Make a comment Comments on Double-decker Bus and Rail Motor (c1936) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online

Double-decker Bus and Rail Motor (c.1936)

These are all at the Camperdown plant which preceded Granville - Granville looked nothing like this.

See John Dunn's 'Comeng'

#1 from tonymercury – 13 years ago.

Double decker motor omnibuses existed and were used in Australia before World War I (1914), so the one depicted in this film clp was VERY far from qualifying as 'Australia’s First Double-decker Bus' as claimed. Just one example from my home city of Perth, Western Australia, being a small fleet of 24hp, 40 passenger double deck motorbuses owned and operated by one Sam Copley during the years leading up to WW1. (Sources include 'Fares Please' a booklet published by Transperth, the WA Government public transport undertaking, in Sept 1991.)
PLEASE, DO get your facts and wording right about this. The double deck buses produced in c1936 in Sydney were most definitely NOT the first of their ilk in Australia. It is a known and documented fact that from 1929-30 new Leyland TD1 double decker motorbuses were plying the streets of the NSW capital. (Source : 'From City To Suburb' a book by esteemed bus historian, Greg Travers, published in 1982 by the HCVA and Sydney Tramway Museum.)

I urge whoever wrote the historically inaccurate heading to conduct more detailed research. Possibly beginning with a closer read of John Dunn's book about 'Comeng'. Which, I daresay, might make some distinction between this being 'Australia’s First Double-decker Bus' versus vehicles carrying 'Australia’s First LOCALLY BUILT Double-decker Bus BODIES'. Or something much more closely aligned with that more realistic scenario ....

#2 from Regent274 – 11 years, 10 months ago.

Thanks Regent274 for your comment providing further information on this topic. We'd be very interested in hearing from others with a similar passion and knowledge in this field. When was the first double-decker bus used in Australia? Could this be the first locally-built double-decker bus body?

#3 from Editor – 11 years, 10 months ago.

As to the queries - when was the first double-decker bus used in Australia, and could this be the first locally built double-decker bus body ...
Answer to both queries harks back to the latter part of the 1800s, when horses were the primary 'motive power', and internal combustion engines were in their temperamental infancy in Europe. Despite the 'tyranny of distance' at a time when sailing ships were the main (only?) means of transport to/from Australia, locals were quite well aware of what was 'state of the art' in public transport in Europe and America. Consequently, Australian built horse drawn double-deck buses were relatively common in most Australian capital cities by about 1880.
As for subsequent 'motorised' versions, PLEASE refer to my earlier comment about Sam Copley who operated several double deck motor buses in Perth, Western Australia, between around 1905 to 1914, on Scottish built chassis.
Also, PLEASE check some (or all) of the sources I mentioned previously.
For example - It is a known and documented fact that from 1929-30 new Leyland TD1 double decker motorbuses were plying the streets of the NSW capital. (Source : 'From City To Suburb', a book by esteemed bus historian, Greg Travers, published in 1982 by the HCVA and Sydney Tramway Museum.)

#4 from Regent274 – 6 years, 5 months ago.

To comment on this title, you need to be logged in.