From the Archives
If you follow our social media pages you may have seen our ‘From the Archives’ series. Many historic photos donated to the CTM from other clubs, former transport workers and other locations, conveniently digitised and brought to your device along with an interesting little story.
We wanted to ensure you had somewhere to come back and find these so we’ve launched a special ‘From the Archives’ section here on the website showcasing these. Scroll down the page to see all of our current posts.
The vehicle was painted in 1972 to trial a new livery for the bus service, in a bid to replace the “Canberra Coffee” livery used from 1963 with a more contemporary colour palette. A livery of Arctic Green and Yellow Fire with a True Blue band was chosen and introduced to the fleet in 1974.
RATEC Collection photo, photographer unknown.
In mid 1994 we see Woden Depot based 108 outside the Canberra Times Fountain in Civic, showing off the very colourful Floriade livery for a promotional photo shoot. This livery was worn from delivery in 1994 until 2005, and then again for a brief period in 2014 when the all over advertising wrap it was wearing was removed revealing the old Floriade livery underneath. This special livery has a Pantone Yellow 134C base colour, with large vinyls displaying tulips made up from one image replicated multiple times.
Photo is from the RATEC Collection, photographer unknown.
The Bus Safe Rap was an iconic program created by ACTION in 1989 to teach kids about bus safety in a fun way. Teams from ACTION would travel to schools all around the ACT to deliver the program, with kids receiving a gift bag and a certificate upon completion. Giveaways in the gift bag included rubbers, rulers, penicls, activity sheets, and even a vinyl record of the rap.
Here in May 1989 we see ZIB-798 (Renault PR100.2 with Ansair body) outside Lyneham High School on Goodwin Street during the filming of the Bus Safe Rap video. Featured in the video were three Neighbours stars, Kristian Schmidt (Todd Landers), Finn Greentree-Keane (Toby Mangel), and Sally Jensen (Kaite Landers). Two brand new buses were used for filming, ZIB-796 and ZIB 798. 798 is seen here wearing the plates of ZIB-800, possibly for continuity reasons, as 800 had not yet entered service at the time of filming.
Photo from the RATEC Collection
Here in 1982 we see ZIB-558 (MAN SL200 with CAC body) exiting Woden Interchange on a route 9 service to Torrens. This vehicle featured a Gulton Flip Dot destination board instead of the roller blind system found on all other vehicles. This trial system was later replaced with a conventional roller blind system. Digital destination boards did not become standard until the arrival of the Renault PR100.2 MkII vehicles in 1990.
Photo from the RATEC Collection.
It’s 1992, you’re out at a local event, and the kids are bugging you for something to eat. But where do you go that is easy and affordable? Well, you go to the best damn mobile pizza shop in town! Here we see ex ZIB-321 (Leyland National) which had been converted into a mobile pizza shop used at various events across Capital Country for Jacko’s “Dial-a-Pizza”.
Photo from the RATEC Collection – Photographer unknown.
Here in 1974 we see M/O 2609 (Leyland Tiger OPS2/1 with Comeng body) dropping off boys in time for school at Marist College Canberra. A shortage of available buses in 1974 saw these vehicles leased from the Public Transport Commission of NSW for a brief period for use on services to avoid daily cancellations, another unidentified vehicle can be seen behind 2609. After returning to Sydney in August 1974, this vehicle was disposed of shortly after in November, having been sold to McFee Constructions of Alexandria.
Photo from the RATEC Collection – Photographer Unknown
Here in October 1966 we see the presidential motorcade of Lyndon B Johnson moving down Kings Avenue after an inspection of the Australian-American Monument which had been completed in 1964. It seems as though The President and his wife Lady Bird Johnson were traveling in a Cadillac rather than the Lincoln as seen in other cities on the tour. Also seen in the motorcade is the US Presidential Parade Car, a 1956 Cadillac Series 75, which at the time had been relegated to the duties of a chase vehicle. At the end of Kings Avenue, a small number of Canberra Omnibus Service vehicles can be seen; these look to be either the Leyland Leopard PSU3/1R or the AEC Reliance AH470, both had identical body designs by Pressed Metal Corporation.
Photo from the RATEC Comcar Collection – Photographer Unknown
Canberra Bus Service CO28 (AEC Regal with Syd Wood body) is seen with two other sister units at Ainslie Terminus. This vehicle was built in 1936, however the exact date of the image is unknown and the identity of the driver is also not noted. Information regarding the life and disposal of these vehicles is limited, so we don’t quite know when CO28/C532 was retired from service.
Here we see Comcar C*130 (Ford LTD FC series) with two RAAF “Hercules” (Lockheed C-130H) from 36SQN on the Fairbairn Apron at Canberra Airport. The aircraft closest to the Comcar is A97-008, which was delivered to the RAAF in 1978. It was transferred to 37SQN in 2006, before decommissioning in 2012. This aircraft is flying in Indonesia as of 2020 as TNI-AU-A1338.
Photo from the RATEC Comcar Collection. Photographer: Ashley Ryan
From the archives – The Hino AC140K…. or the PR 03.1?
ACTION Special Needs Transport BUS-022 (Hino AC140K) is seen at Tuggeranong Depot showing off its non-standard PR100.3 style livery and rear door ramp feature. These little Hino vehicles were a common sight on the streets of Canberra throughout the 90s and 00s, albeit the majority of the fleet was in a simple white livery with blue ACTION logo. A nod to the Renault PR100.3 can be found on the side, with the models decal slightly altered to show “PR 03.1”.
Photo is from the RATEC Collection.
It’s show time! The Olympics are only a few years away, Network ’98 is just around the corner, and the Dennis Dart SLF midibuses were getting ready to be shipped to Australia. It is February 1997 and the ACTION buses display at the Royal Canberra Show is in prime position next to the Budawang Building and just down from Showbag Alley. On display we have a fairly new BUS-131 (Renault PR100.3a with Austral-Denning body) showing off its easy access features, whilst BUS-969 (Renault PR100.2 with Ansair body) is showing off a bike rack for the Buscycle program. A wooden “bus simulator” made up from various parts found in the workshops was provided for prospective bus drivers to have a bit of fun!
Note the MACK branding on BUS-131 in place of Renault that regular PR100.3s featured. Whilst the Canberra PR100.2s (mostly) featured MACK branding with the Renault diamond, buses 113 and 126 through to 131 sported a MACK bulldog logomark on the front, and the MACK wordmark on the internal front dash and external rear window.
This group of photos is from the CTM J. Culkin Collection.
From the Archives – The 1992 Bus Roadeo.
Did you attend the Bus Roadeo? This 4 year old (at the time) bus nut turned historian certainly did! Here we see BUS-690 (Renault PR100.2 with Ansair body) in a special all over livery for “Team Mack” at the TISC driver training facility in Sutton along with photos of the competitors in this competition. This event was a qualifier for the finals held by the STA in South Australia, with Richard Kulacz and Brian Meizer representing ACTION in Adelaide. Please feel free to let us know who is in these photos!
ACTION had previously held a similar event in 1991 located in a carpark in the Woden Town Centre. In 1992 they took things up a notch and moved the event to TISC which worked out to be a much more suitable space for the event. BUS-690 went for a trip to Adelaide for the finals to help support the ACTION team; this was much to the surprise of MAN, who were the sponsors of the national competition.
Photo is from the CTM J. Culkin Collection.