In July 1958, K.W. Thomas Pty Ltd changed its name. Ignoring the requests from Ken to omit the name ‘Thomas’, the company’s directors named the company Thomas National Transport, later Thomas Nationwide Transport. The TNT name would go on to become a globally recognised brand in transport and logistics. In the decade before, the company slowly increased its influence and market share. It established a base of operations at Balmain and later Mascot, and pioneered a system of sub-contracting, a system which played a significant part in the growth of the Australian Transport industry. In addition, Ken and his company established branches in every capital city in the country by the early 1950s, and increased the number of branches as the years went on. In February of 1948, Ken helped to form the Long Distance Road Transport Association (LDRTA). It was a conduit for discussion on road transport issues between the industry and government, and was only superseded by the merger of it and the National Transport Federation to form the National Road Transport Association in 1994. On the practical level, Ken incorporated pioneering methods into his company. Ken was one of the first to use freight notes. These notes allowed the detailing of cargo costs and haulage charges in addition to the cargo and destination details. Prior to this, separate invoices for picking up the goods, transport and then delivery would be sent to the client. It streamlined operations for the company and laid a firm foundation for growth. In addition, freight handling was also a number one concern. Being of a railway background living in Harden-Murrumburrah and having a locomotive driver for a father, Ken understood the importance of rail in Australia, and he was always looking for ways his road operations could interface with rail. In 1958, rather than risking damage to his trucks on the dirt road that crossed the Nullarbor Plain at the time, Ken used rail to ‘piggyback’ his trucks from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie. Ken also pioneered the use of shipping containers to further increase the efficiency of his operations in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including employing skeleton bodied truck trailers designed specifically to take containers loaded on by crane. This method is still in use to this day. Ken was also an early advocate of driver welfare. Ken established a stopping off point halfway between Sydney and Melbourne by buying a service station at Tumbalong, near the current site of the Dog on the Tuckerbox. As the drive from Sydney to Melbourne took two and a half days at that time, establishing a waypoint gave drivers something to look forward to, a place to sleep, eat, carry out repairs and refuel. Prior to this, drivers struggled to find meals or overnight accommodation, often forcing drivers to sleep under or in their trucks in the days before the advent of sleeper cabs. At the same time Ken’s business was booming, he also had a family. After marrying his wife Anne in 1939, Ken & Anne had five children: Elizabeth, Rhody, Megan, Gavin and Andrew. The family was raised in the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag, where both Ken and his wife Anne made significant contributions to the community there, with Ken being on the Board of the Co-op Society. At the opening of a shopping plaza there despite his objections, Ken hired a bagpipe player to play a song of lament. Such was his community mindedness. Ken’s commitment to the community was echoed by his son Gavin in David Wilcox’s biography of Ken Thomas: “Our house was seemingly a community centre where everyone was welcome. Who will forget tennis days, and socialising afterwards? We all enjoyed the fund raisers, the play readings, the weddings, the requests for help. Dad provided very generously for many more than just his children.” The 1960s saw TNT evolve into a national transport titan. This evolution began in 1964. In that year, Ken entered into an arrangement with Peter Abeles, a Jewish-Hungarian businessman who wanted to establish an overnight parcel business. Peter had established a company called Alltrans in 1950, and his company and Ken’s TNT formed Comet Overnight Express together to compete with the Adelaide-based company, IPEC. In 1967, the two companies merged, and Ken welcomed Peter Abeles, and Abeles’s colleague Frank Millar, to the board of TNT. It was a decision that would have considerable consequences for Ken a few years later. From 1966 onwards, Ken became more and more outspoken in his political and philosophical views. In that year, Ken co-founded the Liberal Reform Group, with an anti-Vietnam and anti-conscription platform. Prior to unsuccessfully contesting the November 1967 Senate election, Ken went on a fact finding trip to Vietnam. Whilst there, he observed that “Clearly, the American persecution is creating an invincible solidarity where all differences are submerged in the nationalist cause.” In essence, Ken found that the Vietnamese just wanted to be left alone. As a vehement anti-conscription campaigner, Ken formed the Australian Peace Institute in Sydney in 1969 for peace research. At that same time, he became the leader of the Anti-Conscription Group, advising young men not to register for national service. For this, Ken was summoned to court for his role in the group. Ken also believed that compulsory voting should be abolished, and he often attended the polling booth, got his name marked off, and walked out with the ballot paper in hand. In March 1970, Ken’s youngest son, Andrew, committed suicide. The family had tried to help him in the years prior, and Andrew had received the assistance of Central Methodist Mission in Pitt Street. As a vote of thanks, Ken donated land for a retreat for the organisation in Andrew’s memory. The next year, in July 1972, Ken was giving a lecture to a gathering of Sydney University students. In his lecture, he said the following lines: “We are on the verge of a breakthrough that will be positive, rather than merely destructive, but in creating there will be an inevitable destruction…The destruction will be in two areas riddled with superstition. The first is religion, the second psychology.” The headlines the following day, a Friday, included TNT HEAD SAYS DESTROY RELIGION and OUR OWN DOUBTING THOMAS. His comments on religion caused quite a stir. On that day, one of the board members of TNT, Ross Cribb, reported fifty phone calls from customers and staff regarding his comments. By Monday, after pressure from his own board, Ken resigned from TNT. Although Peter Abeles was out of the country, Peter didn’t disagree that Ken had to go. According to Ken’s biography by David Wilcox, Ken was disappointed that members of the board, especially Peter Abeles, had abandoned him. “Although he tried to put on a brave face, Ken carried that bitterness for the rest of his life.” The dismissal had brought to an end Ken’s direct involvement in the company. During the 1960s,TNT had branched into maritime and rail freight. TNT had acquired Bulkships, an Australian shipping company, and also used roll-on, roll-off ships to service the Trans-Tasman routes. In addition, TNT was running trains between Sydney and Melbourne, and plans were afoot to expand further. TNT’s rolling stock was even setting world records in transporting cargo 5,600km per week. TNT went on to expand globally before being bought by a Dutch firm in 1996. It has since been acquired by the American company, UPS, in 2011. After TNT, Ken became a staunch advocate for rail transport in Australia. He advocated that governments should be spending more money on rail, and less on roads. One of Ken’s plans was the ‘Southern Cross Plan’, with a railway line running from Sydney through Orange, Broken Hill, South Australia, and Perth, and a North-South line running from Melbourne to the Queensland border. In this way, rail freight would be able to reach all of the capital cities efficiently. Part of this plan included the use of the Demondrille-Blayney line. Considering recent decisions, however, this plan is looking highly unlikely to come to fruition. Ken spent his time throughout the 1970s giving lectures and speaking about transport matters. However, he was invited to join the board of QANTAS, a fully government-owned airline at that time. After his bitter experience in the end with TNT, Ken declined. Despite refusing the QANTAS position, Ken dabbled and invested in a number of business ventures, particularly in North Queensland. Unfortunately for Ken, they all had issues and he suffered heavy financial losses. In transport safety, Ken made a significant contribution. He and NSW Minister for Transport, Milton Morris (1965 – 1975), had a good relationship, and Ken was able to make his ideas known to him. After seeing the success of the Snowy Mountains Authority’s seatbelt policy, Ken put the idea of compulsory seatbelts in NSW to Milton Morris. In 1971, seatbelts were made compulsory throughout the state. Ken continued his road safety advocacy, and he formed the group known as SALAD (Save A Life A Day) in 1979, with the aim of introducing road safety laws that were working in Victoria since 1976 into NSW. Some of these included random breath testing, heavy drink driving penalties and driver training in high schools. Ken’s aim was to reduce NSW’s weekly road toll to under 18. Ken also took SALAD to the 1981 state election, without success. It was not until 1982 that random breath testing was introduced in NSW, and by 1983, the states road toll had dropped to 12.8 per week, or 670 per year. Interestingly, Ken was an advocate for decentralising governments and allowing local people to have a greater say in their future. He wanted 37 regional governments, rather than states. Most significantly, he wanted local councils to remain, the smaller the better, to allow for people to better govern themselves. One can easily see what his opinions on current amalgamation proposals would be. Ken Thomas died on the 21st of September, 1997. One of the town’s greatest movers and shakers, Ken built up a company that revolutionised the way freight moved in this country. Furthermore, he forged a humanitarian legacy that saw some of his ideas become a part of our everyday lives. Ken Thomas, thank you for being a Local Legend.