Piacentini & Son’s Pink Panther low loader begins journey to Roy Hill after raising $150,000 for charity

A colourful South West-built truck has started the long journey to its new home in the north after the team who built it in Bunbury raised thousands of dollars for charity. Piacentini & Son’s 160-tonne low loader Pink Panther has left the company’s Picton yard, starting the more than 1400km trip to the Hancock Prospecting majority-owned Roy Hill iron ore site in the Pilbara. The pink truck was unveiled earlier this month and was designed and manufactured in the South West. It is also helping locals battling breast cancer with Piacentini & Son having conducted employee raffles and received donations from suppliers during the vehicle’s construction. They raised a combined $150,000 for the St John of God Foundation and National Breast Cancer Foundation. Executive director Kim Piacentini said the Pink Panther’s departure capped off a successful fundraising campaign. “This campaign has successfully raised money and brought more attention to some very important charities doing great work,” he said. Mr Piacentini described the Panther low loader as a “high quality product” with the vehicles operating at mine sites in Australia, Africa, South America and Papua New Guinea. “10,000 labour hours from South West-based workers went into this project and it is the 18th Panther we have built since 2017,” he said. St John of God Bunbury hospital chief executive Jeffrey Williams said the organisation was thankful the company had chosen to support patients fighting breast cancer. “For these patients, being able to access excellent care close to home can greatly improve their quality of life and means patients don’t have to travel long distances to Perth and spend time away from their loved ones and support networks,” he said.