25/04/2024
Happy heavenly 95th birthday to the original - Geoffrey Simes. Loved and missed every day.
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Geoff was with Simes Bros from the start - if you don't know our story, take a read below.
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🚌OUR STORY🚌
Travel and transport has run in the Simes family for almost 80 years.
The Simes Family has been operating bus and coach services in the Northern Rivers since 1952, when Lismore, newly anointed as a city, was buzzing with commercial opportunities and a sense of immense possibility.
Sensing the times were changing, newlyweds Ted and Alison Simes turned their hands from farming to transport, purchasing the Golf Links Bus Service, a run that provided essential local transport through East Lismore. A rented shed on Wyrallah Road housed that bus, and it was here that T.E. Simes and Sons was born.
Son Geoff drove the bus, his father Ted collected the fares and helped young mums load prams onto the bus, and behind the scenes, Alison managed the bookwork and made sure the wheels kept moving – both on the road and at home.
Around the town, shops were cropping up, and businesses started to boom again. In the 1950s, bus was still the most common mode of transport, and workers not only traveled to and from work on the bus, but in many cases, home for lunch too.
But it wasn’t ‘all work and no play’ for Lismore families, and a post-war baby boom resulted in a second Simes bus being purchased in 1956 to transport the growing number of local children to school.
The 1960s was a decade of change for the Simes family. Following the tragic passing of founding father Ted in 1964, the business was renamed Simes Bros Bus Services, acquiring the St Vincent’s Hospital Bus Service and the North Lismore Gasworks Service. Trevor and Ian joined brother Geoff and mother Alison, and increased their involvement with the family business, with Trevor taking the wheel, so to speak, as General Manager alongside Geoff and Anne, who Geoff had married in 1962.
The 1970s heralded some important changes for Simes Bros. The NSW Department of Education announced free bus travel for children, and Simes Bros grew to 19 return daily town services, a growing charter business and a thriving self-drive mini bus service.
In the early 1990s, and after over 20 years in the industry, Trevor and Ian made the difficult decision to leave the business and, together with Geoff, they sold all town and school bus services and the charter business.
However, Geoff, now 63, despite having driven six days a week for close to 40 years, clocking up over 2 million kilometres, all with no major accident or traffic violations, was not ready to go and, together with Anne, purchased Trevor and Ian’s shares of the self-drive mini-bus service.
Geoff continued to operate as Simes Bros Bus Services, with wife Anne managing the bookwork and son Mark promoted to operations manager, having worked in the business for over 10 years, heralding the next generation of Simes into the fold.
When Mark’s brother Paul joined the business in 1997, the family focused their attention on charters, then coaches in 1999, a move that helped steer a course for success for Simes Bros into the 21st century. Brother Anthony joined in the business in 2007, bringing Ted Simes’ original vision for a local, family-owned and run bus business full circle and with the business being renamed Simes Bros Coaches.
Despite the tragic passing of Geoff in 2014 and Anthony in 2020, the business continues to grow, with Geoff’s sons, plus Mark's son, Ashley, steering the business back into school bus services and coach tours, to add to the ever growing charter services and school excursions, with mother, Anne, always quietly supporting behind the scenes.
Today Simes Bros Coaches proudly employs over 20 local families and is known throughout the region for its superior customer service and personal approach to coach tours, charter hire, school excursions and more.
We look forward to welcoming you onboard.
