Check out our new logo!
Reflects the rural nature of our beautiful area, the hills, houses, agriculture, light, and space.
Thanks Annie for the great design.
The Ray Whiteman Heritage Fence is getting closer to completion!
As previously advised, Hornsby Shire Council team will be installing our pavers in the precinct of the Memorial Hall – forecourt and path – hopefully soon. Design phase has commenced in keeping with the heritage of the Memorial Hall. Once the fence is completed, all the piers are in place, the infill fencing installed, we can celebrate the installation of the 331 orders of paver from Glenorie District families, and friends. Who have chosen to have their name etched in stone forever.
Families have sponsored piers on the Ray Whiteman Heritage Fence and one is the Deaman Family, founder of the Glenorie Bus Company.
Here is more on their story:
Humble beginnings… George Deaman’s Glenorie Bus Company
The Glenorie Bus Company story began in the early 1920’s with George Deaman taking over the mail run from his brother Ray Deaman, when Ray started working for the council. George would deliver mail from Glenorie to Castle Hill on his horse and sulky. It was during this time that George met Phyllis Holland who would later become his wife. Carrying the mail bag from her mother’s post office, Phyllis would walk from Evans Road in Glenhaven up to Old Northern Road to meet George en route to Castle Hill.
With requests increasing to transport people to Castle Hill along with the mail, George saw an opportunity, prompting him to apply for a bus license, purchase his first motorised bus and establish the first bus route from Glenorie to Castle Hill – Route No. 60.
George’s buses ran on petrol, and to fuel them he had his own petrol tank and bowser installed on site with a manual pump to fuel the buses with Golden Fleece fuel, or benzine, as it was known in the day. Cold, frosty winter mornings required creative engine-starting techniques, using cotton wool and methylated spirits.
In the late 1920s to 1950s, George and Phyllis grew the business which was located next to the original Glenorie Post Office on Old Northern Road, the site now occupied by Glenorie Woolworths. In the early days George did all the driving himself. As the business grew, he was joined by drivers including Vic Bevan, Bill Roughley, Phillip Black, Mervyn Hughes, Alan Hitchcock (Harland), Mervyn Marsh and Dennis Webb and routes expanded to Eastwood and other locations in the district.
The buses became vital for connecting the Glenorie community to schools and other services outside their immediate area. They enabled local school children to access high schools in Hornsby, Carlingford, Northmead, and Parramatta. Some people may remember catching the 6.50am bus to Dural and connecting with another bus to take them across Galston Gorge’s hairpin bends to Hornsby or catching a bus to Castle Hill to join a connecting bus to Parramatta.
Always looking for opportunities to deliver services to his local community, George would often have to travel to the Transport Department to discuss his ideas and seek approvals. This would involve a day long trip, with his wife, Phyllis in tow, travelling by car, train and tram to reach Roseberry in southwest Sydney. Not the easiest trip from Glenorie in those days.
In 1952, after one of those visits, he fulfilled a long-held vision of helping commuters by starting daily busloads to Eastwood Station, with no pickups or set downs between Rogan’s Hill and Eastwood to avoid overlapping other routes.
George was deeply religious and very generous—often supplying buses and drivers for community trips to raise money for St Jude’s Dural Parish. Destinations took patrons to explore greater Sydney destinations such as Bobbin Head, Kiama, ‘Gilbulla’ conference centre, the ‘Rotalactor’, the first rotating milking parlour, at Camden Park, and Katoomba, often stopping for morning tea at the Blue Mountains Church of England Grammar School, where previous rector of St Jude’s, Rev Pitt Owen was headmaster.
Buses were hired by the Methodist and Church of England churches for Sunday school picnics travelling to Bungool, now the location of Riverside Oaks Golf Club, and the Northern Beaches. He even added a service on Saturday evenings to Castle Hill theatre and later to the Eastwood Odeon theatre.
The first patron of the Glenorie RSL and Cricket Club, he was also a man of many talents, delivering newspapers to homes along his route with remarkable accuracy—tossing them from the bus. He and Phyllis also regularly drove their black Chrysler cars for local district weddings.
George was known for his sayings. Aline Muscio remembers George often saying on alighting “Quick’s the word and sharp’s the motion.” His daughter, Elizabeth remembers him saying, “Great day for the race.”
When asked “What race?” he’d reply, “The human race.”
Not to be overlooked, Phyllis was also incredibly generous and kind. A fully qualified nurse, she trained from 1925–1929 at Marrickville District Hospital and was the only healthcare professional in the local district for some time, providing nursing services to locals at no cost, all whilst raising her children and supporting her husband. One of her daughter Elizabeth’s early memories is of her mum preparing and serving fresh scones with jam and cream to her dad and his team of drivers every Monday morning when bus maintenance was scheduled.
George and Phyllis had three daughters, their eldest two daughters both pursued careers in education as primary school teachers. Helen attended Sydney Teachers College and Elizabeth Balmain Teachers College. Their youngest daughter Margaret studied at Business College. Whilst none of the family remains in Glenorie, it is a place close to their hearts. It holds fond memories and much pride for the humble beginnings and success of the Glenorie Bus Company and their father’s vision and commitment to the community.
Sadly, George died suddenly in 1960 from acute leukemia, diagnosed just before his passing. The bus company was subsequently sold in 1962.
If you want to Have Your Say directly to both Councils and Government or discuss your thoughts with us at the Glenorie Progress Association meetings, come to the Glenorie RSL Club at 7:15pm on the second Thursday of each month. Join the Association at only $20, $40 for 2 years or $80 for 5 years. Go to https://www.glenorieprogress.org/membership Or preferably join by Direct credit (no fees): “The Glenorie Progress Association Inc”: BSB 633 000 Account #: 159 557 131
You can contact us at [email protected] or call 0418 432 587.
