Address & Contact Edit
Birdseye Highway
Coolillie SA 5670
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The memorial commemorates Sylvia Birdseye who was the first woman to hold a commercial bus licence. Sylvia and her husband,
Sydney, started a service from
Adelaide to
Port Augusta, which was extended to
Port Lincoln in 1933,
Streaky Bay in 1938 and eventually to
Ceduna. The roads on the Eyre Peninsula, particularly in the early days, were often just horse tracks. They were extremely difficult to negotiate for buses. Sylvia earned a reputation for driving skill, resourcefulness and toughness: wearing her signature overalls, she changed her own tyres, performed most of the maintenance and repairs on her buses, and negotiated even the toughest creek crossings and sand banks.
The Birdseye Highway across Eyre Peninsula between
Cowell and
Elliston is named in her honour.