Lengthening the Cords; Strengthening the Stakes Mr Cyril Hill was principal for four years, 1981-84. Upon his arrival at the primary school he was somewhat daunted at the need to administer a growing bus program. The school was using twenty-one seater buses and some of these were making two trips morning and evening. He was greatly relieved when the responsibility for timetabling the buses, listing the users, finding drivers and establishing driver rosters, and organising the servicing of the buses was assumed by a volunteer couple, Mr Joe and Mrs Thelma Chapman. The Chapmans had retired from business and gained much pleasure in devoting their lives to volunteer service. During 1981 the value of having the bus program handled by someone other than the principal became evident to the School Board. When the Chapmans moved on it was decided that their replacements, Mr John and Mrs Rita Vickery, would receive some remuneration for their work. Empathising with the students who experienced a very long school day due to the two-trip regime for some buses, John Vickery proposed that some twenty-one seaters be replaced by a bus with the seating capacity to handle the route with only one trip each way per day. A new bus of this size was too expensive to purchase, but reasonable quality second-hand buses were affordable. Thus the concept of a mixed fleet of both large and small buses was developed. In the process Vickery became most adept at repairing second-hand buses.
Some of our wonderful bus drivers from the early years.
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