LRTAWA - Vale Jim Cooper OAM

LRTAWA by Jan Cooper, Chief Executive Officer

Vale Jim Cooper OAM

Image: Cummins Commentary.wordpress.com Jim Cooper with wife Jenny (2010)

There are few people in Australia’s road transport industry who will not have heard of Jim Cooper or benefitted from the reforms he passionately and successfully advocated for, especially in rural and remote areas.

Jim was New Zealand born and bred. Prior to moving to Australia in 1972 with his wife Jenny and four children, he owned a transport company at Tapanui near the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand, operating 10 trucks.

From all accounts the environment was not sympathetic to transport companies. He was quoted in a 2010 Cummins magazine as saying, “I had to get away from New Zealand because of the heavily regulated transport industry”.

“At that time you had to have a licence to operate a truck and were restricted to a specific area… to protect the railways.

“We couldn’t run more than 35 miles in competition with any railway line. We did more work after dark than during the day. But the police were always out there trying to nail you and trying to protect a rail system that was highly inefficient,” said Jim.

Darwin was chosen as the Cooper family’s destination in Australia because it didn’t have a railway and the climate was warm.

On arrival in Darwin, Jim purchased a small company, Gulf Transport which had a fleet of two AEC Mammoth Majors and a Volvo G88 along with a few worn trailers. He eventually built the company into a large and respected business with well over 100 road trains across Australia.

The Northern Territory distributorship for White and Autocar trucks provided an added bonus to the Cooper business activities until the early 80’s.

In 1988,Gulf Transport secured a contract for 15 triple road trains to cart concentrate from the Cadjebut zinc and lead mine near Fitzroy Crossing to Wyndham Port and then later to Derby until 2003.

In 1993 Gulf Transport and Flynn Petroleum purchased Road Trains of Australia (RTA) with Jim taking full ownership two years later. Gulf Transport became Gulf RTA.

Seizing the opportunity the mining industry presented, Jim and his team established Powertrans in 2001 with the goal of providing lower cost, higherproductivity alternatives to conventional large mining trucks. They began designing and manufacturing a unique underground mine truck and eventually the above ground Pit Hauler which gave Gulf

Landmark $255 Million Pilbara Urea Project

The Western Australian Government has welcomed Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility's (NAIF) decision to invest $255 million in upgrades to commonuser infrastructure that will support the proposed $4.3 billion Perdaman Urea Project.

The project, located 20 kilometres north-west of Karratha, will convert Western Australian liquefied natural gas into about two million tonnes of urea per year. Urea is a widely used form of fertiliser for food production.

It is estimated the Perdaman project will create around 2,500 jobs during construction and 200 operational jobs.

The two loans are the first NAIF investments into WA Government entities and include: • $160 million to the Pilbara Ports

Authority for a new multi-user wharf and facilities at the Port of Dampier; and • $95 million to the Water Corporation for the expansion of the Burrup seawater supply and brine disposal scheme that will connect to the Perdaman Urea

Plant once built

The NAIF loans build on WA Government support for the project, which has provided $47.6 million for road relocation costs, the detailed design of a new Dampier Cargo Wharf and upgrades to seawater supply infrastructure.

Any WA Government financial contribution is subject to a number