‘I crossed the Nullarbor driving a bus’

Having driven road trains for some time, I was in the Katherine depot of Road Train Australia at the end of the dry season. It was there that I closed the door on the old Kenworth for the last time. Driving for Noel Buntine was a privilege only a few people get to experience, I’m proud to say I was one of those people.

I was ready for my next adventure, and had an old mate in Darwin, not so old but a mate for a long time. I called Keith to say I was coming to stay for a couple of days. We caught up, I said I was going to Wangaratta to see a bloke about a job driving coaches. Keith suggested I check out the Deluxe Coachlines depot in Darwin. I did and I got a job, starting the next day on a trip to Ayers Rock with a bloke called Scotty. I knew absolutely nothing about coaches, people or touring, but I did know how to handle a crash gear box.

I drove with Deluxe for several years and discovered there weren’t many drivers that could handle a Spicer crash gear box. This comes back to my Dad training me to double the clutch and listen to the rev of the engine. If you get it right it is a sweet thing to listen to.

Deluxe was just starting the Darwin to Alice Springs express run. I would depart Darwin and express to Alice Springs, pick up new passengers for a two-day tour to Ayers Rock and the Olgas, where we would overnight at the rock. After an Olgas tour the next morning we drove back to Alice to pick up new passengers and overnighted before heading back to Darwin. In the early days there were still a couple of places around the Ayres Rock, a pub etc., scenic flights would be operated from the old strip there. I remember one trip we let the passengers off and a heap of drivers all piled into one coach and we proceeded to do a pub crawl of all the drinking establishments at the rock and the new Yulara. It was a great day ending up at a tavern run by a bloke called ‘Black Beard’.

My seven-year plan was in full swing, learning about coaches, people and touring.

An opportunity came for me to do the Darwin to Perth run. There were two drivers and it took us 2.5 days to get to Perth, have 24 hours off and drive back to Darwin. We had the trip sorted nicely with a driver’s sleeper bunk up the back and one driver at the wheel. It was a great job. There were plenty of backpackers hopping on and off the coach on their holidays, and with police getting a free ride to wherever they wanted to go, some trips would have almost 100 people in and out of the coach on the way to Perth.

On one trip we didn’t have many passengers and as we came into Darwin I was mopping the toilet out and got mop head caught on the dump shute handle of the toilet cassette. The entire contents was dumped on two cars following us. It was an accident, but Lord knows how we didn’t get fired. Another time I was set to empty the cassette, the driver would give me a wave and I would pull the dump handle. We had done this many times on a quiet section of road, so as I was waiting for the signal I saw him wave and I pulled the handle. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that he was waving at a car and it copped it. We did get in the s**t this time.

I transferred to Perth and started doing trips from Perth to Melbourne and Perth to Sydney. It was great to be back on the Nullarbor, I just loved it. Now I had some touring experience I would do little bits of commentary along the way, tell stories about my trucking life and explain the trucks and their loads as we passed them. I’d call up drivers and ask where they were going etc., and the passengers loved it.

I was driving the graveyard shift, that’s the 2am till daylight shift, and we were coming up to our breakfast stop. I was just about to pull into a roadhouse, had my indicator on and started to turn when a fully loaded truck broadsided us and pushed us down an embankment. He thought I was indicating for him to pass us. I ended upside down in the stairwell, and I could hear passengers screaming. I got up and headed to the back to see our other driver, as I thought we had been hit from behind, I met him coming down the coach he was looking for me. One girl had been asleep on the window and had bent down into the aisle to tie her shoe lace when the truck came through the window where her head had been. It was a miracle no one was hurt. (Two years later I was flown from London to Adelaide to give evidence at the court case. The judge said it was 50 per cent each at fault, though I’m still unsure how to figure that one out!)

It was the drivers who worked out the trip, where we would change drivers, shower etc. We would get used to to sleeping in the driver’s bunk, it was always nice and warm with the engine right below and the toilet right next to it. I had some amazing trips and, as the rules go, ‘what happened on the coach stays on the coach’.

I had planned to do a year with Deluxe, learning about coaches and people, and it was 12 months to the day when I bid farewell to the crew to move on to my next adventure. I think at that time there were around 600 employees, and they were a great bunch. However, it was on to Saudia Arabia, where my mate Bert had arranged a job for me. I thought ‘This is going to be different’, but boy, I had no idea.

Do you remember taking a bus to get from destination to destination, before air travel got so cheap? Where did you go?

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