Fantastic Aussie Tours, the oldest transport company in the Blue Mountains, which started with school excursions, turns 50 years young this month.
The original company started in 1968 when Oberon high school teacher John Cronshaw organised the first NSW public school overnight excursion. Surviving floods, fires and pandemics, what became Fantastic Aussie Tours is now the largest tourist vehicle operation in country NSW and the longest continuously owned day-tour operator in NSW.
In November 1976, after arranging several excursions for other schools, Cronshaw and then wife Lorraine moved to Katoomba and turned their side hustle into a fulltime business. They took over Katoomba Scenic Tours and re-branded the company Golden West Tours with business partners.
In 1986, the first Blue Mountains Explorer Bus pulled out of Katoomba station with two passengers who hopped on and off the double-decker bus around Katoomba and Leura at their leisure. The service operated on weekends and public holidays but really ratcheted up a gear when the bus was painted red.
At its peak, the service operated 365 days a year and carried 65,000 passengers. At Christmas and Easter, eight buses ran the route, one departing full every 12 minutes.
Former high school teacher John Cronshaw (left) is celebrating 50 years of bus tour operations.
Golden West Tours partnered with national coach company Bus Australia and owned and operated Great Sights South Pacific Sydney Day Tour company, later sold to Gray Line. Over the years, there were partnerships with other coach companies and the 3801 steam train.
Today, there is a Blue Mountains off-train excursion option for Indian Pacific touring train passengers.
Golden West Tours eventually became Fantastic Aussie Tours and Blue Mountains Sightseeing.
Cronshaw’s son Jason is now managing director, while business partner since 1984, Darrell Booth, manages fleet management, his wife Sue-Ellen still works in the office and John continues to have input into the business from his home near Port Macquarie.
“Fantastic Aussie Tours has been part of my whole life, and what a blessed ride it has been,” Jason said. “Sure, we have had challenges and obstacles, but we have worked through them together as a business and as a family.
“We have built on what my parents started and look forward to whatever the future holds for the next 50 years when the third generation has the opportunity to have a go.”
Christian Fellowship Tours (CFT), which operates guided holidays around Australia and the world to every continent except Antarctica, was added to the company in 2009.
Today, the Explorer Bus fleet is back on the road 365 days a year, and the retro Ansett Clipper bus sold during the pandemic, is back in the FAT fold.
In 2017, FAT became the first certified 100 per cent carbon neutral bus charter transport service in Australia under the Federal Government’s Carbon Neutral Program. The Explorer Bus was the first tourism operator/transport service in the country to be certified, and FAT and Explorer Bus were the first to operate a certified carbon neutral bus and coach fleet.
FAT also sponsors 14 children in Zambia through non-profit organisation Pro Purpose under a program delivered by World Vision Australia.
Today’s Hop-on, Hop-off bus at the Echo Point roundabout.
