Hall of Fame Inductee 2020
Anita Dynes
Born in Balclutha on the 5th February 1948, Anita Dynes was brought up on a farm at Rongahere, South Otago.
She was married in 1969, and moved to Tapanui, where her husband, Jim and his twin brother, John had bought a 5-truck general carrying transport business from Jim Cooper a few months earlier. With no cellphones or answer messages, adapting to transport life for this inductee meant being tied at home to landline and radio telephone.
The decade of the 1970’s was hectic for this inductee, with three children born and two more general transport businesses purchased. In 1976, Dynes won the contract to cart a new product of woodchips from five sawmills in Otago to Port Chalmers and later Bluff.
In 1977, John moved north to run T D Haulage, a chip carting business they purchased. Two years later they split ownership, John with T D Haulage, Jim and Anita with Dynes Transport (Tapanui) Limited.
The business grew extensively during the 1980s with additional log and timber cartage. The management of cashflow was essential and was a critical part of Anita’s role.
Diversification came about with the family farm at Conical Hill being purchased, adding to the workload with Jim working the farm during the day and carting woodchips at night. Family holidays were now farmstays for the weekends, to tackle lambing, tailing and haymaking amidst daily transport activities.
The term “superwoman” comes to mind as Anita’s capabilities were put to the test when Jim was ill with cancer. Her daily activities included driving Jim the four-hour round trip to Dunedin for treatment every day, running the transport, sorting the three kids and helping with the lambing beat on a now increased additional neighbours farm.
In 1991, NZ Rail applied for resource consent to reopen the line from Waipahi to Conical Hill Sawmill. Anita opposed the application, spending months accumulating information for a petition and the hearing. Opening the line did not happen.
During the mid-90s a new Tapanui depot was purchased, with a bigger yard, and the opportunity to move from the shoebox home office to the depot to accommodate additional staff.
Over next 15 years, multiple businesses were purchased and contracts won, including work with the Edendale dairy factory. This was enhanced by the successful ISO accreditation that Anita implemented within the business, with Dynes Transport being one of the first in the South Island to be accredited. This helped secure additional work for future years and is still current with their nationwide Fonterra contract today.