MaintainingContainer Integrity During Sunshine Coast Storm Season
After fourteen years building DNV Transport from one truck to a fifty-vehicle Port of Brisbane container operation, Dave and Virginia Carswell have hung up the high-vis.
On 1st October 2025, they sold the business to Mark Bloomer and his two sons – a fifth-generation transport family from Grafton with over a century of history in the industry.
For Dave and Virginia, it’s the end of a journey that started in 2011 with a single truck and trailer focussed on container movements from the Port of Brisbane. Over fourteen years they built the fleet to over 50 pieces of specialised equipment – side loaders, skel trailers, out-of-gauge rigs, reach trailers.
They also established a facility at 59 Radar Street, Lytton, right in the port precinct, and built a purpose-built biosecurity operation with full quarantine-approved premises accreditations.
DNV’s client list includes major logistics operators, freight forwarders, and importing businesses across South-East Queensland.
The new owners, Mark Bloomer and his family, bring their own deep history in transport.
A Family Business Since 1897
Mark Bloomer runs Mark Bloomer Transport from Grafton, operating depots in Brisbane, Sydney and Grafton with warehousing facilities in both Brisbane and Grafton. The company provides linehaul services up and down the Eastern seaboard, specialising in general freight, oversize loads and machinery transport.
But Mark’s family connection to transport goes back much further than his own business.
It all started when his great-grandfather Thomas won a contract for ten pounds in 1897 to build a culvert on Woodford Island in the Clarence River, using a horse and dray.
Then Mark’s grandfather Vincent worked a Chevrolet tipper building the concrete road through Ulmarra.
From Milk Tankers to Beer Runs
Mark’s father Ron was born in January 1937 at South Grafton. By 1955 he’d entered the transport industry, driving a milk tanker for the local Peters factory on a provisional licence. Within a year he was driving for Saxby’s Furniture Removalists, taking two days to travel from Grafton to Sydney and staying overnight at the Coopernook Hotel. In 1957 Ron took a job with Cromack and Tranter carting beer from the Grafton Brewery to Armidale and Tamworth.
Building the Business
In July 1958, Ron bought a Ford F600 tip truck for £2,582 and started subcontracting to the Ashford Shire. In 1961, with the new Gwydir Highway under construction, Ron moved back to the Clarence to work with the Department of Main Roads. By 1980 he was contracting to several local shires and the Flood Mitigation Authority working on river bank protection, levees and roads in the Grafton area.
The business outgrew the family’s backyard. In 1981, Ron moved to a proper depot in South Grafton and added a mechanical workshop and gravel supply service. His wife Tess supported him throughout his career and worked in the business as the bookkeeper.
Highway Freight and Growth
The first Bloomer highway truck was added in 1988 – a Ford LNT 9000 fitted with a convertible trailer, used for woodchip cartage to Newcastle and carting steel from BHP to Brisbane, subcontracting to Ron’s late brother Tom. In later years Ron’s business expanded to six prime-movers and ten trailers to service contracts with Tooheys, BHP and woodchip.
Ron is 88 now. He still keeps his licence current and helps son Mark load and unload beer around the depot when he feels like it.
The Bloomer family has operated the same mechanical workshop since 1981, with some client relationships going back to the 1960s.
The Fourth and Fifth Generation
Mark Bloomer left school in 1985 and went straight into the family business as a co-driver on tippers for the Department of Main Roads.
He bought his first truck from his father – an International T Line – and became an owner-driver. In 2006, after Ron had spent 50 years in trucking, Mark took over part of the operation.
Mark’s two sons now work in the business, proud to continue their family’s legacy in transport spanning five generations and over 120 years. The Grafton operation hires locally and runs driver training programs, bringing people in with no experience and training them through to getting their truck driver licences.
“We’ve always hired locally,” Mark says. “A lot of our drivers started with no experience, got their licences through our training programs, and they’re still with us years later. Regional employment matters. It’s what keeps regional towns like Grafton going.”
Why DNV
The Bloomer family has been watching the Brisbane container market for years.
When they decided to expand into Port of Brisbane container work, they had options. They could do what Ron did in 1958 – buy a truck and build slowly over a decade or two. Or they could buy something already proven.
“When we saw what Dave and Virginia had built – the Port location, the biosecurity facility, the fleet – it made more sense to buy something proven than spend a decade building from scratch,” Mark says.
DNV had the infrastructure, the client relationships, and the quarantine accreditations.
What This Means for Customers
While Mark Bloomer Transport continues operating from Grafton, Brisbane and Sydney, DNV will continue to provide the same reliable containerised transport, warehousing, distribution, and biosecurity services from their Lytton facility that customers have come to expect.
The fleet, the location at 59 Radar Street in the Port of Brisbane precinct, the biosecurity accreditations, the service – all remain the same.
Mark and his family look forward to helping you with your container transport, warehousing, distribution and biosecurity needs with the same attention to detail and reliable service DNV has built its reputation on.
Need container transport, storage, warehousing or biosecurity services in South-East Queensland?
Contact DNV Transport on (07) 3393 4850 or email info@dnvtransport.com.au
