McHarry's Buslines is a family-owned bus company in

Geelong Geelong ( ) ( Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon ...

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, dating back to 1932. It operates

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

bus routes in Geelong, and on the

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and the Surf Coast, as well as

school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus ...

and

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services. The company's main depot is in

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, and there are smaller depots in Apollo Bay,

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

, Ocean Grove, Queenscliff and Drysdale. There used to be a depot in Portarlington, but it has been replaced by the one at Drysdale.

History

The origins of McHarry's Buslines date back to 1932, when John McHarry was employed at Ford's Geelong plant as a coach-builder. He transported his own employees to the plant in his truck, and it wasn't long before he was inundated with requests from other Ford workers for a ride to work. The current managing director of the company, also called John McHarry, is the grandson of the original owner. His son, Ashley McHarry, is the company's general manager.

Livery

Following the inauguration of the Geelong Transit System (GTS) in the early 1980s, McHarry's public transport buses were obliged to be painted in the GTS livery. After 2000, however, the company's contract with the

Victorian Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and t ...

no longer required its GTS buses to wear the system livery, and so buses were progressively re-painted with McHarry's own new livery.

Fleet

As at June 2022, the company's fleet consisted of 225 buses.

References

{{Reflist Bus companies of Victoria (Australia) Transport in Geelong Australian companies established in 1932 Transport companies established in 1932 Family-owned companies of Australia