Just to bring you all up to date as you start reading this story, I am now onto my 15th opening paragraph and I am hoping to get through the introduction and get into the story this time around. This isn’t a story that is hard to tell, and it isn’t a story with nothing to say. The problem is this is a story that really needs due diligence. Yes, I do have an outstanding truck to focus on – just look at the images of this incredible 409 before you – the problem is trying to do justice to the family behind this incredible truck and the rest of their outstanding fleet.
They are not a family that chases the limelight, even though everyone knows their name. They are not a family that flashes their success, even though every truck in the fleet gleams with pride and passion. And they are not a family that holds themselves in any kind of inflated importance, even though they are all some of the warmest and most welcoming folks that you can meet. It was such an honour for me to receive an invitation to join the Cornwill family at their home base down in Bannockburn, Victoria recently and get the opportunity to photograph a couple of their trucks. I had butterflies in my stomach when I accepted the invite and felt honoured to sit down with Kevin and Wendy, as well as their sons Wayne, Troy and Rick Cornwill, and share some of their story.
You may ask why I was nervous accepting an invite to the truck lovers’ paradise that is Cornwill Transport. The Cornwill name holds massive weight around Victoria, both in transport in general and in the truck show scene. For several years now, there has almost been an admiring resignation from fellow entrants when the Cornwills rolled in to any show. There is hardly an award that their incredible 2008 Kenworth T908, named ‘Paradise’, hasn’t picked up on the Victorian circuit and, then with the release of the Kenworth Legend SAR the Cornwill family built in ‘Dynamite’, they have another truck that has not only cleaned up at every regional show it entered, but also went on to claim the inaugural National Show’n’Shine Championship at last year’s Brisbane Truck Show. It is the benchmark for builds when it comes to custom trucks and as such, I was a bit nervous popping in to visit a family held in such high esteem in our industry.
But I soon learned the family team responsible for these exquisite trucks is as down to earth and modest as anyone you will ever meet. My ‘quick interview’ turned into a full afternoon event that was wrapped up with a lovely home cooked meal. I left late in the evening with my Dictaphone maxed out and a whole new appreciation for the dedication and work ethic of the Cornwill family. Oh, and Wendy’s baking – that’s enough for me to fake the need to return for at least three or four follow-up interviews.
I learnt how integral Kevin’s ethos has been to the success of their sons and how Wendy’s attention to detail and thoroughness has influenced them as well. I learnt how old school values form the basis of Cornwill Transport’s business success and how the adage ‘how you do anything is how you do everything’ has seen these young men setting new standards in truck show preparation. I also learnt that, to give the Cornwill story full justice, this would be a multi-issue spread – this sadly can’t be done, so let me try and get to the crux of the story.
Firstly, though we are going to deal with the elephant in the room, I am sure many are asking ‘why have I not focused on the amazing work of art that is Cornwill’s Legend SAR’? Quite simply, I wanted to focus on this impressive 2014 T409 that joined the family back in 2019, the reason being I think it epitomises their achievements more. Obviously ‘Dynamite’ is the multi-award-winning show piece of the Cornwill brothers’ skills. The whole truck has been modified and customised by the boys themselves, getting in the experts when needed, but turning out a masterpiece from their own workshop.
But Dynamite is a sunny day work truck. In time it will do more, but at the moment it only gets employed when there’s guaranteed good weather and no gravel roads. Then there is ‘Paradise’, which has done its time as the flagship workhorse. Wayne drove this five to six days a week for the company, but it has paid its dues and now leads a content truck show life. These are two very impressive rides equally deserving of our attention – I have chosen the little T409 because not only is it still earning its keep, but it came into Cornwill Transport as a second hand truck and has since been given the full makeover experience. As it approaches one million kilometres on the dial, it is still turning heads and picking up trophies when sitting next to its more applauded big brothers.
The Cornwill Transport team are a small tight family operation operating competitively among the big boys and their little T409 epitomises that same struggle. Wayne and Troy Cornwill were the brothers that began Cornwill Transport back in 1995 and were joined by younger brother Rick when he was old enough to fit a pair of steel caps. However, to understand the passion that built the company, we need to go back to the ‘60s when their father Kevin first started driving, unlicenced of course.
“Well, they didn’t actually ask if I had a licence when I went for the job,” Kevin confesses with a smile, recalling his first job down in Victoria.
We won’t focus on the how and why as much as we will focus on the drive and determination that Kevin took to work with him.
“If you want something you have to go out and work for it. You have to make sacrifices in order to get the things you want,” he says.
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Yes, these are the kind of things you read on the cheesy motivational posters plastered in the school guidance counsellor’s office, but they are true mantras for Kevin and his family.
During his tenure behind the wheel, Kevin was determined to build a life for his family. His approach to every job he had was to give it 110 per cent and then a bit more on the weekend. It is a work ethic that is now evident in his boys, but Kevin is also the first to divert the accolades to his lovely wife Wendy.
“I do think the credit for the boys goes to Mum because I was always away working,” he admits.
“She was the one at home raising the boys and keeping the house going. I also think their obsession and standards of cleaning come from her as well.”
As you would expect, Wendy shies away from the compliments but admits the boys used to follow her around when she was cleaning and were happy to get the rags out and point out when she missed a spot.
Kevin found his groove when he got a job driving for Ron Hovey OAM in one of Hovey’s Transport’s old Louisvilles. Working for the Geelong Cats great was regarded as prime employment back in the day, with great gear, high expectations and a welcoming environment. It was the place where Kevin and his approach to work really shone. It was also a great family atmosphere for Kevin’s first two boys to experience the trucking life they were chasing.
I have mentioned Kevin’s tendency to live life via motivational posters, right? Well, another one of those philosophies that Kevin was teaching his boys was ‘live to your means’. It was Kevin’s way of teaching the boys some financial responsibility. Having grown up around trucks, spending their childhood helping Dad, driving well before their time, helping repair maintain and customise, as well as working part-time jobs washing trucks, Wayne and Troy had made the decision all young truck lovers make: we will buy our own truck, make it cool and go trucking. Dad, however, made it clear that if they wanted to succeed, they needed to own their first truck and they needed to have some money behind them before they got started. It is a great attitude to teach your kids and, in the Cornwill case, it was absolutely spot on.
Neither Wayne nor Troy had much appreciation for school and, with their focus being on saving enough money to buy a truck, they were out the school door quicker than you can say ‘where the hell are those Cornwill boys?’. Wayne picked up work at Coles and would end up doing a 10-year stint with the company. Troy went in a very different direction and took an apprenticeship in furniture making. This didn’t mean they abandoned trucking – no, it just meant they were determined to earn money to buy their truck. The two of them also reflected their Dad’s work habits with second and third jobs. No rest for the motivated.
Their truck fund was quite literally a beanie stuffed with cash that they kept in their bedroom. The boys believed in themselves and the lessons they’d learnt from Mum and Dad – getting the money together and doing it off their own back was how they would succeed. In 1992 the beanie got emptied and the boys bought their first truck. Wayne was 23, Troy was 20 and suddenly the family home in Geelong had a bloody great Kenworth Aerodyne stacked in the driveway.
“When the boys bought the Aerodyne, they brought it home and honestly we had nowhere to put it,” Kevin laughs.
“They put it in the driveway – it wrecked my concrete and ruined Mum’s gardens. Most people won’t believe it, but where that truck was refurbished was in the driveway of our place in Bell Post Hill.”
The purchase of their first truck had six degrees of separation linked to the decision 22 years later to purchase this cool T409 that you see before you now.
“Troy and I wanted a Kenworth; we’d always talked about getting an SAR because they were the cool trucks we saw growing up. But then we took one for a test drive, it was just a bit too small for us,” Wayne recalls.
The boys had big plans for when they got their truck, hoping that they could get work towing for Hovey’s alongside their father. They were adamant they were going to work their rig as much as possible, so they needed a truck big enough to accommodate the two of them. Enter the 1980 Kenworth K123, which would become known as ‘Penthouse’. The boys picked up the Ex-Apex Club of Australia raffle truck for about $43,000 in 1992. They spent more than double that refurbing it from their Mum and Dad’s shed and, in late 1994, they debuted their masterpiece at the Castlemaine Truck Show before turning the wheels in anger early in 1995.
It wasn’t an easy start to Cornwill Trucking. The boys were working like men possessed, with day work towing for Hovey’s and night work for a landscaping outfit that saw the truck pushed hard. During the first couple of years, they ended with a couple of rebuild invoices, the second one most likely caused by inferior work on the first rebuild. Regardless of the reasoning, it wasn’t easy for the young men trying to follow their dreams, but having good family support as well as great companies they were working for ensured those first couple of years didn’t break them.
Quitting or even half-arsing things just isn’t in the Cornwill DNA. The boys persevered and, even through the sellout of Hovey’s Transport to Linfox that saw the loss of the subby work as more and more subbies joined the ranks, the boys just kept working. They found other ways to keep the wheels turning and they kept building their reputation. Admittedly it was helped by the pristine presentation of their Penthouse. Customers and truckies alike noticed the big girl looking spot on every day.
There are so many stories to tell between that first legendary rig and where the Cornwills are today, and if I could convince my editor to turn this into a book, I could share them all. The boys ebbed and flowed through the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Dad came to drive for them and their younger brother Rick would also graduate from cleaning crew to full time driver as well. There was a cacophony of trucks that joined the fleet. Louisvilles, Macks and of course more Kenworths. In 2003 the company purchased their first new truck in a Kenworth T401T.
Throughout all their growth and changes, there were several things that remained resolute. It was a family company, they worked for everything they got and the trucks must remain immaculate. In 2008 the purchase of Paradise and the job sheet for the Thorpe team that put it together was monumental for Cornwill Transport. This was, until Dynamite arrived, their flagship truck. It was a truck that allowed the boys to exemplify their approach to trucking on both fronts. One, it worked its butt off – with Wayne behind the wheel, that truck was rarely rested. Second, somehow, the family managed to keep that truck looking show-ready every day of the week, then stepped it up again on the weekends.
Now we will skip over a few more of the trials and tribulations and get to August 2019. By now, a lot of the Cornwill work was focused on steel and steel cartage. The boys needed another truck, a perfect little pocket rocket for trusted driver Hill Bill. The boys still had the original urges for an old school cool truck like a SAR. Seeing as they weren’t going to have to squeeze into it this time, and also keeping in mind it was still a couple of years away from Kenworth announcing the Legend SARs, Rick, Troy and Wayne went looking for a truck that they could fashion into an old school looking SAR. It turned out Neil Wright in Kilmore had the perfect platform for the boys to work with in a 2014 Kenworth T409.
The truck went into the boys’ shed and was stripped back to bare bones for a major Cornwill upgrade. In 12 months, it got completely resprayed, every worn-out piece was replaced and changes were made to bring the old-style SAR to a modern rig. There are obvious parts, like the ‘80s style scoop on the roof, and not so subtle parts like moving the battery box under the cab. Most of the work was done by the boys themselves, with the likes of TFI being brought in to paint the cab and bonnet.
Spend a bit of time checking out the photos and you will get to see all the extras the boys introduced to bring this modern mover back to the previous decades’ appearance, all while ensuring it would be practical to work and maintain the Cornwill reputation.
Don’t be fooled, this truck definitely works. It had around 380,000km on it when it rolled into the Cornwill shed and is now fast approaching the big one million mark. Like everything the Cornwills do, they have shown care and respect to this little workhorse and that is exactly why I snubbed their more famous big brothers, Paradise and Dynamite, and focused on the 409.
I do believe this little workhorse symbolises this small-town family the most. It’s not the biggest, but it works bloody hard. It is a truck that can and will do anything, much like the family itself. It isn’t the newest nor flashiest, but the Cornwills care for it like it’s the only truck on earth. And, most of all, like the Cornwill family themselves, everybody loves this little truck.
Although I could go on forever, I hope I have been able to give you a little taste of the family behind the Cornwill name. They do reflect the best sides of our industry. They are willing and eager to help and assist anyone. They are dedicated to working hard and earning their keep and they have a pride and passion in their trucks that is quite frankly the envy of many.
I promise I will return with a few more photos of the big brothers, Paradise and Dynamite. I am just waiting on Wendy to do a bit more baking before I head back down.
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