AUSTRALIAN firm 4SITE has recently been awarded a three-year contract to run the winter village bus services at Mt Hotham.

Early season visitors were served by a fleet of comfortable, but limited capacity, vans, which have slowly been complemented by a fleet of larger ex-Public Transport Victoria (PTV) buses.

Whilst bus operations in the village faced several challenges at the start of the season, including a lack of suitably accredited drivers, one thing is for sure, the fleet of ex-PTV buses has provided a good dose of humour to those with a keen eye for detail.

Destination signage on the buses has included ‘City Loop’, ‘Frankston Station’, ‘Lysterfield via Stud Park’ and the most ironic of all, ‘Not in Service’.

However, it seems the bus drivers had no control over the route signage, and some appeared blissfully unaware of their ‘true’ destination.

When boarding the bus that stated it is on the ‘City Loop’ route, any wag asking the driver to be dropped off at Parliament Station was met with a questioning raising of the eyebrow.

By the start of the June school holidays most of the buses had destination signs indicating they were just your everyday, ordinary ‘Shuttle Bus’.

But for all those lucky enough to be at Mt Hotham during the first two weeks of the 2023 season, there will always be the sweet memory of catching the bus from Hotham Heights all the way to Frankston Station……..