Over the weekend, the well-known Oliveri family celebrated a major milestone, recognising its 70th anniversary since it first got involved in the bus transport industry.
The Oliveri family legacy in Australia began all the way back in 1949 when Guiseppe Oliveri moved over to Australia with wife Carmela and three of his four children. Landing in Sydney after Guiseppe was a prisoner of war transferred to Australia before being released by the Australian government to stay and bring his family over, his eldest son Giovanni joined the family in 1951 after completing compulsory military service in Italy.
The family started as simple market gardeners after buying land in Allambie Road in New South Wales’ Edensor Park.
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On November 23, 1954, the Oliveri family expanded into the transport game, buying the route 41 service licence to and from the then rural suburb of Green Valley and Liverpool Railway Station. The licence purchase came with the one bus from the Calabro family based in Bonnyrigg, with the Oliveri’s then going on to buy the route 102 service licence from Ingleburn to Campbelltown on September 1, 1961 despite having only four buses.
In 1965, the Oliveri family acquired its first touring coach, with Relaxaway Tours and Travels launched as a new venture.
Over time, both John Oliveri and founder Guiseppe ‘Pop’ Oliveri passed away, with the tragedies seeing more of the family regroup to boost resources, resulting in the operations being rebranded to Oliveri’s METROLINK Buslines.
A restructure of the family group in 1992 saw the operations split into two, with Frank and Roy Oliveri retaining the Metrolink side servicing Liverpool, while Caterina, now a sole shareholder of Ingleburn Bus Services, appointed sons Joe and Frank, as well as daughters Carmel, Frances and Domenica, as directors. On August 1, the company changed to begin trading as Interline Bus Services.
After playing a major role in running the transport for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, on August 2, 2002, the family bought Southern Cross Transit in Queensland to run school and chartered bus services in the greater Brisbane region via a 52-bus fleet. Frank, his wife Carmel (Mel) and their two boys John and Christopher moved to Queensland to manage the new business.
Yet as time moved on, changes to the way buses were run in NSW saw the number of contract areas reduced from 87 to 15 in the 2000s. While Interline worked region two alongside Busabout, owned by the Calabro family, Interline would take over all services in the region in 2014.
By 2015, the family operated 130 buses and employed over 250 people across NSW and Queensland.
It all changed in 2023 when Interline lost the contract to Transit Systems, tendered out of the run. On October 8, the Oliveri’s finished operating in the state, ending 69 years of continuously moving people in NSW.
However, in 2024, the Oliveri family was able to bring up the 70 year anniversary on the weekend due to its continual work operating school services in Queensland via Southern Cross Transit.
Currently operating a mixed fleet of up to 50 buses and coaches, the event recognised the massive presence the Oliveri family has had in the bus industry.
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