Standing at a little over five foot one, and weighing under 50 kilograms, Sharon Middleton isn’t your typical freight-haulin’ truckie.

Then again, there’s nothing ordinary about the South Australian.

More than three decades ago, Middleton was an office clerk who knew nothing about the trucking business.

Now, the 57-year-old is the director of an Adelaide-based truck company who gives a voice to the many male and female truck drivers roaring along outback highways each day, delivering the goods that keep Australia running.

She’s also the co-founder of the mental health initiative Foundation Shine.

On January 26, Middleton was one of 1,127 Australians awarded the Order of Australia in recognition of their outstanding and inspirational work in the community.

“I’m pretty humbled and embarrassed about it because, when you’re going through life, you’re just doing the things you have to do and need to do,” she tells The New Daily.

“And I think the industry I’m in is battle-scarred and portrayed so poorly that it’s good to see it in a positive light. I see this as recognition for the whole industry, because it’s made up of awesome men and women.”

Last year, a Monash University study found that truck driving was one of the most dangerous occupations, with drivers being at higher risk of illness, psychological stress and other injuries.

As President of the South Australian Road Transport Association and Director of the Australian Trucking Association, Middleton speaks up for such drivers.

“I’m trying to be a voice from grass roots level to keep on the table the struggles that come up on a daily basis,” says Middleton, who was awarded a Member of the Order (AM).

“At the end of the day, without trucks to transport materials people don’t have a roof over their head and food on their table. I just want the community to realise the industry is made of salt-of-the-earth people. People that work hard and sacrifice a lot.”

Middleton was a clerical and secretarial worker in the early 1980s when she started working for small truck company Whiteline Transport run by her future husband, Bob Middleton.

“It started off humbly, meeting my husband, who at the time only had a couple of trucks,” says Middleton, who lives in Adelaide’s North Haven and has two adult stepsons.

Together, the couple forged a thriving business: “I had good organisational skills, but in the beginning I didn’t know anything about trucking.”

She does now.

“Anything I do, I give it 100 per cent,” says Middleton. “And for me it wasn’t enough to do what’s required, I needed to know more.”

Including knowing what her drivers endured on the road, from flat tyres i back o’Bourke to lumbar pain and loneliness. To that end, she got her truck license.

“I love driving,” she says.

“It’s the camaraderie. It’s the diesel in your veins.”

Though it’s one of the most male-dominated jobs in Australia, Middleton says there’s a fair share of women truckies.

Still, reported estimates put the amount of female drivers at around three percent.

“There are a lot more women than people realise,” she says. “[Women] are the minority for sure, but they don’t need to be.”

In what little spare time she has, Middleton runs Foundation Shine. She started the charity with close friend Robyn May after learning May had a loved one who suffered from mental illness.

Today, the foundation has raised some $300,000 for services that help people who are suffering from mental health issues.

“I think as a nation we’re coming much more accepting that mental illness is a problem we have to deal with,” says Middleton, who is also a trained singer and performs at charity events.

“Three hundred thousand dollars for two girls with a handful of volunteers is pretty special. We’re pretty proud.”

She’s just as chuffed about her Order of Australia and is hopeful it not only puts the trucking industry and her charity in the spotlight, but that it might inspire other women to follow their dreams.

“I say to young women, ‘If you really want it, persevere, don’t give up’,” she says.

“That’s what I did. If people say ‘no’ to me that inspires me to want to try harder. No is such a negative word. ‘Does it really need to be no?’ I say. ‘Let’s think about this.’”