October 25 2019

News came through last night on social media that Purtills was purchased by Dysons (Dysons Group of Companies) who will be commencing runs around December 1 2019.

Dysons are the company that take people to Melbourne on their nice buses though the ride can be pretty long and they have been doing that since 1987 since taking over the run from Ansett Pioneer.

Thousands of locals over the decades have ridden on the Purtills buses with many families seeing the evolution of transport from the small buses to the large ones with all the bells and whistles on them.

We can remember personally during the 1990’s the joy when a bus you were going to or from school was a Coach and the groans when the bus was one with the leather seats, metal bars and no seatbelts.

Those old buses were no fun in the summer especially if your skin touched the metal bars.

A Hussey’s bus was always first (Town bus) but the main event for some was an unofficial race to see which of the main group of buses would arrive first.

Would it be the Tuppal or Moonee Swamp bus that would arrive or would it be a different bus first ensuring that everyone on that particular bus gets home a couple of minutes early than the day before or at least before everyone else waiting for a bus.

There was an advantage of being at North School, kids would get to play longer than the rest until somebody looking to the left would see a bus appear from behind the service station and about to use the roundabout, students would scramble to get to their bus line and those at the front looked to the right to see what bus would pop out from Hyde Street.

Everyone waited until the bus parked (as they do now) before walking over to the bus and then waited for those who were getting off to disembark before getting on the bus, no back rows for the Primary/Public School kids, they had to wait their turn.

For those wondering what is next for Purtills, they’ve got the Fuel Distribution business, their Service Stations, Wired Entertainment plus their Vehicle Hire and Car Wash to run and in 2020 they’ll have The Depot Historic Collection to run too.

Times change and businesses come and go by collapse, purchase or merger and sometimes it is a shame but as mentioned earlier memories will remain thanks to the Depot Historic Collection and countless photographs, articles and more of the buses.