1982 Denning DenAir

Roderick, to be honest mate, I don't care who took the photo, weather it is a Denning or anything else. This is essentially a truck forum, and on the very rare occasion a thread turns into a bit of a photo fest on buses I very much enjoy it, so I don't care who took the picture, or what make of bus it is, I just enjoy looking at it. You are welcome to use any of my pictures, I don't care, and I'm sick of heariong all this copywrite cra*p. If you don't want to share, be a bloo*dy Tight a*rse and keep them to yourself.

I've been looking at Dennings all my life, my family has owned them, I've driven them for other people, and I have known quite a few people who where heavilky involved in the bus and coach industry, the current Denning manufacturing facility is accross the road from my own business.

There is no such thing as a GM Denning, most of the 70's on Dennings are GM powered, hence the badge on the front, but by that stage Leyland were actually involved. The Denair badge was just a badge when they started using air bags so they didn't ride like carts with Leyland springs under them, which is what they used, the early ones they just took a few leaves out, then put an air bag between the spring pack and chassis. The first double deck air bag Dennings were that Rock 'N' Roll they had to change to Volvo suspension from my dodgy memory.

A couple more ealy Denning pics, on Bedford chassis.

And I know it's meant to be a Denning thread, but these ones are GBW's now known as Coachworks, Border Coach's had the first GBW built as well, on a VAM Bedford Chassis, the first pic is the sister coach, number 19. Number 19 was in a fire at the shed in 1975 and was fairly badly damaged, as well as another Denning, and a GBW which was destroyed as it was in the middle of the shed. Barrie Watt from Watts Bus and Coach bought all the wrecks, he rebuilt the Denning which only had roof damage, the one in the middle of the shed was scrap, and number 18, he rebuilt, took him ages, put a V8 Perkins in it, and about 4 or 5 years ago, some backpackers set fire to one of Barrie's sheds, number 19 was in the middle. When they demolished/cleaned up, they had an excavator pulling out all the crap, it pulled the stainless off the front of the bus as it was dragging it out of the ruins, and in caulking was written "GBW 1"

Next one is a Hino chassis my father bought new in about 1975, CAT 1160 powered, with a GBW body.

And Finally, the "Lady Mossman", the drivers actually had another name for it, as it had done over 2 million kilometres and was a bit loose, they reckoned there was no ladies in Mossman anyway. I used to drive it when I lived in Cairns, and was unfortunate enough to work for old Bertoncini for a few months.

And I know it's meant to be a Denning thread, but these ones are GBW's now known as Coachworks, Border Coach's had the first GBW built as well, on a VAM Bedford Chassis, the first pic is the sister coach, number 19. Number 18 was in a fire at the shed in 1975 and was fairly badly damaged, as well as another Denning, and a GBW which was destroyed as it was in the middle of the shed. Barrie Watt from Watts Bus and Coach bought all the wrecks, he rebuilt the Denning which only had roof damage, the one in the middle of the shed was scrap, and number 18, he rebuilt, took him ages, put a V8 Perkins in it, and about 4 or 5 years ago, some backpackers set fire to one of Barrie's sheds, number 18 was in the middle. When they demolished/cleaned up, they had an excavator pulling out all the crap, it pulled the stainless off the front of the bus as it was dragging it out of the ruins, and in caulking was written "GBW 1"

Next one is a Hino chassis my father bought new in about 1975, CAT 1160 powered, with a GBW body.

And Finally, the "Lady Mossman", the drivers actually had another name for it, as it had done over 2 million kilometres and was a bit loose, they reckoned there was no ladies in Mossman anyway. I used to drive it when I lived in Cairns, and was unfortunate enough to work for old Bertoncini for a few months.

ge they look very similar to the Mt Dandenong bus line colors also they had similar coaches as well l remember them well as they used to take me to school in the 70's awesome so much history here with all the old bus and coach pics thankyou!!!!

Thanks Cam, thore pictures bought back some memories for me.

A couple of pictures of the fire.

Ian, a couple more from around Cairns

Thanks Cam.
A few years ago I was delivering fuel to a local tour bus operator in Cairns. They only had a couple of thousand litre capacity above ground tank inside the shed. To save time we used to nose the truck into the shed, rather than using a heap of hose. This particular day, whoever opened the roller door only gave a half hearted effort, and I didn't notice it was six inches short of the top. The tip of the exhaust collected the door and ripped it from the tracks. Height is not normally an issue in fuel tankers.

Here is a second view of the Denning at Wentworth, showing clearly that it is a three-axle one.

Also enclosed: The two-axle Denning GM which took my school group to central Australia in 1979. It seems to be Sinclairs, overstickered Greyhound. I suspect that we chartered via Greyhound, which subcontracted. Possibly we chartered via Sinclair, and happened to use a vehicle which it was often chartering to Greyhound. Are there any technical specifications available for this vehicle?

A different thread is covering ufo sightings. On the slide film, I was taking a lengthy time exposure at a roadside camp. A truck was approaching, so I put my hand over the lens, waiting for the truck to pass, then resumed the exposure. The photo has two distinct moons in the sky: the amount of movement while the lens was covered.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Love the Denning pics guys, have been a fan of Dennings for years and reckon that the day is getting closer when one will come my way to convert to a grey nomad tourer. As expected, Cam has some wonderful shots (love yer legs in one of them pics mate!!).
Come to think of it, I think my all time favourite has to be I think the Ansair (if that is what they are called) which has the real sloping back on them and (I think) a 4/71 in them - but I stand corrected on that.

UFO pictures? Two moons? What the F...

Off the forum for just a minute and what is happening - Ufo's - for real :

cheers fella's
Bretto