Assorted Buses in Black & White photos.

[Hornibrook]

Could be a Bedford? or an Austin? GM

I was thinking maybe a Morris Commercial.....

The McCafferty Shuttlewood is an OB Bedford which is claimed to be the first vehicle in Queensland fitted with reclining coach seats!

[Centralian]

Going back quite a ways here....
Virtually to the very start of the coach touring industry in Australia.
This was the first bus to cross the Blue Mountains, under the Withers' Pioneer Tours banner, in 1916.
Imagine the rock and roll ride, the heavy steering, the fear of thunderstorms........not to mention steep hills...!
I'm assuming it's one of the Withers brothers behind that tiny wheel.

I've been researching this image for quite a while now and I think it is incorrectly titled "first tourist coach to cross the Blue Mountains". It is held in the State Library Victoria [ edited, should be Museum Victoria ] under that title, and also in the Withers family, but I believe the photo is probably taken in the Dandenongs and the vehicle is a 28 hp Milnes Daimler. I've been in contact with Vivienne Worthington who wrote the book "Pioneer Tours, Australia's oldest name in the coach industry" and includes the photo, but she is unable to clarify other than that is the title she has. The vehicle that departed Melbourne in 1916 on Withers first trip to Sydney was a white coloured Saurer charabanc - a much more likely long distance tourer than the vehicle shown. Jack Maddocks book on the history of the Victorian operators (The People Movers) has a picture of the rear of the vehicle in Kiandra, and it is not the vehicle shown here. I also think if he was still alive, Mark Foy (of Hydro Majestic fame) would dispute the claim of being the first tourist coach to cross the Blue Mountains. My research continues. The sign to the right probably has some clues but in all the images I've seen and enlarged, the clarity is lost.

[system improver]

Ah, the problems with research - especially dates. I recently visited David Withers (son of A P Withers, grandson of A A Withers) who generously allowed me to go through the documents and photographs that he has. Most of them relate to "the early days" - Pioneer under Withers ownership. Amongst the material, was a photographic album presented to A A Withers from E G Francis (one of the tour participants) commemorating the first tour to Sydney. On the front piece, it has the handwritten dates of the tour: It started in Melbourne on 28th September 1918, arrived in Sydney on 8th October, departed on 13th October for the return journey and arrived back in Melbourne on 18th October 1918. Whilst the photographs document some of the places visited: Albury, Culcairn, Adelong, Kiandra, Cobargo, Nooroona (sic), Bateman's Bay, Nowra, Wollongong, Picton and Yass, there are no pictures in Sydney - including the Blue Mountains. In any event, the coaches are not the same - the one in the Museum picture being about ten years older. The photo album is inscribed as being presented to A A Withers on 31st October 1918. Now most people when they write a date get the year right (unless it is in the first few days of a new year).

However, there is a another document, a magazine (Tourist News) published by Pioneer Tourist Coaches P/L in August 1929. It describes many of the sights in Victoria and the tours offered by Pioneer. It also contains an article commemorating the death of A A Withers earlier that year, in July, which gives the date of the first Sydney tour as 1916. There are hand written papers from A P (Percy) Withers, written when he was 80 in 1979. There are a number of variations of dates. Percy himself was overseas in the war in 1918 as were a number of his uncles.

I can't seem to recognise A A Withers in the Museum photo, although it could be the gentleman on the right in the front seat. My guess for location is either Mt Dandenong or the Grampians. The photo is said to be taken from a negative. A high res scan of it should be able to zoom in on the writing on the side of the bus or the "NOTICE" sign posted to its right in the ground. Either one might help in identification. I would have to say that I have recently found staff at the Museum Victoria to be bloody hopeless in aiding research and they seem quite content to keep obviously incorrect captions (after all, what would they know about buses) rather than work with someone who might be able to provide more accurate information.

From the David Withers Collection, here is a photo of A A Withers taken in 1917 driving a Buick Tourer: