Tarcutta Truck Drivers Memorial and the Families Who Keep Returning

One of the memorials we visited during filming of Shattered was the Tarcutta Truck Drivers Memorial.

Situated at Tarcutta, on the old Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne, the Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial gives a permanent place to the names of people whose working lives helped keep Australia moving. For the families and friends who visit, it is also a place where a loved one’s life can be publicly acknowledged and remembered.

Its history offers a valuable example for workplaces and communities: remembrance can give people somewhere to return, and somewhere to be alongside others who understand their loss.

A memorial rooted in transport history

The memorial was established in 1994 with funding from Recar. Monument Australia records its dedication on 16 October that year. Tarcutta was chosen for its longstanding connection with the transport industry and its position midway between Sydney and Melbourne. The memorial remains in the town, beside the former highway route, which was bypassed in 2011. [1, 2]

The memorial’s design reflects that connection. Its curving brick wall follows a path marked with a highway white line, representing the distances drivers travelled. Plaques give those journeys a name and a place in public memory. [3]

Understanding whose lives are remembered

The memorial honours people who died while working in the transport industry, including drivers killed on the road and people who died during loading and unloading. A separate “In Memory Of” wall allows drivers who died from illness or natural causes to be remembered too. [1, 4]

This distinction is important when describing this particular memorial. Its names cannot be treated as a count of workplace fatalities, and the names added in any particular year do not necessarily represent deaths that occurred that year. The memorial is a place of remembrance across many years and circumstances. [1]

Its wider scope also recognises the connection people can retain with an industry throughout their lives. Work can be a source of identity, friendship and belonging as well as income.

Families returning across the years

Each October, families, friends and colleagues gather for the annual memorial service. A voluntary committee maintains the memorial through donations and sponsorship. [1]

ABC Radio National’s 2016 reporting captured the personal commitment behind this tradition. Faye Belling, whose son had died in an accident decades earlier, had been handing out flowers from her garden with her husband since the service began in 1994. Her continued involvement shows how remembrance can remain part of family and community life long after a death. [5]

In the same report, Liz Martin, then chief executive of the National Road Transport Hall of Fame, explained the value of a tangible place to visit when a driver’s death occurred far from home. The wall enabled families to come together and support one another. [5]

For some families, an annual gathering may offer continuity as life changes: a place to remember with children and grandchildren, or simply to spend time with people who knew the same working world. There need be no expectation that returning should become easier, or that grief should follow a timetable.

The connection between road safety and work

Tarcutta also invites us to recognise that, for a truck driver, the road is a workplace.

Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 reported that 188 workers died from traumatic injuries in 2024. Vehicle incidents accounted for 42 per cent of those deaths. Machinery operators and drivers, a broad occupational group, accounted for 32 per cent of worker fatalities. These are national figures across occupations and industries; they are not a truck-driver death count. [6]

The figures underline the connection between workplace safety and vehicle safety. The memorial’s committee also encourages drivers and other road users to support initiatives that reduce road accidents. [1]

Remembering those who died can sit alongside a continuing commitment to prevention. Families deserve respectful remembrance, and people working today deserve conditions that protect their lives.

What workplaces and communities can learn

Tarcutta provides an example of remembrance sustained through practical acts: maintaining a wall, organising a gathering, providing flowers and making time for families.

For employers and community organisations, it invites a few straightforward questions. How do we acknowledge a colleague who has died? Do we ask families what they would find meaningful? Does our contact continue beyond the immediate aftermath? Can people choose whether and how to participate, without being expected to share their grief publicly?

The memorial’s application process places family involvement at the centre. Applications submitted by friends require next-of-kin details so permission can be sought. Its visitor guidance also asks people to respect the wall and use the provided flower holders rather than placing items over names. [1]

These arrangements offer a useful principle: public remembrance should be shaped with respect for the people most closely affected.

A place within the wider story of work and loss

Shattered asks: When work changes a life, what happens next?

Tarcutta offers one community response to that question. It gives bereaved families a place where a name remains visible and a working life is remembered alongside others.

The memorial retains its purpose of honouring those who have died. Alongside that purpose, workplaces and communities can also make space to hear from people living with injury or occupational disease and the families beside them.

The care expressed through remembrance can continue in everyday life: keeping in touch, listening without rushing someone’s grief, and recognising that the consequences of work can reach far beyond the workplace.

The 2026 memorial service

The Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial website lists the next service for 31 October 2026 at Tarcutta, followed by dinner that evening in Wagga Wagga. Check the organisers’ website for current arrangements and dinner bookings. [1]

Sources

[1] Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial — official website and 2026 service informationhttps://www.tarcuttamemorial.com/

[2] Monument Australia — Australian Truck Drivers Memorialhttps://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/disaster/land_transport/display/23389-australian-truck-drivers-memorial

[3] Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial — About Ushttps://www.tarcuttamemorial.com/the-memorial/

[4] Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial — Applicationhttps://www.tarcuttamemorial.com/application/

[5] ABC Radio National, Mike Williams — Tarcutta: the truckies’ sacred village, 13 October 2016https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-13/tarcutta-sacred-town-australian-truckies-memorial-service/7926390

[6] Safe Work Australia — Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 now available, 16 October 2025https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/media-centre/news/key-work-health-and-safety-statistics-australia-2025-now-available