Kastoria GYO 462 (Bedford SB3, Syd Wood) was one of four buses in the initial Kastoria fleet, ex Barnes BL in 5/1964. New to Sinclair’s Passenger Service of Auburn, NSW 5/1958 & sold to Barnes 3/1959 (Bruce Tilley)

Kastoria is a town in northern Greece, the capital city of a region also called Kastoria. The city (currently) has a population of just 37,000 making it smaller in size that the City of Moonee Valley which has about 115,000 residents and which takes in the suburbs of Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Niddrie, East Keilor, Airport West and Strathmore.

The surge in migration after World War II saw many people come from the Mediterranean countries, including Greece. Two such families were the Spyrou and Sikavitsas families, with Evangelos (Angelo) Spyrou and Nikos (Nick) Sikavitsas being employed as bus drivers with Barnes Bus Lines.

HGD 651 started life as a normal control Leyland Comet Grummet with Dendy Omnibuses in 1951, as VL 500. Purchased by Barnes in 10/1960, he converted it to forward control and became Kastoria #1 in 1964 (Andrew Potts)

In 1964/65, (James) Doug Barnes disposed of a number of routes to some of his drivers including Tony Bono and George Sita.  Angelo and Nick also joined forces to purchase some of the routes and called their company Kastoria Bus Lines, after the region in which the families had lived in Greece. So, in May 1964, routes 209A (Moonee Ponds – Sunbury) and 210A (Moonee Ponds – Broadmeadows) were acquired and six buses came with the sale.

JDB 022 (Bedford SB5, Freighter Lawton) was new to Barnes in 9/1964 which came to Kastoria in the second tranche in 7/1965 (Bruce Tilley)

In July 1965, two further routes were acquired from Barnes, route 39 (Moonee Ponds – Keilor) and a branch of route 39 (Moonee Ponds to East Keilor). A further 4 buses came with the subsequent sale.

These routes were renumbered on January 1971 as the 479, 477, 476 and 475 respectively.

However, before that, on 10/5/1970, the two families decided to divide the business, which had grown the 16 buses. The Spyrou family maintained the Kastoria Bus Lines name with routes 475 and 476 and seven buses, and the Sikavitsas family formed Tullamarine Bus Lines with routes 477 and 479 and 9 buses.

Included with the Deveson’s purchase in 10/1979 was KEN 189 (Ford R226, Freighter) new to All Weather Scenic Coaches in 1/1969 and sold to Deveson’s in 12/1973 (Bruce Tilley)

Subsequently, Kastoria gained route 501 from E & L Pincini, in March 1973.

Deveson’s Bus and Coach Service was purchased by Kastoria on 26th October 1979.

In July 2009, Dom Sita acquired Kastoria Bus Lines from Alex Spyrou. Dom continues to trade under this name as part of the wider Northern Transit Holdings business.