Around 6.40pm on Friday 19th December 1969, owner-driver Phil Venier pulled his bus into the Canterbury terminus to cease operation for the day — and forever. Thus, the colourful history of one of Melbourne’s bus routes (Route 129A: Canterbury — Richmond) came to a close.

During the course of the afternoon several trips were patronised by a number of bus enthusiasts at whom Phil recounted much of the former glory of the route.

Phil commenced as an owner driver in 1932 with a 7 passenger 1926 Studebaker.

At that time, some 18 motor cabs serviced the route which extended through Canterbury and out as far as Box Hill. Six were owned by AJC Motors, four by Ventura Motors, and the remaining 8 by owner drivers. All were seven-seaters which meant that they were classified as motor cab and not buses which were 8 seats or more.

Phil’s Studebaker was replaced by a Reo “Silver Crown” in 1935, which in turn was replaced a couple of years later by a Diamond T (FT 945), still a seven-seater. The Diamond T continued in service for some 17 years until it was replaced in February 1954 by a “big” 18-seater Chevrolet bodywork with Cheetham and Borwick and registered (GDA 355).

Prior to regulation in 1925, large buses ran from Box Hill all the way into various parts of the city. Ventura Motors, who commenced their service on 24 December 1924, ran to Spencer Street station, terminating outside the Sunshine Hotel (today’s Savoy Hotel).

After regulation, which licensed routes and restricted competition with trains and trams, the route became a motor cab service (Motor Cab route No 2). It ran from the corner of River Street and Bridge Road Richmond (where the then cable tram ended) to the corner of Station Street and Canterbury Road in Box Hill.

The original route traversed Bridge Rd, Burwood Rd, Auburn Rd, Rathnmines Rd and Canterbury Rd, servicing the heart of Hawthorn.

There were many operators with their 7-seat cabs, including Allan Joseph Cowan who operated as AJC Motors from a premises in Canterbury Road between Myrtle and Beaumont Streets.  He was the major operator on the route for more than 20 years. Allan first plyed the route in 1925 with a Model T Ford.

The Burwood Rd section competed with Route 10 which operated from Hawthorn Bridge to Camberwell Junction, duplicating the motor cab service as far as Auburn Rd. From January to October 1928 these services commenced from Hawthorn Station as Route 58A.

The competition and ‘poaching’ of passengers with the Burwood Rd motor bus proved an ongoing sore point and gained newspaper coverage in late 1933. By March 1934, the motor cab route was changed – instead of running along Burwood Rd and Auburn Rd past Hawthorn Town Hall, the inner portion now travelled north of the railway line through the back streets of wealthy Hawthorn including the wide Denham St, Power St, Mary St, leafy Chrystobel Crescent and narrow Liddiard St in Hawhthorn East. Cabs then crossed Auburn Rd into Rathnmines Rd and onward onto Canterbury Rd.

Towards the end of 1935, the section from Station Street in Box Hill South to Canterbury Station was separated and deemed to be a bus route – becoming the 89A. It was initially operated by Ventura, who withdrew their four buses from the Richmond service, focusing instead on opportunities elsewhere, including their East Doncaster – Box Hill – Oakleigh – Mentone and Cheltenham – Dandenong services that they pioneered during the 1930s.

The 89A later went through a rapid succession of owners – A. Morton of Thornbury (1945); J. Slater (October 1953); Mrs F. Frost (April 1955); E.Guy (1956); R. Curren; (April 1959); N. Mason (March 1962); L. Drumgold (late 1963) until finally being sold to Mee‘s Bus Lines in 1964. The route closed at the end of 1967, having been reduced to a peak hour service running every half-hour.

The likely need to ration duplicative bus and motrocab services during World War II was first discussed in Julne 1941, with the Hawthorn Bridge – Canterbury service among many identified as candidates. The first saving took place from noon on Thursday 20 August when both the Hawthorn Bridge – Canterbury and Hawthorn Bridge – Camberwell services were truncated to start at Power St, near Hawthorn Station, as connecting trains and trams were available.

The Directorate of Emergency Road Transport later ordered the Hawthorn – Canterbury motor cab service be halved to terminate at the corner of Burke Road and Rathmines Road effective 12 July 1943. Directorate chairman Mr A. J.. Fraser) noted “that much wear and tear on valuable motor parts, petrol and man-power would be saved by deleting the ‘unnecessary’ portions of the run“. An unfair situation had developed in May 1940 when the 78A bus from North Balwyn was extended to Camberwell, duplicating the motor cab run on Canterbury Rd (and arguably the rail service), during wartime petrol rationing.

AJ Cowan lodged a petition from 1,200 locals against the move, with the motor cabs connecting to four onward services at Canterbury. The humble route had continued to transport nearly 2,000 people a day during the war, including about 400 school children from 20 schools. As a result of Cowan’s campaign, the Burke Rd – Canterbury section resumed a week later during peak times (7:45am – 8:45am and 3:30pm to 5:30pm) plus limited trips on Sunday mornings. It’s unclear how soon services resumed the full timetable.

Owner-operator, Mr. Ernest Weekley (aged 42) was tragically killed on 19 November 1947 when the cab he had bought just weeks earlier failed to take a corner in Canterbury Rd in Camberwell. The bus toppled over, with Mr Weekley thrown from the driver’s seat before the vehicle fell on top of him. The bus was not carrying passengers at the time.

The Hawthorn Bridge – Canterbury service was described as a very personal affair.- it couldn’t be otherwise in a cab measuring 6ft by 5ft. The hackney cabs ‘skipped jauntily’ largely parallel to the busy rail line, rarely travelling faster than 20 miles per hour, a little over 32km/h.

An example of this community spirt was evident in 1946 when AJC Motors placed donation boxes in his cabs on Good Friday to raise money for the annual Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal, in lieu of collecting the usual fares from passengers. Some £32/4/7 was raised (about $2,780 in 2024 money).

This initiative was also taken up by Papps’ Motors of East Malvern, proprietor of Routes 77A (Darling Road Tram Terminus – Murrumbeena – North Rd) & 97A (St Kilda – Caulfield via Inkerman St). He collected £29/14/5 ($2,570 in 2024 $) for the Children’s Hospital from his passengers plus a further £37 contribution ($3,200 in 2024 $) from his employees.

Regular rail strikes provided welcome extra patronage for the run. An anecdote from AG Cowan, published in The Herald newspaper, reported that the cabs used to carry 35 passengers per trip during the 1952 rail strike – “The tyres were rubbing on the mudguards, but we got there and back many times.”

At the end of 1952 the service finally gained bus route status – Route 129A – after some two decades of lobbying of authorities, led by AJ Cowan.

There was a grace period for the then operators to acquire “big” 18 seat buses – which stretched out to February 1954. Of the seven motor cab operators in 1952, only five bought larger buses – Phil Venier, Percival Gordon McCallum, Alan Cotton, Fred Jackson and Leonard & Jack Whelan. The Whelan’s had a Bedford bus (details unknown) and dropped out soon after.

These five drivers bought out A.J. Cowan’s share of the route when he retired in 1954, aged 72. He had become ill a year or two earlier and was no longer able to drive buses. He had witnessed a full generation of travellers, watching once child-aged passengers bring their own children onboard.

His son, A.G. Cowan, had acted as a fill-in driver for 20 years and remarked the route was “probably the happiest and friendliest anywhere“, thanks to their passengers.

The Cowans made some proud claims at the end of the cab era, including:
– theirs was the cheapest and most frequent service in Melbourne
– the run had carried a million passengers some 5 ½ million miles between 1925 & 1954
– services carried on full blast during the war
– it caters specially for churchgoers
– only one fatal accident was recorded by AJC Motors – in Hawthorn in February 1953

The timetable in 1954 had daytime buses coming every 10 minutes, including on Sunday afternoons, stepping up to 6-7 minutes in peak times, using all 5 buses. Evening services ran every 15 minutes. Unlike many parts of suburban Melbourne where Sunday buses began after lunch, a limited timetable operated on Sunday mornings for churchgoers.

The stated runtime for the route was just 18 minutes each way over the 6km (3.73 mile) journey, matching the average speed of Melbourne buses today.

Mr Wilks eventually took over Jackson’s bus. Wilks withdrew from the service in 1966 when his Ford, older than the rest, was retired, which left just 3 buses on the run. Peak headways were reduced from 12 to 15 minutes as a result.

Documentation from the Transport Regulations Board from this era show the roster that was in place at the time, with each operator following a different set of trips each week to balance the farebox profits between owners and allow for vehicle maintenance.

McCallum withdrew his Bedford (GDA 152) in early 1969 because he found it increasingly difficult to make a living out of the route, at a time when no government subsidies were provided.

The service was then provided by the two Chevs until Cotton’s bus (GCU 789) did a gear box in early November and was withdrawn, presumably too costly to repair or replace. Phil Venier soldiered on for another six weeks until 19^th December 1969, seeing out the school year.

Rather than take a well-deserved retirement after a remarkable 37 years of driving the route, Phil sought employment with Ventura on their neighbouring 78A (soon 731) service between Camberwell, Canterbury and North Balwyn, which travelled along the Canterbury Rd section of his old Richmond run. Ventura had taken over the Balwyn Rd route from Raymond Curren in April 1968 after he “abandoned” the service.

A cheeky remark was made in the April 1970 BCSV News Sheet regarding Phil’s next chapter: “Wonder if he (Phil) has any trouble sticking to the new route and not following the old one down to Richmond!”

Route 129A Timetables