BY nature of its geographic location, Central Australia’s Tanami Transport has one of the largest footprints of any company on Beef Central’s Top 25 Livestock Transporters list.

As this activity map shows (click on map to enlarge), the company’s operations out of its base in Alice Springs extend across a vast portion of the continent, from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south, east as far as Townsville and Roma, and west to the Kimberleys and Kalgoorlie.

Click on map to enlarge

Average consignment distance is often 1500km or more, with regular deliveries of live export cattle to the northern ports of Darwin or Broome, and southeast to meat processors in South Australia, Victoria, NSW or Queensland.

Tanami Transport appeared at number 15 on our original Top 25 Transporters list, back in 2013. At that time the company had ten prime movers and a one-time uplift capacity of 60 decks.

The business has grown since then, now numbering 14 prime movers, mostly Kenworths, with capacity to uplift 84 decks. Two trucks set up as B-doubles are based at a southern depot in Port Augusta, South Australia, moving cattle through the SE, Victoria and New South Wales.

Haulmark trailers and some Byrne trailers are used, all load-through designs.

65 year history

Tanami Transport has operated as a livestock cartage business from the same depot in Alice Springs since the 1960, as northern and central Australia’s beef industry started to open up with the Federal Government’s financial backing of the northern beef road system, and establishment of export abattoirs at Katherine.

The business began as RPM Transport, owned and operated by Dick Rogers, Martin Petrick and Joe Mengel. Eventually Dick Rogers bought out his partners.

These Tanami Transport trucks pictured in 1979 still used single-deck trailers

In the early days, the fleet consisted of Fodens, Internationals, Thermadyne Mack R300s and Mercedes trucks pulling single-deck trailers to move stock across very rough, poorly-maintained bush roads.

By the 1970s, RPM started buying Kenworth and Mack heavy-duty prime movers and double deck stock trailers, modernising the fleet. The business name was changed to Tanami Transport in the mid-1970s.

When Dick Rogers bought Arapunya Station northeast of Alice Springs, his sons Alan and David took over ownership and operations of Tanami Transport. In 1986, they sold out to Dicky David and Ken Warriner, who also bought Buntine Roadways. In 1991, the Rogers family purchased the business back from Dicky and Ken.

In 2007 the Rogers family sold Tanami Transport to its current owner, prominent Central Australian beef producer Viv Oldfield. Mr Oldfield runs a large beef cattle enterprise including some 50,000 cattle across seven stations in the NT and SA, plus a small feedlot near Balaklava in SA.

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Booking inquiries: (08) 8952 1166 Email: admin@tanamitransport.com.au