New calendar for Euroa Museum

THE ever–active Euroa Historical Group continue to work on projects that promote and enhance the history of the local community. Again, for the fifth year in a row, the museum has collated and published a new calendar for 2023. Each year, to assist with the choice of photos, the group has worked on a theme with previous themes including business houses, churches, hotels and garages/transport. For 2023, schools have been selected from across the Shire of Strathbogie. It was often disappointing that certain schools haven't been featured but this has depended on those on file. The museum group were delighted when a local bus company were able to provide an excellent photo of one of the earlier vehicles used on a school bus run. This photo provided by Underwood family, is of 'The Streak', which was a 1949 OB Bedford with a Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (Comair) body. Owner, Lin Underwood fitted a heavily modified GMC six–cylinder engine out of a racing car into the bus, hence the name, 'The Streak'. The driver in the photo is a brother–in–law of Lin, Eugene Gamble who worked for the company, driving the Longwood school bus in the early to mid–1960s (Frank Carracher of Longwood took the photo). School bus–runs were not without incident. One morning Eugene had just left the depot heading to Longwood to pick up children when someone shot the back window out of the bus as he drove across the Castle Creek bridge. Eugene lost control and ended up in the gutter. The original owner of the company was Lin's father, Gordon Underwood. Gordon was involved with a variety of businesses in town including running a garage, buying and selling cars and motorcycles, running a firewood business and a taxi service. Lin worked for his father and when Gordon passed away in 1956, Lin and his wife Dawn took over the operation of Underwood's Passenger Service. Lin, like his father before him, did all his own mechanical maintenance on his buses. They operated the Strathbogie, Balmattum, Moglonemby and Longwood school runs and a smaller bus that collected children from areas around Longwood to connect with the larger Longwood bus. They also operated a charter service and town run transporting senior citizens to and from Binney Street. Some of the drivers employed by Lin and Dawn over the years were son Robert Underwood, Lin's brother–in–law Peter Gavin, Dawn's brother Eugene Gamble, Charlie Thompson, Max Dyatt, Mick Stokes, Gary Dillon, Graham Berry, Bob Page, Daryl Rowarth, Stewart Goldhorn, Joe McGill, Brian Davidson, Chris Wright, Peter Serno and Ian Thomas. Lin Underwood's favorite bus, 'Miss Euroa' was on the front cover of the 2021 calendar. Lin and Dawn sold the bus company to Clive McDonald in 1987 and retired to Portarlington. In producing annual calendars, the local history group are keeping Euroa and district history to the fore. The Euroa Historical and Genealogical Society appreciate the support of the Underwood family, Bill Harris (for putting the calendar together) and Lorraine Mawson (for sales in the newsagents).