South Australia woman Casuarina Smith shares her life as a truck driver

Casuarina Smith has garnered a staggering 30,000 followers on social media from sharing the realities of life on the road as one of Australia’s female truckies.

Casuarina Smith with her Fuel Tanker AB Triple Road Train. Picture by Matt Turner.

Ever since Casuarina Smith watched her dad drive a truck for the first time, she has been drawn to the super-sized vehicles.

Ms Smith’s family lived on a cherry orchard in the Adelaide Hills where, during off-season, her dad would occasionally drive trucks for some extra cash.

“We’d be able to go out on the truck with him which was a real gift,” the now 33-year-old said.

“It’s very rare kids to be able to get that experience now but … if you get to go on a trip … they’re core memories.”

Ms Smith, who shares her life to her 30,000 social media followers, said since then she always wanted to drive a road train but never thought it would become her full-time career.

And at first it didn’t. Straight out of school, Ms Smith worked at Peter Stevens Motorcycles as a retail worker before she became an insurance broker when she was 19.

“I spent seven years in that industry and then at 26 decided to start driving trucks,” she said.

Casuarina Smith with her Fuel Tanker AB Triple Road Train she is driving back from Port Augusta. Picture by Matt Turner.

Ms Smith left the insurance industry after her younger sister, who had been driving trucks for the same company their dad did, suggested she live out her dream.

“I knew I needed a change in my life … she explained that you earn more money driving trucks than being an insurance broker at that time,” Ms Smith said.

She worked for seven months before moving to Canada for a working trip abroad before returning to the transport industry upon her return.

“I haven’t looked back since,” she said.

Now the Norton Summit woman delivers fuel around the state for Liberty Oil, a company she said treats her extremely well.

Casuarina Smith, a trucker driver with over 30,000 Instagram followers, wants to shed light on what it means to drive trucks in SA. Picture: Supplied

Casuarina Smith and her dog Sonny. Picture: Supplied

Ms Smith doesn’t like to highlight the fact she’s a woman in the transport industry – she said she is a truck driver, not a female truck driver.

“88 per cent of my followers are men … around two per cent of the driving workforce is women,” she said.

“I don’t want to discredit the men in the industry at all and I find that I have been very well accepted and loved in the industry.

“I’m definitely a minority … but the women I have met generally, we band together and we’re very supportive of one another as well.

“As long as you show that you’re willing to learn from others and you show respect to those who have spent more time in the industry, that’s where you will be respective and you’ll be nurtured and mentored.”

Casuarina Smith works for Liberty Oil who she said treat her very well. Picture by Matt Turner.

For Ms Smith a typical day shift begins at around 6am where she takes her truck down to the terminal and fills it with whatever fuel she needs.

Truck trailers can have five or six compartments that can be filled with different types of fuel.

“When you go to a service station and you’ve got all the different fuel options, I’m delivering into the underground tanks, all those different fuels, whatever they need topped up with,” she said.

Some days Ms Smith will wake up at 5am drive 11 hours to Cobber Pedy where she unloads for 2 and a half hours and then sleeps in her truck.

“Behind the seats is actually a single bed mattress,” she said.

“We have curtains that we pull around and it makes it all private. It’s got a little fridge in there, just a basic one.

“Some boys or girls live in there in their trucks full-time, they’ll have the microwave, the TV, all of that.”

Behind the seat of her truck is a single mattress for Casuarina to sleep on when she completes her 11 hour journeys to Coober Pedy. Picture by Matt Turner.

To fill her time driving on the long roads of South Australia Ms Smith listens to audio books, podcasts and music.

“I like to educate myself,” she said.

“That’s the best thing … you can learn a lot because you have the ability to listen to quite in depth conversations on podcast or in books.

“That’s been a big thing for me is trying to keep (my) mind active because if you’re in a bad mental space, it can get quite hard and the kilometres can be very long.”

Sonny sitting in a road train. Picture: Supplied

Casuarina Smith said the truck driving industry has been the target of unfair drug-use stereotypes. Picture by Matt Turner.

The truck driving industry has been the target of unfair drug-use stereotypes according to Ms Smith, who said it couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I know a lot of companies are strict on drug testing,” she said.

“We get randomly tested and all of that to make sure there is nothing in our system. We come into work and there’ll be someone sitting there and you can’t leave the yard until you’ve been tested … it’s very regulated.”

Ms Smith admitted there can be a lot of mental health issues within the industry but noted “there’s a lot of resources out there”.

Those struggles are what inspired Ms Smith to begin posting on Instagram on her account @truckingwithcj where she has over 30,000 followers.

“I’m trying to build a community so people don’t feel like they’re alone,” she said.

“Truck drivers are supportive of one another. They know to reach out to their friends when they are lonely on the road … you just need to make sure you’ve got a really good network around you.”

Ms Smith joined the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) We All Need Space road safety campaign.

“I want everyone to feel safe around trucks and understand them better, and one of the easiest things to remember is to give us space,” she said.