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The first buses |
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AdelaideÕs first motorbus, owned by Caldwell Brothers, ran to Glenelg in 1908.
By 1914, the Government Tourist Bureau was running motor chars-a-banc.
Govt Intelligence and Tourist Bureau |
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“I was driving a Mack, nearly full, and saw a crowd of city-bound passengers at the next stop. In my mirror I also saw a faster unlicensed private bus trying to overtake me.
“I remembered Lord Nelson, who turned a blind eye on a signal to win the battle of Trafalgar, so I turned a blind eye on the driving mirror and became suddenly deaf to frantic hoots for right of way from the opposition bus, which couldn’t get past my MTT Mack.
“The frustrated other driver through caution away. He drove his bus over the kerb, along the footpath and bumped onto the road again to win by a bonnet to get the passengers.
“The MTT didn’t encourage us drivers to frighten our passengers.”
MTT House Magazine Among Ourselves May 1946. (Operator’s name removed) |
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The battle of the buses |
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The soldiers return
The Municipal Tramways Trust ordered ten motor buses in 1914 and had the bodies built. However, the Daimler chasses were commandeered for the British war effort, and the buses were never completed.
When the war was over, returned soldiers began running bus services, often in competition with the trams.
By 1924, there were 82 unlicensed buses operating. Buses became larger. (In 1925, insurance ‘claims’ were paid on 23 buses of less than 15 seat capacity destroyed by fire.)
Mr TCS Reynolds was among the returned soldiers who started in the bus business by putting a bus body on small truck chassis.
SA Archives 3858 Gen.
MTT Timetables advertised safety |
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Mr AP Freeman’s Adelaide Motorbus Company began a service with double deckers between Malvern and St Peters in March 1915 but within two weeks, one of its ten buses, a Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric, was destroyed by fire after colliding with tramcar 151 in Hanson (later Pulteney) Street. The Register |
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Norman and Percy Lewis ran this International bus to Edwardstown (later MTT 347). Gordon Emsley collection. |
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In 1925, the Municipal Tramways Trust purchased 40 Mack buses. The first (no 51) was imported complete. Nos 52 to 90 had bodies built by Holdens, Woodville. MTT |
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A contemporary newspaper picture shows the extent of bus competition with trams in King William Street. The Advertiser |
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Competition was intense between the railway buses, privately owned buses and trams. Mr T W Melville ran the double deck Brockway bus (later MTT 299), deliberately built as a ‘look alike’ railways style Garford bus to attract passengers, who might not notice the difference, to his privately run service. It is with Railways Garford 62, (later MTT224), outside the new Railway Station. Two C type trams which ran without timetables to compete with the busmen, stand on the station loop. December 1926. MTT |
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A 1925 Garford double-deck bus was restored by the then State Transport Authority for the SA Jubilee 150 and is now in the National Motor Museum, Birdwood. John Radcliffe |
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The Adelaide City Council banned buses in King William Street in 1926. The State Government created the Metropolitan Omnibus Board to license all buses from 3 April 1927. This was aimed at the private bus operators who were taking revenue away from the SA railway buses and MTT trams.
The busmen sought legal advice and found they could continue their services under section 62 of the Australian Constitution if they ran to an interstate destination. Murrayville, Victoria (about 18 Kms over the SA border) was chosen. This enabled the private buses to continue picking up and setting down passengers in the metropolitan area as it was seen as part of their journey to or from Murrayville. |
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T C S Reynolds, Secretary of the busmen, owned this 29 seat Maudslay. (It was later MTT 342.) |
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The Murrayville bus route which operated from
4 November 1927 to 19 April 1928. |
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Frank Valente and G Ranna painted ‘Glenelg’ on their Reo bus and ran from North Terrace. (It was later MTT 366.) |
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Tickets from Adelaide and suburbs were carefully worded. No return service from Murrayville was provided. |
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Mr A S Hutton offered a service fromTorrensville to Murrayville via Adelaide using his Ruggles (later MTT 351). |
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The MTT purchased all the private buses on 18 November 1928 for £39,381.
Private buses re-emerged just prior to the Second World War. They increased during the war and post-war years. |
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J McKenzie offered passengers trips to Murrayville in this Brockway bus, later to become MTT 324. |
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