Phillip Mathie lost his sight in 2010 but he hasn’t lost his passion for the logging industry or his pride in the family business.
Phillip Mathie has been loyal to Western Star and Cummins since Bruce Mathie & Sons bought a Western Star Cheyenne 4800 in 1984.
But among White enthusiasts, Phillip is better known for the two White Mustangs housed in his shed at Dalmeny on the South Coast of New South Wales.
Phillip is preserving a 1960 Mustang MC22 and 1964 Mustang 4200 for future generations because they are similar to the White Super Power his father Bruce Mathie used to cart logs near Nowra, NSW, in the late 1940s.
“People will never ever see anything like that,” Phillip says. “Once they’re gone, they’re gone. The engineering and workmanship – it’s just unbelievable.”
Phillip is widely admired for his determination to continue working after he lost his sight. “It’s five years this Christmas since I went totally blind,” he says. Caused by anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION), his blindness forced him to stop driving in 2010. But he continues a management role at the family business. “I’m still coming in every day.”
His wife Jenny drives him to work at about 7 o’clock each morning and Phillip works in the office until 5pm, talking on the phone with customers and suppliers. “I go over to the workshop and order parts and things like that.”
Phillip and his brothers Stewart and Kevin are directors of Bruce Mathie & Sons. They are the third generation of Mathies to cart hardwood logs.
Representing a fourth generation, Phillip’s son Quinten Mathie runs four trucks trading as QB Mathie.
Quinten subcontracts for Bruce Mathie & Sons and also carts fuel. He admires his father’s determination to keep working despite the challenges he faces.
Read about Phillip and Quinten in the December 2015 issue of Owner//Driver.
Photography: Tamara Whitsed