00:08Hello, we have two former action bus drivers. Barry, give us a wave.
00:15Baza. Baza and Greg. We're in one of the Heritage Timber bus shelters. What was this bus route?
00:23Where are we? Well, we're at Ainsley. This was the original Ainsley bus service. So we're looking
00:29around about 1926, 1927, and this was the original bus terminals here. They were no further suburbs
00:36further up, so there was no downer, there was no hackett, and Dixon, I don't think, was even there
00:41at the stage either. So did you, when you were driving buses, did you pick up or drop off passengers
00:45here? Yes. Route 28 used to go past here all the time. Route 28, and you did too, Greg? Do
00:51you remember
00:51coming here? I remember coming through here. We used to come down past the Ainsley shops and then
00:56travel past here, past the church and such down the road, the All Saints down the road, carry on down
01:01to Northbourne Avenue, into the city. And this used to be the end of the line? This was the end
01:06of the line?
01:06This was the end of the line in early days. In the early days. But when we were driving,
01:10we were going up to Hackettmont on this bus route. You're both wearing some lovely hats here today.
01:17We just had someone walk past claim they were, what, British Air Force? British Air Force. He saw the
01:21crown. He saw the crown. He saw the crown. But they're not British Air Force hats. What are they,
01:26Greg? These were the hats that they issued to us when we first joined. And I was at the end
01:34of the
01:34time when the hats were optional. Optional? Optional. But they're quite fetchy. Surely we had them on all the time.
01:41No, we didn't. They were known to happen. The breeze got very heavy at going across the bridges, either
01:49Kings Avenue or Commonwealth Avenue. And they just happened to blow out the window. It was incredible.
01:55So there's a big pile, Baz. There's a big pile of these hats underneath Commonwealth Avenue.
01:59I ain't saying, underneath Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, under the water, mate, yes. It was a big drive
02:03in the 1970s to get rid of the caps because they were, we used to claim that they were sending
02:10us balls.
02:12But as drivers, these shelters were also a location where if there was a supervisor who
02:19wanted to sort of pounce on his drivers and then sort of for disciplinary purposes, he'd hide in here.
02:25He could hide in here. He could sit in that corner there with his back to the buses coming the
02:31other way
02:31and you wouldn't know he was there unless you pulled up and got out of your bus and come in
02:35and have a look because he wouldn't get up. One certain bus inspector used to do that by the name
02:40of Snakes. And why did he do it? Well, I think he just wanted to make sure that we
02:44we checked to see if all passengers were accounted for. But the thing is, he used to do it at
02:50night time.
02:50There was no lighting in these shelters. There's one at Brassy House, which is exactly the same design as
02:56this one. And he was renowned for sitting in there. So we all knew we had to pull up there,
03:01get out of our bus, basically walk in and have a look. No, he's not there. Right, keep going.
03:05And if you didn't stop, what was the discipline? What happened to you?
03:10Well, if you didn't stop, five strikes, you've got five reports, five, we used to call them five
03:16strikes, five strikes and you're out. So you might have been given a penalty and put on the bus watch,
03:21which was a reduction in your pay or the Commonwealth, the government trucks, which was also a reduction
03:28in your pay. A lot of folks went to the trucks as a penalty. They liked it so much, they
03:32stayed there.
03:33They didn't care about losing a bit of pay. I'll tell you a story about one chap that we had
03:37here,
03:38and I think I could use his first name, couldn't I, Barry? You could use any first name you want.
03:43Yeah, this guy was named Lou, and this man went through his whole career with a cap on. Now he
03:52was up in the 80s, late 80s, he retired Barry, wasn't he? Yeah, he did.
03:57He never took it off. Never took it off. In fact, they had to, they had to get a supply,
04:03because you got a new, every year you got a new set of uniforms, which included a cap. So you
04:07got
04:07a cap every year, and uh, they'd have to keep a supply of caps for him. He was the only
04:13one that
04:13wore them. So by this time it was optional. Oh yeah, it was optional. But Lou, all the time,
04:20always had the hat on. Yeah, he had his cap. He wore his cap all day every time. He'd pull
04:23it off,
04:23and he'd do this, and he'd scratch his head and talk to you, and put the hat back down on
04:28again.
04:28He liked his, he liked, he liked his cap. He was lovely. He was a lovely bloke too. Yeah, old
04:33Lou,
04:33one of the best. And when the new bus shelters came in, when I say new, the, the iconic concrete
04:39conquest style ones in around 74 or so. Yeah. Did, uh, did, did you like them at the time,
04:45or did you prefer these, these, these, uh, these older timber style ones? Well, it was, um, I guess
04:52you didn't use the bus shelters, did you? No, we were, but some passengers, uh, thought they were
04:58better open, and, and because of the, they, you had plastic glass in it, and of course the
05:03sun used to get to it, and it'd crackle up. They couldn't see out properly, and then people had
05:10dismantled the glass out of them. Well, see these old shelters had more room, and these ones were
05:17more enclosed in the weather, so you had a windy day like today, or a rainy day like today, you
05:24could
05:24get out of it. In the concrete shelters, it's pretty open at the front. There's not much room to hide,
05:29so you gotta, you know, so these were more weather friendly for the passengers, for sure. True. And
05:35there was a lot of them, I mean, I think there's only about 12 left in Canberra now, but I
05:40reckon
05:40there was anything up to 40 or plus, uh, in our day when we first, when I first kicked off
05:44in 1968.
05:46Some were destroyed by fire, arson attacks, um, others were demolished, um, some were demolished by
05:53accident vehicles running into them. True. So yeah, and they were never rebuilt, they were just replaced
05:58by concrete bunker shelters, so yeah, but the concrete bunker shelter is good. It's a Canberra icon,
06:04let's not get rid of it. But this is an icon as well, isn't it? It's an icon, yeah. Definitely,
06:08definitely it is. You know, look how many men could be out on the, out on the town and come
06:14and sleep in
06:14here. It is, it's a shelter, it's a lot more shelter than here. Yeah, it's a lot more shelter,
06:20and I'm not always, I'm not sure that this window was always there, um, because you'd get the breeze
06:26straight through, but obviously you would have had glass of that in here, but they've given away
06:31replacing the glass, the perspex years back, because it was just costing too much money.
06:35Thanks fellas for having a chat to me. We'll leave the buses and uh, here's to uh, what, to have
06:41a drink
06:41for the 100th year in July. We've got to have a drink, we've got to catch a bus mate.
06:47So we'll see you later. Thank you. Okay, bye. Good on you Tim.
