Sometimes the hardest stories to write are the ones that must be written. The stunning Matt James Mack comes under that umbrella, for while it is an epically cool refurb story, it is also mired in pain and loss.
The stunning day cab Superliner was purchased for one of Matt James Haulage’s longest serving employees. I use the term employee very loosely – when you meet Matt and his wife Lisa, you soon realise that they don’t really have employees, but extended family.
This truck was purchased in 2023 as a second-hand project truck for one of their longest serving ‘extended family members’ in Mick Harrison. The idea was that they would refurb it, spruce it up and bling it out so Mick would become the man behind the wheel of it, with the aim being for the truck to be completed and debuted at Matt’s wedding to the lovely Lisa.
Sadly, Mick took his own life in January 2024. It was sudden, unseen and, for the small family-based company that Mick had made his second home, it was devastating. That’s what makes this a tough story to tell, but it needs to be shared, not just for the fact it is a very cool refurb job, but also to acknowledge the effect Mick had on the Matt James Haulage family.
The Wollongong based company, which began mainly with tipper and excavation work and now leans more predominantly towards the asphalt scene, has been in operation since 2002. The foundations of what you see before you began with a 20 year-old International T-line.
“When I was 19, I saw an ad in the paper for a one-day truck licence and just thought it was perfect for me,” Matt says, very tongue-in-cheek.
Once he was licensed up, Matt spent a little bit of time on wages, working for a local civil company, but that wasn’t where his heart lay. He wanted his own truck – it was all about working for himself.
“I’m better at running my own show, always have been. In any job I’ve had before, I like organising and sourcing my own stuff,” he says.
“I bought my first truck from a guy who was retiring, Peter Moradini. He had the truck since it was new, and it was immaculate.”
That particular truck was a 210hp 1982 International T-line. It had celebrated its 20th birthday the year that Matt purchased it back in 2002.
“Back then, the money wasn’t real good, it was just a glorified wage,” he says.
However, it was his passion for the aforementioned lorries that drove his desire to own and drive one for himself.
“I really did just love trucks, Lisa will tell you, I’d drive the highways and I’d be pointing each one out – ‘there so and so’s truck, this truck, that truck’,” Matt says.
“Lisa would tell me I didn’t have to tell her about it every time.”
That first truck came with no guarantees – the truck was bought without work attached, but that has never been an obstacle for Matt. He loves getting out and meeting people, sourcing work and creating contacts. Even now he still admits that it’s one of the favourite parts of the job.
He soon had the little 210hp International flat out. The poor wee girl was working its butt off, and within two years it was replaced. It made way for Matt’s first Mack in the form of a second-hand B.O.C CH Mack.
“It was a rocket, I went from 210hp to 454hp. I had always wanted a Mack – I grew up as a Mack person all my life and knew I wanted to own one,” he says.
Like any true Bulldog aficionado, you can’t just have one Mack – that first CH was the catalyst for a fluctuating fleet of trucks dominated by Macks. The Matt James Kennel’s current role call sees five Mack Superliners, two Mack Metro Liners, a Mack Trident and an old water cart filling the Matt James Haulage roster. That’s not to say there haven’t been others – a few Kenworths have had the privilege of having MJH written on their doors, but in the end, Matt keeps coming back to the Bulldog brand for his expanding fleet.
“A lot of it comes down to service and parts – we have a Mack dealership here in town and those guys are great,” he says.
“If I need parts, I’ll call Stacy at the local Mack dealership, I can order a part in the morning and they’ll have it for us by the afternoon. The backup and accessibility is so important.”
Now we arrive at the current cool configuration, a 2015 New Breed Mack Superliner, including a day cab with bucketloads of coolness spread over it and a colour scheme that just snags the eye from every angle. The truck was purchased to replace one of the last Kenworths in the fleet.
“We were looking to get a new truck and dog, but at the time, the wait for a new truck was almost two years and the prices were through the roof,” Matt says.
“We found this one at an auction and snapped it up, figuring we would be able to clean it up and add a bit of bling.”
The man who was entrusted with not just the keys to drive the truck, but also set on the task of refurbing it, was one of Matt James Haulage’s longest ‘extended family members’, Mick Harrison.
“Mick had been with us for over seven years,” Lisa says.
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“He wasn’t just a worker. You have employees and then you have ones that are family, and that was Mick. He was literally here all the time. If he wasn’t at work, or with his kids, then he was just here doing stuff. He loved the place, and we loved having him.”
“Mick wasn’t just a driver here; everything went through him. Unless it really needed to be me, Mick handled it,” Matt says.
“He’d schedule the servicing and maintenance. He’d organise the boys. When the new ones came in, he would take them under his wing and help them.”
Lisa and Matt crack a bit of a smile when they reflect on the other side of Mick.
“I remember sitting at home one night, at about 11pm, and I saw Mick and a few of the boys were still in the yard just working on their trucks,” Matt says.
“Mick just loved pottering around – we’d see him there, scratching his head as he worked on different things, or just wandering around sipping on his can of Coke.”
There is genuine affection in Matt and Lisa’s comments when they share the stories about Mick’s character.
“Mick worked hard, he was a true leader and he had such a dry sense of humour. He would drop great one liners randomly and you would be laughing for days,” Lisa says.
“On rain days, the boys would come to the shed to work on their trucks and he’d be the first asking ‘what’s for lunch?’, he loved the rain day BBQs.
“When he couldn’t find something, his meltdowns were the best – we actually just found some drill pieces last month that he was looking for and they weren’t where he reckoned they were.”
Highs and lows. Mick would always end the day with a smile, comfortable in the Matt James Haulage family atmosphere.
As mentioned earlier, the purchase of the truck was timed around the upcoming nuptials of Matt and Lisa, with Mick the man who would be the day-to-day custodian of the 2015 New Breed Mack.
“We bought the truck for Mick; he had been in the last of the Kenworths,” Matt says.
“It was going to be a truck and dog setup. Mick had already gotten started on it, pulling it apart, coming up with plans and ideas. We were going to go all out on it.”
Then, on January 1, 2024, Mick took his own life. It was a shock for everyone.
“We were taking a family holiday to Fiji,” Matt recalls.
“I’d been texting him while we were waiting to board and on the flight to Fiji. He had been looking at stuff for the truck, pricing it out. Lisa had just told him to go get the stuff.
“Then when we landed, I got a call from his dad, and I didn’t know what to do.”
It was an extremely tough time for everyone. Mick was such a huge part of the Matt James Haulage family. Lisa and Matt were in Fiji trying to help and support Mick’s family as well as the rest of their team still at home and in shock.
By the time the James family returned and helped organise the service as well as having ‘extended family’ dinners to look after their team, there were still no answers that helped ease the mourning for everyone.
“Mick was such a great guy, such a huge part of our team,” Lisa says. “It was so difficult.”
When life throws roadblocks like this, it can put the superficial elements onto the back burner. Mick’s Superliner became a bit of a trigger and got pushed off to the side for the next few months.
“We kind of just put it away for seven months,” Matt says.
“Then, as our wedding was approaching, we decided we wanted to get it completed in Mick’s honour and have it at our wedding, because he would have wanted that, so suddenly it was all systems go.”
Matt is the first to admit, and I quote, “mechanically, I’m very basic – I can do bits and pieces, but I have a really good crew around me who are very hands on”. One of those crew members was Matt’s best mate, Dave Cornford of DRC Industrial Repairs.
“He’s more fanatical than me,” Matt admits.
Dave played a huge role in the refurbishment of the Superliner. The truck was torn down to the rails and the entire thing was sand blasted, before the chassis and tanks were repainted in bright blue.
The cab got repainted in the Matt James Haulage colours, with Di from Disigns Signage and Graphics in Wollongong adding her touches. Brenton McBride from BJM Custom Stainless was then set loose. He wrapped the tanks, added the Visor, some stainless around the mirrors and a few other little finishing touches. The only stumbling block came when Matt wanted to add a new King Bar to the front of it.
“At the time, there was a 12 month wait to get a new bar out of Kings,” Matt says, knowing full well Lisa would not be postponing the wedding for 12 months just to accommodate a new bar.
“I ended up finding one in Perth, which we got over, and young Ben who works for us got in and repolished that, as well as all the other parts we hadn’t replaced. He got it all back to new.”
Matt admits the Superliner is a step above what they normally do with their trucks, but this was special to everyone. It couldn’t hit the road without a few extra lights for Mick, although Lisa is happy to point out the hypocrisy of his light addiction.
“Every year he’ll lose it when he sees how much I do for our Christmas light display, but his trucks can have so many added to them,” Lisa jokes.
“Now I’ve just said he might as well just bring the truck home at Christmas time.”
True to their goal, Matt, Lisa and all of those involved got the stunning Superliner finished and shined up for the couple’s wedding on September 14 last year. It was their way of being able to pay tribute to their friend and ensure that he was there for the special day.
As I said at the beginning, the hardest stories to tell are often those that we must share. Matt, Lisa, Mick’s children Alice and Felix, as well as all of the Matt James Haulage family and Mick’s friends, lost a very good mate and a great father on January 1, 2024.
His name is spoken often with pride and appreciation around the workshop, keeping his memory alive. And now there is a stunning Superliner that Mick was pivotal in creating, carrying his name around the Wollongong area.
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