Young’s Bus Service has seen many changes in 70 years of business, but their pride in their work has remained the same. Phil and David Young and mum Joan are partners in the iconic Rockhampton business, with David handling the mechanical side of things.
“We take our job seriously and aim to to provide a good, reliable and safe service to the public,” Phil said. Stanley Young officially registered the business in November 1949, but started a couple of years before. “Through the war years dad used to have a car departing from the post office to take the Americans to the beach,” Phil said.
“He was one of the council’s bus operators but decided he didn’t like it and after 12 months the opportunity came up to take over the Keppel Sands service. “His parents grew crops like tomatoes and oranges at Bouldercombe and they wanted him to take that up, but he had other ideas. It was a couple of weeks before they even found out.” Soon other routes followed, including Gracemere and Mt Morgan runs, although it took seven years for Young’s to get approval for the Rocky and Yeppoon service. Even then could only do it once a week thanks to competition from the railway.
“In those days there were trams here in Rocky that were packed with people and so were the buses,” Phil said.
Young’s would take three buses from Keppel Sands to Emu Park on Sundays for a picnic and Port Curtis had its own separate run. “Joan and Stan were fairly persistent that but decided he didn’t like it and after 12 months the opportunity came up to take over the Keppel Sands service. “His parents grew crops like tomatoes and oranges at Bouldercombe and they wanted him to take that up, but he had other ideas. It was a couple of weeks before they even found out.”
Soon other routes followed, including Gracemere and Mt Morgan runs, although it took seven years for Young’s to get approval for the Rocky and Yeppoon service. Even then could only do it once a week thanks to competition from the railway.
“In those days there were trams here in Rocky that were packed with people and so were the buses,” Phil said. Young’s would take three buses from Keppel Sands to Emu Park on Sundays for a picnic and Port Curtis had its own separate run.
“Joan and Stan were fairly persistent that the need for the daily Keppel Sands service was there and they could see the railway wasn’t servicing
that need. Now there’s 13 services a day to one service a week to the coast.”
These days the business covers a range of urban passenger services, school services and local charter services from areas including Mt
Morgan, Gracemere, Rockhampton, Cawarral, Ridgelands, Alton Downs, Keppel Sands and the Capricorn Coast.
The business has grown from one bus to about 40 vehicles, including some of the most advanced in Australia.
“We recently got our first Euro 6 rated vehicle, which is the highest emissions rating you can get before going to alternative power. It’s the only heavy vehicle of its type in Rockhampton,” Phil said.
Like any business, Young’s has seen many changes over the years, some for the better and some for the worse.
In the war years, staff had to scavenge for tyres at the dump and equipment was known to catch fire.
“Back in the day we used to do a lot of services out to Theodore, Springsure, Clermont and there were no motels, so you had to be very careful with fuel and really sit down and plan what you did,” Phil said.
“Many times guys would have to sleep on the floor of the bus, which nowadays is unheard of.
“We’ve had to keep changing and evolving over the years. You can’t stay in business and not evolve.”
Young’s transports 1600-1800 children a day to and from school in the Rockhampton region.
“There’s some funny things that happen, particularly with kids, we have a lot of very smart kids on our school runs,” Mr Young said.
“For the most part their behaviour is acceptable, there’s some bad kids but they’re in the minority.”
He said Young’s Gracemere to Rockhampton school run had grown from one bus to eight over the years.
“Back then the loading on that one bus would have been 70 or more kids, which was acceptable back then, now the load is much less,” he said.
Mr Young said the business’s most valuable asset was it’s staff, including long-term staff members Val Hannegan, who was one of the first drivers over the Drummond Range, Chris Ware and Yeppoon’s Peter Copeland.
“It’s a big task running this business, you can’t do it on your own, you have to rely on your staff and we’ve had some very good staff over the years,” he said.
“Ex-staff members still call in and see us from time to time.” Some bus drivers have even been around long enough to chauffeur three generations of a family.
“There isn’t cargo more precious than a human being,” Phil said.
Article written by Matthew Pearce from CQ TODAY
