In 2014, Nick Wilson came across a Brisbane-based bus from the WWII era. Now, the timber-framed vehicle is being returned to its former glory, with a little helping hand.
You don’t see many timber bus frames in this day and age, and for good reason. Wooden frames long ago faded out when the longer-lasting steel came along. So when an old relic bus comes along with a wood body, it’s enough to blow the mind of bus lovers. It did just that when Nick Wilson stumbled upon a WWII-era bus in 2014.
The Queensland Omnibus and Coach Society (QOCS) club president found the old bus by chance. Wilson was working for Bus Stop Sales & Service in Brisbane when the company sold its first ever vehicle in a new Yutong bus to a small bus operator in Wandoan, six and a half hours away from Brisbane. When the customer came to Brisbane to visit Bus Stop’s factory, they told the QOCS president about the relic.
“I remember the operators coming into our work and saying there’s this old bus in one of the sheds back in town at Wandoan,” Wilson told ABC. “I dismissed it originally as everybody has a different definition of what an old bus is, so I asked them to go back and take photos for me.
“When the photos were shown to me a couple of weeks later, I almost fell off my chair. It’s not every day you come across a bus that was built during the 1940s.“
When Wilson’s employer made another sale in Wandoan, he asked his boss if he could visit the town and see the bus in person. After volunteering to drive out to Wandoan from Brisbane to assist with the bus delivery, he wasn’t disappointed.
“For its age it was in incredibly good condition,” Wilson says. “It had been housed in a shed since it had been out in Wandoan, but the roof of the shed had recently blown off during a severe weather event“.
“I quickly realised that we had to save it.”
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After Wilson was informed that a local historical society declined the opportunity to save the bus, the wheels moved quickly. Wilson got South Bundy Buses owner Richard Hayes, a good supporter of QOCS, to organise the relocation of the bus to Bundaberg in August 2014. South Bundy Buses quickly brought the bus back to life in their Bundaberg depot with new brakes, bearings, and hubs fitted.
The company also got the motor running again and began the painstaking restoration task until a staffing shortage slowed progress on the project. The bus remained in South Bundy’s shed until April last year when it was relocated to Brisbane.
QOCS owns a fleet of 20 buses dating back to 1938 that it actively restores for the benefit of future generations. Since 2015, the club has refurbished six buses largely due to the generosity of the Queensland-based Royans Coachworks. Since 2021, this WWII relic has been the latest restoration project for Wilson and his club.
Wilson says the depth of restoration required, and the unique nature of the vehicle, made it the perfect choice for QOCS’s next endeavour.
“The bus started its life as an army truck in WWII and was later repurposed and fitted with a bus body in late 1947,” Wilson says. “I have identified in my research at the State Archives that this bus was first approved for use by the Department of Transport on January 12, 1948.
“While the body was generally in good condition, there was a fair amount of bodywork and framework needing repair work and replacement. It’s certainly not been a small job.”
The rare wooden framed vehicle has a British Bedford truck chassis with a locally built body. After tracing the origins of the bus, Wilson found it was built by a firm called IBIS garage just north of Brisbane in the suburb of Sandgate. The bus is incredibly rare and is one of only 12 models built by IBIS.
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Following its stint during the war, Wilson says the bus became part of the local IBIS bus service and operated at Sandgate for around 20 years before ending its operational life at Wandoanon a school run.
In another fascinating twist of fate, the bus was owned by the late father of Australian pharmacist, businessman and politician Terry White. Terry’s brother Phil is a QOCS club member and previously owned Cribb Island Bus Service/Red and White Coaches. Both brothers ensured QOCS had funding to begin planning the restoration of the bus. When Wilson also secured an extra $23,500 of funding from the Queensland government late last year, the bus made another journey. This time, it went down to the trusted hands of Royans Coachworks in Acacia Ridge.
When Royans Coachworks section manager Gary first saw the bus roll into his premises in a pre-restored state, he was transported back.
“It’s the first timber framed bus I’ve ever seen in the bus building industry,” Gary told ABC. “Aesthetically it’s beautiful – it has magnificent round corners and its parts were clearly handmade by people on a production line back in the day.
“It’s been exciting to effectively become a coach builder again with this bus.”
Royans Coachworks is now working on it part-time, using any spare time its workers have to recommence restoring the old bus. It’s a non-profit venture that Royans is doing to help Wilson and QOCS eventually parade around this beautiful relic.
Gary and the Royans Coachworks team say they have tried to retain as much of the original frameworkas possible during the restoration. Gary says he’s fortunate that his team has experience working on timber and restoring timber frames, while Gary himself has tinkered with older vehicles at home.
They’ve recreated original panels from scratch to keep the wooden frame intact. But restoring a vehicle that’s so old means finding the right material soon became a challenge for the Royans Coachworks team.
“It’s actually become quite a long project,” Gary says. “We struggled to find the right wood to use, but we settled on using Tasmanian oak as it was at a reasonable cost.
“We’ve found out that it was originally made from blackbutt wood and it was locally sourced.”
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When they have time, Gary and his team have been taking out rotten wood and restoring the body back to similar conditions to when it was first rolled out in the ‘40s. The bus currently has one side with panels pre-fitted, while the other side is exposed. It may be a long project, but Gary says his team is filled with joy whenever they get time to return to it.
“Everyone who works on it is always smiling because it’s very rewarding to be able to work on,” Gary says. “It’s going to be magnificent as a working, driving vehicle and not just as a museum piece.
“It’s not the first restoration project we’ve done for QOCS – we get a lot of satisfaction out of finishing them and driving them out.”
Wilson says he last inspected the vehicle on March 22 after a lot of work was completed since September 2021. The QOCS president says the restoration would never have happened if it wasn’t for the support of Royans Coachworks and Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads Mark Bailey.
“We want to highlight the incredible work and support Royans Coachworks gives to us,” Wilson says. “There is no other business in the country that we would trust with a project of this complexity”.
“We’re also lucky to have Minister Bailey personally supporting us and regularly coming to inspect the restoration project – he wants to make sure that our transport heritage is not lost.”
Both Wilson and Gary expect the bus to be fully restored before the end of the year. When completed, QOCS will unveil the bus at its original terminus at Sandgate in a full circle celebration of the relic’s upgrade. Regardless of when the project is complete, Wilson says the memories of discovering this bus and restoring it has been priceless.
“This is our first ever wooden frame bus restoration project,” Wilson says. “It’s been an incredibly exciting undertaking so far.
“It’s not every day that you rebuild a bus that’s 74 years old.”