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Business View Australia - January-February 2016 81
& LOGISTICS
History
The Rocke family has been associ-
ated with the transportation business
since 1857 when Martin Rocke saw
an opportunity to cart supplies for gold
miners. The family tradition continued
with the third generation of the family
switching from horses to a truck soon
after World War I.
World War II saw the business thrive
after it was awarded a number of gov-
ernment contracts. The fourth gener-
ation of the family, headed by Peter
Rocke went on to become the largest
waterfront carrier on the eastern sea-
board of Australia in the 1980s and
early 1990s.
Peter’s sons, Michael, Matthew and
Paul decided to branch out on their
own and in 2003 started Rocke Broth-
ers, a company that specialises in wa-
terfront transport and associated ser-
vices.
The fifth generation of the family rep-
resented by the three brothers, Mi-
chael, Matthew and Paul were hon-
oured at the 2013 Australian Freight
Industry Awards with the Personality
of the Year Award for the strong con-
tributions that they have made to the
transport industry.
Facilities
Rocke Brothers has two depots, one
in Brooklyn and the other in Geelong.
It has outgrown its old depot in Lara
and will move out of it by the middle of
2016. The depot in Brooklyn is about
10 acres in size with most of the area
being hardstand. The company has a
total of about 130 employees and it
shifts approximately 80,000 contain-
ers per year.
It has a large fleet to cater to the re-