TRUCKIES and their families will make the trip to Murray Bridge later this month to pay tribute to those who have lost their lives on the roads.
The second annual SA White Hill Truck Drivers Memorial will be held at the White Hill Memorial wall on Adelaide Road on Saturday, November 29.
SA Truck Drivers Memorial coordinator Keith Wood, Tailem Bend, said the memorial provided a space for families and mates to pay tribute to their loved ones and friends.
Keith said there were two parts to the wall.
The first - "the one where I plan to end up" - is for truckies who have died of natural causes.
"A lot of people don't know part of the wall is there for those who have been in the transport industry," he said.
The other side of the wall is dedicated to those who died at work.
There are plans to have 29 more plaques erected.
Walls have also been built in other parts of Australia, including one at Tarcutta, NSW.
Keith said his sister was involved in the Tarcutta memorial and his father had a plaque on that wall.
He said part of the reason for setting them up in SA was for family members and friends to have a place of their own to remember the lives of those lost.
"We needed something local, a place for families to go," Keith said.
With the transport industry rating the highest in terms of work-related deaths in Australia, he said the memorial was a way of paying respect.
"I've got four of my mates I used to run with on the wall," Keith said.
"This can help families; it is a healing process for some."
SA Truck Drivers Memorial secretary Carleen Brown, Murray Bridge, has plaques for her brother and father on the wall.
"It is somewhere I can come," she said.
As part of the memorial service at Murray Bridge, truckies will convoy from throughout SA, and interstate, with flags and banners attached in memory of some of those lost.
They will then form a parade into the city and make their way to the wall.
During the service, four flag poles will fly - the Australian, Aboriginal, White Hill Memorial and the Trans-Help - at half-mast. Four volunteers will then raise the flags in unison to the sound of airhorns.
After the service, the trucks will make their way to the Murray Bridge racecourse, with a police escort, for a family fun day. Entry fee is a gold coin donation for adults, but it is free for children.
"We're really trying to do something for the families," Keith said.
He said the memorial had brought out the best in local residents.
* Full report in Stock Journal, November 6, 2014 issue.
Elizabeth Anderson
Stock Journal's magazine editor.
Stock Journal's magazine editor.
