Trucking with CJ expands her horizons during grain harvest

Published in Big Rigs 8th November 2024

Truck driver Casuarina Smith, who many will know from her popular Instagram page Trucking with CJ, is expanding her horizons even further, as she works her first grain harvest.

The South Australian truckie works for WA based outfit Merkanooka Haulage, which specialises in both mining and agricultural transport services.

CJ is a second-generation truckie who started with the business in January this year. Up until last week she had been doing fly-in fly-out (FIFO) work, on a two week on and two week off roster, predominantly transporting gold ore from the mine to a processing plant in triple road trains, along with moving machinery where required, including trying her hand at oversize.

But with CJ’s farming background – she grew up on a cherry orchard in the Adelaide Hills – it’s the grain harvest she’s been looking forward to most.

“I’ve just transitioned into this. I went to an agricultural high school and a lot of my friends are in farming. I’ve been wanting to work the harvest for a long time but always had a full-time job and as it’s seasonal work, I could never take the time off to do it”, said CJ.

“The variety here at Merkanooka Haulage is one of the things that attracted me to the company – I’ve done mining, oversize and now the harvest. I can get bored quite easily so I’m lucky to have so much variety here.”

For the duration of the harvest, CJ has based herself in the northern Wheatbelt town of Mingenew, where she’s working full time, six days a week. “It’s huge hours but really, really rewarding.”

CJ started the harvest work at the end of October and is now finishing up her second week in the new role.

“I spent a couple of days learning the ropes before jumping straight into it. The farmers have all been awesome to work with, as I knew they would be. Everyone has been so welcoming, lovely and helpful,” added CJ.

She’s been given the keys to a brand-new Kenworth T659 twin steer prime mover, running on a Cummins X15 engine and pulling a BA-triple, loaded at up to 123.5 tonne GVM (gross vehicle mass) and measuring 36.5 metres.

“This is a brand new truck and trailer combination – they don’t have any others like this, so I’m getting used to it all. It’s a twin steer, so I was a bit apprehensive at first but it’s been really good,” said CJ.

The current role sees her carting grain throughout the Wheatbelt as well as into Geraldton. “We go out to the farms and the header feeds into a chaser bin, which goes and fills up the field bins. We take that into the local towns or to Geraldton, then the grain is tested and you get allocated which grid to go to and then return to the farm again,” explained CJ.

With over 91,000 followers on her Instagram page, CJ says she’s grateful for the level of engagement she has been receiving online too. “It’s great being able to provide footage to people of something they haven’t seen. I feel privileged to be in a position where I can film and show people things and places they wouldn’t normally be able to see. The feedback has been really positive too.”

CJ expects to be working the harvest for at least a couple of month before setting off for a well-earned break. “They’re saying it’ll be a record-breaking season over here. Some people are saying it’ll go into January, but others are saying the farmers will do everything they can to get it finished by Christmas.

“After the harvest is done, I’m going to Japan for a snowboarding trip with a friend at end of January. We lived in Canada together – so I’m really looking forward to that. I’ve also been invited to go over to New Zealand at the end of March for a truck show too.”