Email your bus name suggestions to or connect with us on social media. Be sure to include a short story about the name you have chosen.
When we caught up with Member for Keppel Brittany Lauga MP earlier in January, she came up with the idea of naming our newest member of our fleet. Mrs Lauga said “when it comes to our community using public transport, every part of the network must work. One way to increase its usage is to give the public some ownership of it. Naming a bus could be a good way to increase awareness about public transport usage as well as giving it a name of local significance.”
On Wednesday January 13, Phil Young operations manager of Young’s Bus Service, and the Member for Keppel Brittany Lauga launched a public competition to name the newest bus in the Young’s fleet.
Mr Young said he launched the community-driven quest to name this new bus, in a similar manner to the way Qantas and Virgin Australia name their planes, to honour a past or present community leader, health worker, bus patron, sports person, etc. who you think deserves recognition.
“One name that sprang to mind was one of our favourite patrons, a Mrs Buxton, who travelled four times a week catching Gracemere bus for over 51 years,” said Mr Young.
“Public transport was a huge part of her life.”
Mrs Lauga said success for Young’s Bus Service “didn’t happen overnight”.
“It’s been 66 years of hard work for this local family business, and you could say it’s in their blood! “
Young’s Bus Service is a local family business that started in Keppel Sands in 1949 with one bus.
The Keppel Sands service was its first. It then took on Gracemere and further south west into the area of Mt Morgan.
Mr Young said his company now carries 3000 passengers per day and has a fleet of over 35 vehicles, with the latest – an impressive $500,000 vehicle – changing the face of public transport in and around Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast.
Email your bus name suggestions to or connect with us on social media. Be sure to include a short story about the name you have chosen.
The winning entry will be celebrated by, and acknowledged in, the media and at the naming ceremony.
