Rover sign with CAT, so now he mows his lawn with CAT mower. “He brings out the best in people, everyone around here knows him and stops to say hello when he is in town.”
Grant said he’s been bogged, caught out by flood waters and have learnt to read the conditions of when and when not to travel – but it is always worth it. “People are always pleased to see you especially in the places where they don’t get many visitors. The day I wake up and groan that I have to be on the road is the day I give it all up.”
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
