In our Spring Issue, ROADBOSS follows fourth-generation cotton hauliers T&FS Woods across the black-soil plains of Moree, to find out how the world’s finest fibres get from paddock to port
“Ha! My kids are way better looking, mate!” The bloke leaning against the bar at The Royal Hotel in Moree didn’t look old enough, in hindsight, to have spent the better part of 30 years carting cotton. That’s because he wasn’t.
I’d mistaken Dave Jennings – a 20-year veteran at T&FS Woods – with his boss, Allan. Standing next to Dave at the tap, and the recipient of his jab, was Allan’s son, Luke, fourth-generation custodian of the family business.
“Dad’s modest, so he didn’t really want you here mate,” Luke grinned. “So we thought we’d have a feed and beer to warm him up.”
It was a drab, drizzly Sunday night in Moree and the Royal wasn’t exactly going off. But the beer was cold and the welcome warm as I joined the table, where Allan, his wife Julie, the third piece in the T&FS Woods puzzle, and Dave’s wife Chrissie were parked up, happy at the sight of a fresh round.
A couple of beers and a scotch fillet later, the conversation turned to community. The Woods work bloody hard, as you’d expect of a fourth-generation transport business, but they also put a lot of their hard-earned back into the region.
From sponsoring a professional fighter that Luke once boxed with, to backing race boats tearing it up at the nearby Moree Waterpark, they even sponsor the Moree on a Plate Festival…plus a bunch of others.
T&FS Woods operates 11 registered trucks consisting of a mix of Kenworth T409s, T650s, T610 SARs, K200s and the old K104. Images: Nathan Duff
Hearing the excitement in their voices, as they rattled off all the people, teams and events they’ve supported over the years, I don’t think they’re doing it for the promotion, but instead to give back to a community they’re proud to be a part of.
Twelve hours later, the rain had cleared, replaced by water droplets that caught the early sun across the T&FS Woods yard just outside of town, as Dave hosed down his Kenworth, misting us as we wandered over.
Before joining the Woods in 2006, he steered Mack R600s, then Super-Liners for McAleese, moving heavy equipment across the top end.
I’ve known Luke, whose official title at T&FS Woods is Operations Director, for about 10 years. We met in Sydney when he was down for the weekend celebrating the birthday of a mutual mate.
In 2021 the pull of the family business brought him home and his now-wife, Michelle, landed a job at a local accounting firm.
Standing beside him just outside the company’s shed is Allan, who I’d been told is a legend in the cotton carting game. “He won’t tell you that or ever admit it,” Luke said just out of earshot of his old man, “but he’s genuinely one of the greats.”
These days, the Moree region’s rich black-soil plains produce up to 15 per cent of the nation’s cotton, and T&FS Woods carts a fair chunk of it. Images: Nathan Duff
While Moree is known today as Australia’s cotton capital, that wasn’t always the case. As I learnt, though, T&FS Woods has been involved from the beginning and the company’s journey is somewhat intertwined with that of the surrounding Gwydir Valley region.
The company’s legacy traces back to 1964 in Bulli, just north of Wollongong, where Frederick Septimus Woods and his son Terry got a start hauling coal, before heading west to Narromine a few years later to chase earthmoving work.
Meanwhile, nearly 400km away in Moree, the once-booming wool industry was flailing as farmers began to explore more sustainable long-term alternatives – namely cotton.
The Woods wound up in Moree around the time wheat and cotton really started to take off throughout the region. In the mid ‘70s, the Copeton Dam was established, and irrigated agriculture was suddenly made possible. T&FS Woods levelled the paddocks and built the irrigation channels for pioneer AusCott, which helped establish the region’s cotton dominance.
When the earthmoving work dried up in the ‘80s, the company sold its fleet of heavy equipment and focused on trucking. These days, the region’s rich black-soil plains produce up to 15 per cent of the nation’s cotton, and T&FS Woods carts a fair chunk of it.
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