Sunday History Photo / Qld

McCafferty's Coaches was formed in April 1940 when Jack McCafferty began a service from Picnic Point to Rangeville in Toowoomba. In 1955 McCafferty's began operating a service from Toowoomba to the Gold Coast. Over the next few decades McCafferty's expanded to operate long distance services throughout Queensland.

In December 1980 McCafferty's entered the interstate coach market with a Brisbane to Sydney service extending to Melbourne in December 1983. In November 1992 McCafferty's commenced operating Melbourne to Adelaide and Adelaide to Darwin services followed by Sydney - Canberra - Adelaide in late 1993 and Darwin - Broome - Perth in May 1995 making it a national operator. The latter service was withdrawn in June 1996.
The Brisbane to Charleville service was acquired from Skennars in 1992. In 1999 McCafferty's purchased MotorCoach Australia from the administrator of Clifford Corporation. As well as building coaches for McCafferty's it also completed orders for external customers. It closed in 2004 having completed over 60 coaches.


In March 2000 McCafferty's entered into negotiations with Greyhound Pioneer Australia about a possible merge. In September 2000 a takeover bid from McCafferty's for Greyhound was accepted. As part of the deal the McCafferty family sold their shares to Tony McCafferty. In October 2004 the McCafferty family sold its shares to ANZ Bank and George Chapman, and both operations were rebranded as Greyhound Australia.
From the late 1960s, McCafferty's purchased exclusively new Denning coaches. In the first half of the 1990s, 40 second-hand Denning Landseers from a variety operators were purchased for its interstate expansion. From 1994 it began purchasing MotorCoach Australia coaches.
In the 1970s McCafferty's coaches were painted in a white with blue and black, then into the early 1980s, a magenta and blue livery appeared. In 1987 a silver, grey, blue and red livery was introduced followed by a two-tone gold and blue livery, originally intended as a special livery to mark the company's 50th anniversary in 1990, but adopted as standard. The final livery was a sand-like "Platinum" with blue colour scheme to celebrate the company's 60th anniversary.

Before the decision to market the entire McCafferty-Greyhound business under the Greyhound Australia branding, the McCafferty division was getting more flamboyant with its livery application, almost harking back to the rocket days at its formation. This elaborately decorated MCA Marathon High Deck, 461 (60MCC), below seen at Noosa in July 2004, was unique in the fleet.

Clybucca, December 22, 1989 two full tourist coaches collided head-on in the early morning at Clybucca Flat, 12km north of Kempsey, at an estimated combined speed of 200 km/h. The coaches concertinaed into each other, killing both drivers instantly. The force of the impact left the McCafferty’s Sydney-bound coach in the cabin of the TransCity Brisbane-bound coach. The Sydney coach was forced five rows back into the other.

A fleet of air ambulances and helicopters carried the injured to hospitals at Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Sydney. A NSW Coroner’s inquiry into the coach collision found that the McCafferty driver fell asleep at the wheel. The driver failed to negotiate a left-hand bend on the highway and the coach crossed to the wrong side and collided with the TransCity coach.
Jack McCafferty was born at Breakfast Creek, Brisbane on 11 March 1914, During the depression in the 1930s, Jack operated a milk run with a horse and cart in Wilsonton.
On 1 April 1940, Jack began his first bus run, the Picnic Point to Rangeville service. Later in 1950, he acquired a co-ordinated bus-rail link from Toowoomba to Brisbane. Over the following years, Jack acquired further services, building the McCafferty's Coaches business into an Australia-wide coach service.
In 1955, Jack was elected as an Alderman to the Toowoomba City Council and within three years he was the 58th Mayor of Toowoomba, an office he held for nine years until his defeat in 1967. During this time, he came to be regarded as a dynamic Mayor who put Toowoomba on the map.


Jack McCafferty died on 12 January 1999 at the age of 84 after a 2-year battle with cancer. His funeral was held at St Patrick's Cathedral and was attended by more than 1,000 people.