Bruce said GA was 37 in 1918 when he took over an ailing Casino-based garage business – which he renamed New England Motor Co (NEMCo) - that also happened to run a car service between Casino and Tenterfield. The following year he extended the service to Lismore and relocated his base there before also acquiring a Lismore/Ballina route, realising his aim of operating a passenger service ‘from the mountains to the sea’.

There was plenty of competition from other operators, but NEMCo prevailed by investing in modern vehicles offering a more comfortable, quicker service, and by 1920 it was the only transport company still plying the routes. NEMCo did take on staff from the other operators including Curly Newton who would be well-known to bus riders of the time, driving as well as managing the Tenterfield office in Rouse St.

“The service car would meet the train at Tenterfield at 10am each day and travel down the tortuous road to stop at Jordan’s Hotel at Tabulam, where it also met up with the Tenterfield-bound car,” Bruce said.

“Often drivers would change over at this half-way point and return home.” Cadillacs, which were open tourers and therefore dust-collectors, made way for the American-built Whites (equipped with local bodies) in 1927.

“The vehicles improved much more quickly than the roads,” Bruce said. After WWII the new WA20 Whites were introduced, followed by two AEC Rangers in 1958. 

The latter were among only three imported to Australia, and were designed for markets such as India with very rough roads (therefore well-suited to the Tenterfield to Tabulam section). 

They had high clearance, were lowly-geared and equipped with heavy duty bodies. As the roads improved they were replaced with the lighter, faster Ford Thames.

GA’s son (Bruce’s dad) Keith, meanwhile, served as a bomber pilot in World War II, even doing a six-month stint as Winston Churchill’s personal pilot even though he was always designated a ‘colonial’ pilot. After the war he had his dream job in Canada as a test pilot for Consolidated Aircraft, living in the Consolidated Aircraft village and driving around his supplied 1946 Packard automobile. Bruce was born during this time, but GA beckoned and the dutiful Keith returned to join the family business.

“Stay away from buses, boy,” he told the young Bruce, but it wasn’t to be.

“I spent a lifetime in them,” Bruce said. Unofficially Bruce was driving buses from the age of 12, around the parking lot as he went down each weekend to wash them. At the age of 19 he got special dispensation to receive his bus licence two years early, restricting him to a 14-seater. That was back in 1966 and Bruce took on the Lismore to Casino Airport run.

He well-remembers his first trip up the range as a bus driver at the tender age of 21. He was taking a charter group from the coast to Armidale, returning teachers to the University of New England. Just the other side of Mallanganee he had to move over to make room for an approaching truck, and the road crumbled beneath him.

“The bus was piled high with luggage and very top-heavy,” Bruce said.

“We nearly went A over T. Everyone was delivered safely but I’m sure there were some who woke up to how close we came.

“I still sweat every time I go past that spot.”

While being groomed to take over the company, Bruce was called up for National Service from 1968-70 and NEMCo was sold to Kirklands in January 1970. Bruce said this was probably a good thing as, while his father had just a few siblings as silent partners, he would have had dozens of cousins.

“That’s why family businesses rarely go past two generations,” Bruce said.

After schooling in Armidale and driving buses throughout the east coast Bruce was very familiar with many places but has always been drawn back to Tenterfield. He and wife Dianne finally made the tree-change from Brisbane just under two years’ ago, and have no regrets.

“We’re here for good,” he said.

“We love the atmosphere, the people, the climate, and particularly that there are no traffic lights.”