Buses, coaches, & lorries

Some years ago (31 years ago, to be precise) I - a fairly newly-arrived backpacking Pommie in Oz on a short “working holiday” visa - got a job with a removals mob in Mascot (a southern suburb of Sydney, not a suitcase throw from Kingsford-Smith airport aka Sydney International). I regularly took either the 309 or the 310 service from Central Stn on a UTA (later STA) on one of these:

youtube.com/watch?v=ecobfR98Pco

Being a Pom, the noise it made was instantly familiar (an 0.600 Leyland) even if its coachwork looked… odd.

Footnote: at the time (1988) I had no reason to suspect that Sydney’s UTA (Urban Transit Authority, later STA, succeeded by Sydney Buses) had been one of Leyland (Truck & Bus) biggest overseas clients, having ordered north of 700 Leopard bus chassis. That Sydney UTA was, at the time, phasing in M-B O305s on almost every route is testament to Leyland’s obstinacy in offering only the O.500 engined National to its hitherto reliable export markets.