All the world is a Stage....................Coach!
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Welcome to my 7th cache.
A multi cache that involves a drive of up to 10 kms.
"ALL THE WORLD IS A STAGE"........COACH!
Just a famous soliloquy from a Shakespearean play!
Laurie Collins Dyson was an 18 year old boy from Yorkshire (UK) when he migrated alone to Australia in February 1923. He left London and sailed on the SS Baradine, on a voyage that would take him 6 weeks via the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town and Fremantle.
Laurie settled and became tied to Bundoora in Melbourne's N.E. for the next 60 years. He began his employment with the McLean family, and his first job was carting milk, using a horse and cart at first, before progressing to a Model T Ford in 1930.
Laurie marries Nina McLean, 9th child of Allan McLean in 1926, and remained with her until 1977.
Their 1st child, Joan, was born in 1926, and was followed by Collins in 1929, Ada May “Maisie” in 1930 and Bill Dyson in 1934.
His next two children were Frank, born during the onset of the War, and then Laurie John.
The Bus service business commenced with what is known as “four clapped out buses” and had the licence to exclusively operate Route 46A. Janefield Hospital to Regent Station.
From an outlay of 18,000 pounds and a weekly takings of 93 pounds, profits were somewhat thin.
The 1st depot had the residents of Drysdale Street, Reservoir, up in arms. Their daily life would begin promptly at 0530 when the 1st bus was started up. This would then start the local canines barking. These two events eventually sparked a frenzy with the local residents, including floodlight homes by the headlights, and the odd collision with gateposts, and to exceed all things, a runaway bus that misses the gateposts and crashes into the house across the road!
Buses became essential to people during the early 1950's as cars were priced out of reach for the average family, and included the crowd for the “6 o'clock swill” and to the mothers of Melbourne with prams who descended on the baby health centers.
How do you get 14 prams onto a 21 seat passenger bus? It happened.
Bill Dyson joins his father as a bus driver in March 1954 at the age of 20 having just gained his necessary licence.
The 1956 Melbourne Olympics provided a major boost to housing developments in the Northern suburbs. To survive financially, Laurie had to expand into the adjacent regions or be swallowed up by the competition. New services commenced to capture this business.
Between 1956 and 1960, the “fleet” would expand from 4 to 12 buses. During this expansion, Collins Dyson joins the company as a mechanic.
In 1957, the fleet size increases due to the acquisition of H.E. “Skipper” Taylor's Sales and Service, previously Balmoral Motors at 753 Plenty Road, Reservoir.
This is were L.C. DYSON's Bus Service begins and the residents of Drysdale Street can again rest easy. The deal establishes “Dyson's Bus Service” as both a metropolitan and a country operator and the start of a now extensive country and interstate passenger service.
Again, it was expand or face extinction. Therefore cash flow was everything.
In June 1965, the modern fleet is all Bedford's - 16 of them.
Further expansion came in July 1965 when Harrison's Coaches of Echuca was acquired along with the Lockington to Melbourne service.
By 1966, the fleet is 26 and operates over a growing metropolitan network predominately in the expanding North Eastern suburbs.
The “custom designed” depot at 753 – 755 Plenty Road officially opens in October 1969.
No sooner had they moved into the new depot, they wanted to move out.
26 buses had to park somewhere.
The company was growing with the times and tackling new issues like permits and new premises for a growing fleet, and extra employees, negotiating government subsides, and to seize the new opportunities in and out of Melbourne.
Dyson's went on to consolidating their Northern Victorian network in the 1980's, opens a new and bigger depot in McKimmies Road, Bundoora in 1983 and the “East-West” connection is born.
Today, the Dyson Group is the 3rd largest road passenger transport company in Victoria.
It operates a very large fleet of metropolitan and charter buses across Melbourne and tour coaches for the Cobb & Co Tours division.
V/Line Coach service depots are in Moama, Deniliquin, Wodonga, Wangaratta, Shepparton, Leongatha, Sale, Bairnsdale, as well as depots in Kyneton.
The Dyson Group has their corporate headquarters in a state-of-the-art depot in Bundoora that has a genuine 1800's Cobb & Co stage coach sitting pride of place in the front showroom, and is NOT for hire.
Visit us at:
www.dysonsbus.com.au
www.cobbco.com.au
www.dysongroup.com.au
and for more information on the stage coach, visit:
www.cobbandco.qm.qld.gov.au
To find the cache whereabouts, you will have to use a bit of arithmetic and simply use a numerical value for the alphabetic letter and answer a few simple questions.
The hunt will involve travelling a short distance of approx. 10 kms.
Good luck and happy geocaching.
Arithmetic is in appearance order.
START AT:
S 37 : 43.671
E 145 : 01.141
QUESTION.
HOW MANY NUMBERED MAIL BOXES ARE THERE AT 755?
ANSWER. A B
GO TO THE FOLLOWING:
S 37 : B0.665
E 145: 03.B5A
QUESTION.
WHAT IS THE BUS ROUTE NUMBER THAT STOPS HERE?
ANSWER. C D B
GO TO THE FOLLOWING:
S 37 : D x D + B. D x 100 + 12
E 145 : 0D - B. DDB - A
QUESTION.
WHAT IS THE NUMBER AT THE TOP OF THE LARGE SIGN?
ANSWER. A E A
THE CACHE IS LOCATED AT THE FINAL CO-0RDINATES:
S 37 : D x D + B. D, E, 0
E 145 : 0E . D+A, B, E
INTERFERENCE FROM A LARGE METAL STRUCTURE AND A FEW TREES MAY IMPEDE YOUR GPS SATELLITE SIGNAL
PLEASE COVER AND HIDE IT WELL
Please describe with some amount of detail of your experience in finding this cache, rather than one word or TFTC acronym
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onfr bs gerr