Sunday History Photo / Qld

John Cyril Anderson, road haulier and businessman, was born on 13 January 1904 at Toowoomba, Queensland. Educated at Toowoomba South State School, He worked in the family’s grocery store before opening a motorcycle repair shop in the 1920s and becoming a successful speedway competitor. In 1934 he acquired a Studebaker truck to fetch supplies from Brisbane for the grocery; the enterprise soon expanded into a general carrying business, later named Western Transport Pty Ltd.
On 4 June 1941 he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Posted to the 2/5th Armoured Regiment, he served in New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland before being discharged as a sergeant on 20 April 1945. In 1950 he added a rival company, Maranoa Transport Pty Ltd, to his trucking business. Within ten years, with about five hundred trucks, and depots in all mainland capitals and fifty-three Queensland towns, the enterprise had become reputedly the largest road haulage company in Australia. It was closely challenged by two other Toowoomba hauliers: Bill Bolton’s Cobb & Co. Ltd and E. S.Brown’s Transport Pty Ltd.

Unfortunatly I cannot locate a photo of John Cyril Anderson

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After the war he established Anderson Agencies Pty Ltd in 1947 and Westco Motors in1950 to import and distribute motorcycles and motorcars. At Westco Motors he added the Mazda franchise for Queensland in 1963, subsequently acquiring those of other States; by 1980 the company was said to be Australia’s largest importer of fully assembled motor vehicles. He ran Mack Trucks Australia Pty Ltd from 1963-1979 which had an assembly line in Brisbane, and manufactured Leader trucks at Toowoomba 1972-1984 All the businesses were controlled by a family holding company, Great Western Pty Ltd, in which Anderson held 60 per cent of shares. He sold the haulage enterprise in 1972 and next year established Great Western Australasia Ltd to invest in mining shares and to provide funds for the Mazda franchises.

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Appointed CBE in 1975, he retired as chairman of the board in 1978. He then concentrated on running a pastoral property, Lakeland Downs, near Cooktown. In 1980 the company was reconstituted as GWA Ltd and thereafter focused increasingly on manufacturing, in 1982 it reported a turnover of $465 million, he died on 3 December 1983 in South Brisbane.

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