History of Alice the Bus

[Taken from the original 'The Alice Project' bus conversion and motorhome website 2002-2003]

Alice the bus is a 1971 AEC Swift. She was born in England (in components), the chassis put together by MTT/STA in Adelaide and the body built in Adelaide by Denning & Co. for a large order by Adelaide’s State Transport Authority (STA). The Denning name continues today (still with Alan and family) and has now also ventured into the luxury motorhome market!

Alice became Bus Number 488 for the STA (Adelaide) and completed many years of route service, presumably all over the city. When Alice was no longer required by Adelaide, she was sold to a Queensland company - Koala Koaches. Based at Burleigh Heads (on the Gold Coast), Koala is a family owned and operated company (the Young family) who have purchased many buses from Adelaide over the years. Before resuming service in Queensland, Alice had to undergo extensive modifications to conform with Queensland Transport width regulations - Adelaide’s fleet of buses were all wider than normal. Alice became Bus Number 17 for Koala Koaches, and saw out the rest of her service as a school bus.

When we purchased Alice in October 2001 from Koala Koaches, she had only recently been retired. In her life, we estimate Alice has probably seen over one million people come in and out her doors! It seems strange to dwell on such a point - but how many people could say that over one million people had been through the front doors of their house?

Special thanks to James La forest (NSW) for sending me some amazing articles and photos of the AEC Swifts in service for the STA (Adelaide) in to early 1970’s. All images on this page were sent by James and originally appeared in the MTT/STA Adelaide in-house magazine ‘Among Ourselves’. Thanks mate!

(Keiran Lusk 2003)

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