New Zealand - Oamaru
- Oamaru Motor Services Ltd buses at Exe Street depot
- c. 1940s
New Zealand Bus
- New Zealand’s first ‘bus’ was used in Nelson in 1862 to travel the 1km stretch of road between the city and the port. It was a heavy wooden vehicle hauled by horses along a set of tracks.
- At the beginning of the 20th century a number of cities and some towns had tram or bus networks but most were still horse drawn with attempts to modernise the industry haphazard, and largely unsuccessful. Many of the early buses were in fact large cars.
- Early pioneers included Hot Lakes Transport Company (Rotorua) and and the Mount Cook Motor Company who began driving passengers between Auckland and Rotorua and the Hermitage respectively before also taking on postal services.
- 1900 marked the first significant technological development in the New Zealand bus and coach industry with the introduction of an electric tram in Dunedin, this was soon followed with the first extensive tramway in Auckland in 1902.
- The first organisation in New Zealand of long distance route and tourist service operators was the AARD Motor Services Association of NZ, formed in 1918.
(Reference: read more at https://www.busandcoach.co.nz/about-us/late-1800s-1930s)
Oamaru
- The largest town in North Otago
- The main town in the Waitaki District
- 80 kilometres south of Timaru
- A population of 13,150
- The 28th largest urban area in New Zealand
- The third largest in Otago
- The name Oamaru derives from the Māori and can be translated as "the place of Maru"
- Many public buildings use as their construction material the local limestone known as Oamaru stone.
- The Victorian precinct in southern part of Oamaru's main commercial district ranks as one of New Zealand's most impressive streetscapes.
(Reference: Wikipedia)
---------------------
Image source: Collection of the Waitaki Archive. Id 100558
https://collection.culturewaitaki.org.nz/objects/100558/oamaru-motor-services-ltd-buses-at-exe-street-depot-c-1940s