Ted ‘Greendog’ Stevens, who just turned 73, has written a book about his role in the Razorback Blockade of 1979.
Author Ted ‘Greendog’ Stevens is celebrating his 73rd birthday quietly with family at his home in Diggers Rest, Victoria, today, June 1.
The retired truckie became one of the industry’s most controversial figures in 1979 when he and his friends instigated the Razorback Blockade.
Earlier this year Ted finally achieved his ambition of publishing a book about the protest.
Razorback – the Real Story describes the frustration which led Ted, Spencer Watling, Colin Bird, Barry Grimson and Jack Hibburt to block the Hume Highway at Razorback Mountain in 1979.
Ted writes in the book: “When all was said and done, what could they do to us? Lock us up? We risked that every night we spent on the highway.”
The book is set on the mountain and at several of the other blockades in New South Wales which Ted visited by car and helicopter during the protest. He describes the media frenzy and takes the reader into the heated negotiations with politicians, large transport companies and transport associations, including the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU).
“Here I am, a busted-arse truck driver with an eighth-grade education, speaking to premiers and union leaders,” he tells Owner//Driver. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I had no idea. And you’ll read that in the book, warts and all.”
The protestors achieved many, but not all, of their demands. Among the wins was the end to the road tax which had seen so many truckies sent to jail.
“I’m no Einstein, but you don’t have to be a genius to work out that we were far better off after Razorback,” Ted says.
Ted wishes the book had been published while he was in better health, but he is glad he has finally been able to tell his side of the story. “People thought that I was put up to it by [Malcolm] Fraser to discredit [Nevile] Wran, or that TNT put me up to it. That wasn’t the case at all. And what’s in the book, every word is true.”
Email ted@daletown.com.au to order your copy of Razorback – the Real Story.
Read our full review in the June 2017 issue of Owner//Driver.
Photography: Tamara Whitsed