Clyde Cartage

Clyde Cartage expanded from a small operation prior to the Clyde Dam project, to allow it to meet the staggering challenges of keeping the cement supply for the Dam construction fulfilled.

There’d be a couple or more of their cement tankers arrive at the Dunedin silos at the wharf each morning at seven, and then they’d head back, pressurise the tank and feed it to the massive silos over-looking the dam, and depending on demand head back for another run. 

Unusual for the times, Clyde Cartage opted for Fiat/Iveco as their heavy-hitters in their earlier days of this demanding run, but the Merc below  arrived in the late eighties.

Cement was also railed in and Clyde Cartage had the responsibility of running that operation as well, at the rail head, which featured a clamp and rotate system to dump the cement out of the wagons – which is a story in itself.

I also remember doing a number of bagged cement runs, with one of Alexandra Transports four-axle trailers behind Clyde’s F7 Volvo, which was a hard ask that game little truck.

The companies in the district all worked together, and it was nothing to see Cromwell Transport Volvos, Alex’s Macks, Clydes Fiats and Mercs, NORM’s Macks and the Stewart boys Kenworth and Inters all swarming around the site collectively delivering the millions of tonnes of aggregate, steel, cement and the other myriad needs of this massive project.

Fantastic days, and I look back on them with great fondness, even though much of this was pre-log book days and we all worked massive hours.