Brisbane buses decked out in festive gear ahead of Christmas

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Spreading holiday cheer has been taken to a whole new level in Brisbane, with the city’s buses being decked out in festive gear.

Transcript

00:00Well, it really is the most wonderful time of the year.

00:11Dozens of buses just like this one have received a big sleigh makeover and it's snow joke here

00:17in Brisbane.

00:18From Christmas lights to tinsel and even holly jolliness, just in time for the big man in

00:24red.

00:29And it's all part of a 30 year tradition.

00:31To tell me more, I'm joined by councillor Ryan Murphy.

00:35Councillor, tell me, how exactly did this all begin?

00:37Well, 30 years ago in 1994, one of the depots wanted to decorate one of the buses for Christmas

00:44and it came out of their social club.

00:46They actually pooled their money together and decorated one bus.

00:49One of the other depots went, actually, we'd like to do that too.

00:51And before long, we had seven depots engaged in the process.

00:55And now it's become a fierce competition, almost like the NRL.

00:58Bit of a state of origin rivalry going on, isn't it?

01:01And judging this bus, tell me what goes into it, the process.

01:05Is it how much tinsel is used?

01:06How many Christmas lights are used?

01:08Well, we look for a couple of things.

01:09The first thing is we look for originality.

01:11You know, it's very easy to have a Christmas theme, much harder to come up with something

01:15original each and every year, particularly for 30 years.

01:18So we look for originality.

01:20We also look for practicality.

01:22In the end, these buses enter service.

01:24So if you're going to dress them up but people can't sit on the seats or things break, that's

01:29not good either.

01:30So it's got to be a robust design.

01:32And then finally, we look for the quality of the submission.

01:35So have they covered every surface?

01:38Have they looked at every different part that can be, have things attached to it?

01:41So this was the bus that won this year and Willawong are so proud of their submission.

01:47And tell me a bit about what's behind the design here at Willawong's Bus.

01:51So as you can see, pretty much every part is covered in tinsel or toys.

01:56What we liked really about this one was the fact that there's so many different toys on

02:00the bus.

02:01There's something for every child.

02:02And in the end, the magic and joy of Christmas is about putting smiles on kids' faces.

02:06So that's why we really like this one.

02:08The other thing is that there's little bits of attention to detail.

02:11So if you look at these seat covers, one of our drivers actually hand made these at home,

02:19all of them, for the entire bus, and they're reusable and sustainable.

02:22So they'll be able to be used next year.

02:24That's what put Willawong over the top.

02:26Thank you so much for your time, Councillor.

02:28And of course, these buses will be running all the way through to December 31st, encouraging

02:32city goers to make sure they catch public transport for a glimpse of Christmas cheer.

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