About Us

QOCS - Queensland Omnibus & Coach Society, is a group that actively restores & preserves historic buses, attend functions, rallies, displays and more...

The members of QOCS are dedicated to restoring & keeping alive the buses that once carried many thousands of people to & from work, leisure & school for many years, with two of the finer examples being an AEC Regal III (bus 80) and a Leyland Panther (bus 722), both of which attend numerous displays, events & rallies throughout the year!

Our Formation

The Queensland Omnibus & Coach Society Inc. (QOCS) was formed in 1996 and was originally called the Queensland Bus & Coach Society (QBCS) and first met in the old meal rooms of the Light Street Tram depot. With time and registering the group as an incorporated society the current name of QOCS was chosen. In 1996 we were simply a group of bus enthusiasts meeting for a chat and to share our common interests “The love of buses and all things related to transport” This founding small group of people could not have realized what would have become of the group today.

Our Objectives

QOCS was set up with the long term objective of promoting and supporting the bus industry in general; establish a society for members who have an interest in buses; to establish a bus museum in South East Queensland to collect, restore and preserve old buses for general display to the public; to include displays of memorabilia associated with the progress of the bus industry over the years; and to publish a newsletter, record information and photograph the history of the bus industry in Queensland. We also take part in rallies and displays and occasionally provide rides to the public.

Our Growth

As you can see from the above objectives QOCS has many interests and has grown quickly from the first hand full of members to close on 100 members in 2004 from all parts of Australia and even a few from Overseas. Our first bus was donated to us by the Doyle family of Doyle’s Bus Lines and it was an ex Brisbane City Council Leyland Panther fleet number 721 and will always be remembered for being our first baby. Soon after Surfside Bus Lines donated the Leyland National prototype to us it was Surfside 506 and was operated by many companies all over Australia when Leyland used it as a demostration vehicle. 506 is also the only long national in Australia at 11.3m. All Nationals that were sent down under were the shorter 10.9 or the much shorter 10.3m versions.

During this time of growth the Brisbane Tramway Museum contacted QOCS to advise they were going to concentrate on the Tram element of their collection and offered to QOCS to obtain the bus fleet. This was a mammoth task and well outside our budgets but we as a group banded together and achieved this goal. Not all buses were kept some were sold off to our members.

Many years before QOCS was formed there was a group of enthusiasts in Brisbane called the “Transport Researchers” this group obtained a small fleet which were located at Rochedale and also some out at Toogoollawa. This group ceased operating some years ago and the last remaining member’s decided to fold the buses and the small bank amount into QOCS. So yet again we saved these buses.

QOCS Today

QOCS is still growing in the short few years we have 25 buses in our fleet and more on the way, but we still don’t have our own home/museum. We produce a large newsletter and have monthly meetings which include slide and digital picture displays, interesting bus industry speakers and many depot tours. We attend many events each year with our “Mobile Museum” and some of the collection of buses we have registered on historical plates and that are mobile. We actively support the Transport Industry providing our historical fleet for special events such as the opening of the new busways.

QOCS Future

We look forward to a great future at QOCS, we are a fantastic group of people from a very wide spectrum of society but we need one thing to make QOCS the organization it deserves to be “WE NEED A MUSEUM” We will succeed and only time will allow this to happen.

QOCS Committee

On October 16 2009, a new committee was voted in, and for the 2009/2010 year, the following members are our elected committee/management members:

Other Positions members have elected or have voted on are:

If you need to contact any of the above committee representatives or positions, please click on the 'Position' of that person to send an email, or alternatively, click on 'Contact Us' if your using an internet kiosk.

QOCS incorporated No: IA 20395 ~ website development by Patrick Otto ~ © 2006 - 2010