There’s always an undeniable love of a double-decker; people gravitate to them and, for children, the race to get a seat upstairs means that these buses always are a popular drawcard for passengers.
It’s easy to understand why operators love to have these crowd-pleasers in their fleet, as they are popular and versatile, with enduring appeal.
Today’s drive is of a 1990 Denning Landseer double-decker – one of two that are part of that Fantastic Aussie Tours fleet in Katoomba in the beautiful NSW Blue Mountains. A popular and, in normal times, very busy tourist destination, the two double-deckers in the Fantastic Aussie Tours livery are instantly recognisable driving along the Great Western Highway.
Purchasing a vehicle that many would consider to be at the end of its working life isn’t an issue for Darrell Booth, the operations and fleet manager at Fantastic Aussie Tours. In fact, the very opposite. Booth’s love of the build and strength of this Denning classic is evident in all aspects of what he feels the double-decker brings to the fleet and his confidence in them.
“We’ve got two double-deckers, both are around the 30-year-old mark, but they are still used as our frontline vehicles,” explained Booth.
“I have so much confidence in them that, if we got a call to go to Darwin tonight in one of these, they can handle it, no problems. It’s just off you go.
“Today’s drive we call Kapunda – all of our coaches have Aboriginal names and Kapunda is named after the town in SA and is the story of Sidney Kidman, the ‘Cattle King’.
“Sidney Kidman left home in Kapunda at 13-years old along with his one-eyed horse he called Cyclops to work as a sheep drover. Being a man of vision, he formed a small business
