Australasian Bus & Coach – May 2019

(^44) ABCMay 2019 busnews.com.au
Above:
The original brown
and gold interior has
been restored.
Opposite:
A simple and basic
layout of the dash;
Impressive aluminium
bumpers that
continue right around
the base into stainless
steel side panels.
twice at one of these great beasts
driving past.
Having such a long family
history in the industry, we asked
Driver Bus Lines director Gary
Driver what he thought of the
love affair so many have for a
Denning.
“Well, I can only go by my own
experience and it was the first
time I saw a Denning. It was a
Denning square line, it was a
grander one, and it would have
been pretty much brand new
at a Billy Graham crusade. I was
only a school kid and it was a
bit like the early Pioneer GMs;
it absolutely made an impact
because of its shiny, stainless
degree but, to be honest, they
were about three times the price
of a Bedford in the day – but we
bought one and that was our first
Denning in 1977.
“It was because the bus had
maximum reliability, the engines
could just go forever. And you
could afford them ... just.
“They were good, they looked
the part and, if you go back to the
time, in the ‘70s and ’80s I don’t
think there was any operator
that had a coach that wouldn’t
have had at least one Denning.
Everybody, all over the country,
that’s what we all aspired to.
Every operator at that time
wanted to get a Denning,” Driver
explained of the impact these
vehicles had on the Australian
bus industry in their heyday.
THE MONO
This great example of a GM
Denning DenAir Mono was
purchased new by Driver Bus
It’s probably one of the
most reliable buses that
we have ever had.
steel and the look of it, it was
brilliant,” he replied.
“That impacted me, and then
time goes on they came out with
the Denning Mono and it was
like, ‘Wow, look at that!’ So, the
looks draw you to them, but Allen
Denning was a smart man. He
also had the most admiration for
those Pioneer Buses, but nobody
could afford them – except for
Ansett because they were mega
expensive. He had the aim of
building an American-type
bus that we could afford; still
expensive, but one that people
could obtain,” said Driver.
He continued: “So, we looked
at these Dennings when they
came out. They had GM engines,
but they were more basic. They
were an in-line engine, they had
leaf suspension, you could get
air conditioning – but they were
usually jet air conditioning – the
seats were vinyl rather than in
fabric. It was built to a price to a
DRIVEN DENNING DENAIR MONO