The industry is continuing to pay its respects to the late Peter Kane, who sadly passed away last week. Friend and BCSV president Geoff Foster pays tribute to the bus and coach industry personality.
Last week, the Bus and Coach Society of Victoria (BCSV) released sad news about the passing of long standing member and past president, as well as industry stalwart, Peter Kane.
Kane, who served on the BCSV committee for many years before being treasurer and president, sadly passed away last Tuesday after a battle with cancer.
At his funeral on Friday, friend and current BCSV president Geoff Foster paid tribute with his heartfelt speech below.
ABC would like to join the greater Australian bus and coach community in paying its respects to the late Peter Kane and acknowledging his profound impact on the industry.
A Tribute by Geoff Foster
Peter Kane was my friend, and I was proud to call him that. Whilst I know relatively little of his early life, I knew him well for the last 40 years and travelled much of Australia with him during that time.
I didn’t meet Peter at first, but rather his twin brother Mick, who joined our fortnightly Tuesday bus slide night group somewhere around 1980. At that time Mick was already in buses at Ventura. A year or two later, Peter, who was then working in magazine distribution with Gordon and Gotch, also began coming along and showing a keen interest in buses.
They were an interesting pair who could either be in very happy mode or in what we sometimes referred to as Grumpy Kane mode. Depending on the month’s choice of hairstyle and facial hair, sometimes it was easy to tell them apart, other times less so. Six of us who’ve known them for decades were split 3/3 the other day over whether it was a young Peter or Mick standing up in one photo – same ‘70s taches and even the same sunnies!
A group of us used to travel in one or two cars to Sydney each September for the annual bus and coach show. I think it was in 1984 that Peter asked to join us and I offered him to come with me.
We had already established that we had some areas of common interest beyond buses, notably professional wrestling. On that first car journey I played him some old audio tapes I had made from the days of World Championship Wrestling on Channel 9. We had a similar sense of humour and, for reasons which now escape my memory, we would often converse in weird Billy Connolly type Scottish accents, as well as calling each other Jimmy.
That was the first of many trips away we did together over the next 20-plus years. He also did a big trip with Hayden and David in 1989 to the Northern Territory. Peter and I went bus hunting all over Victoria and New South Wales, to South Australia, Tasmania and both coastal and inland Queensland, usually sharing a motel room and a couple of beers over dinner at the local club or restaurant.
Meanwhile Mick was doing trips mostly with Hayden. It was Hayden who came up with the notion that the two of us each had our own pet Kane to look after.
Our revolving slide night venues included Peters Warrigal Road flat then at the house near Gordon and Gotch during the period when he was living with Jenny and their dog Nelson. Later Peter moved in with Hayden and Dave in a shared house in Cheltenham for a few years before having own places, the last being a unit directly opposite from one Hayden had occupied some years earlier.
Peter also became active in the Bus and Coach Society, serving on the committee in various positions including as Treasurer from 1992-1994 and as President in 2000. Our most memorable trip away was probably in that year when we travelled from Melbourne to Sydney for the Olympics. Sounds simple eh? Well, we did it the hard way… four weeks via Adelaide, Uluru, Mount Isa, Cairns then down the coast.
We arrived at Woy Woy with no booking and found a motel for $50 a night, while many were paying 10 times that down in Sydney. For the next week we would commute either by very crowded train or along the near empty roads. Together we were able to access two of the supposedly secure bus depots (though not the big one at Regents Park). And on one day we were able to access the ticket only area at Homebush Bay by just walking in, and, to our amusement, proudly drinking Pepsi Max and using Fuji Slide film, in defiance of the major sponsors Coke and Kodak. We also spent quite a few hours on what we dubbed Coach Corner at Lidcombe where there was a perennial stream of buses going back and forth to the Regents Park depot.
One of our last long trips was up and back to Cairns in 2006. They were good days, when bus companies were run by families rather than conglomerates and enthusiasts were welcomed in virtually all depots around the country.
Photo – Jason Lipszyc |
There were many other day trips, overnighters and so on and of course each Cup Day both Peter and Mick would be amongst the group of us assembled in camping chairs along the side of the road to watch the buses pass.
Pete joined Mick as a bus driver at Ventura, spending much of his time on the 703 from Brighton to Blackburn along Centre and Blackburn Roads. In his last few years, due to physical difficulties, he was only able to work part time due to physical difficulties which impacted his post retirement financial position.
Peter was not just interested in buses, but also took many photos of emergency vehicles, concrete mixers and semi-trailers. When Facebook bus groups started, Peter became a prolific poster and gained a considerable following on many groups. There was much admiration for the breadth of his collection. He started his own groups and became an admin on others, tending to rule with a no nonsense approach. It is fair to say he did not suffer fools gladly. One of his groups was Pete’s Transport, where many of his truck photos featured and there was also an emergency vehicles group.
In recent years, Peter developed his own special thing, adopting two bridges across the Monash Freeway from which he could spend part of the morning or afternoon doing bus and truck photography. On several occasions he was approached by the police concerned he might be about to jump! And last year he was immortalised on one bridge by a passing Google street view car – an image we have captured for posterity.
Peter and other enthusiasts are not just guys taking bus photos. Rather we are recording and preserving the history of an entire industry, an effort that is appreciated by the bus industry associations, the vast majority of bus owners and by bus and coach drivers, past and present.
Following Pete’s passing last week, I placed a Vale to him on the club Facebook page. The response was amazing. Over 100 reactions in the first 90 minutes and now well over 200. In addition to the many RIP and condolences messages, there were many tributes to his photography. I will quote a few so the family can realise just how appreciated Peter was.
JASON HEALEY – Bus Manager Qld: I`m so sad to hear this and will miss his pictures of so many buses and trucks.
GEOFF VICKERS – Bus owner, Melbourne: Peter (and Mick) have been an institution with their photos and recording the movements in the industry.
MATT BROWNE: Bus Manager and Enthusiast Queensland: I managed to get to know Pete through similar interests and discovered we supported and loved the same footy team. I always admired he would come and strike up a conversation whenever I visited on a tour down in Victoria. In the early years, usually about Richmond’s constant losses.
He certainly had a very wide and varied photo collection, and I’m very thankful he was so open to sharing his photos in the internet era.
PINO GATTELARO – Bus owner Melbourne: We thank Peter for his contribution to the bus and coach industry as well as his contribution to the BCSV.
TONY FINNERAN – bus salesman and bus book author, Sydney: he gave terrific support to the Gone but not Forgotten book series. He was so supportive and encouraged me at every turn.
CHRIS LIND, former coach driver, Adelaide: What an absolute loss…It was because of Pete that most of us ex-coach drivers have a visual memory of our past rides.
TOMI JERCOVICH; Coach driver, Melbourne: a great photographer and committed member to many bus forums. He may be gone but his name and pictures from this industry will not be forgotten.
BRUCE SAVILLE – Bus driver at Ventura: we had some good times together at Ventura, some good chats on the Atkinson Street bridge and good memories of growing up in Chadstone.
Peters last few months were very sad for his family and friends, watching the man, the memory and the personality of the Pete we all knew and loved slowly slip away. I shall miss him greatly both as a colleague and as a friend but as Jack Little used to say to close the wrestling shows, “that’s all there is, there isn’t any more”.