Big Bus Sydney, previously Sydney Explorer, is a hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus tour in Sydney, Australia.

History

On 23 November 1980, the

Urban Transit Authority The Urban Transit Authority, a former statutory authority of the Government of New South Wales, was responsible for the operation and maintenance of buses and ferries in Sydney and Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle from July 1980 until Janu ...

commenced operating the Sydney Explorer looping the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

in partnership with Department of Tourism. It was numbered 111. The initial 17 kilometre route had 20 stops running from

Circular Quay Circular Quay is a harbour, former working port and now international passenger shipping terminal, public piazza and tourism precinct, heritage area, and transport node located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the northern edge of the ...

via the

Opera House An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

, Royal Botanic Garden,

Sydney Hospital Sydney Hospital, historically known as the Rum Hospital, is a major hospital in Sydney, Australia, located on Macquarie Street in the Sydney central business district. It is the oldest hospital in Australia, dating back to 1788, and has been at ...

, Mrs Macquarie's Chair,

Art Gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

, Kings Cross,

Elizabeth Bay House Elizabeth Bay House is a heritage-listed Australian Colonial Regency style house and grotto in the inner Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay, New South Wales. The property at 7 Onslow Avenue is owned by Sydney Living Museums, funded by the Governme ...

, the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

Central station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

, George Street and The Rocks. From May 1982 it was diverted to operate via Pier One at

Dawes Point Dawes Point is a suburb of the City of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Dawes Point is located on the north-western edge of the Sydney central business district, at the southern end of Sydney Harbour Bridge, adjacent to The R ...

. In September 1991, the route was extended across the Harbour Bridge to

McMahons Point McMahons Point is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. McMahons Point is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. ...

. From September 1992 it was altered to operate over the Harbour Bridge in the northbound direction, and via the

Sydney Harbour Tunnel The Sydney Harbour Tunnel is a twin-tube road tunnel in Sydney, Australia. The tunnel was completed and opened to traffic in August 1992 to provide a second vehicular crossing of Sydney Harbour to alleviate congestion on the Sydney Harbour Brid ...

southbound. In June 1993, it was altered to operate via the

Sydney Aquarium SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium (formerly Sydney Aquarium) is a public aquarium in Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1988, it features a large variety of Australian aquatic life, displaying more than 700 species comprising more than 13,000 individual fish ...

and Wynyard Park in lieu of Pier One. On the same date, it resumed travelling across the Harbour Bridge in both directions, but to

Milsons Point Milsons Point is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located three kilometres north of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of North Sydney. Milsons Point is also the geo ...

in lieu of McMahons Point. In 2002 it ceased to operate via Elizabeth Bay after the installation of speed bumps in Greenknowe Avenue that buses were unable to travel over. In November 2010, the Sydney Explorer service was sold by State Transit to

City Sightseeing City Sightseeing is an open-top, sightseeing tour bus operator. It provides tour bus services in more than 130 cities around the world. As City Sightseeing has grown and expanded, the company now also provides boat tours, sightseeing train t ...

who had been operating

open top bus An open top bus is a bus, usually but not exclusively a double-decker bus, which has been built or modified to operate without a roof. Early buses were constructed without roofs but in more recent times they have only been built for tourist and s ...

tours in Sydney since the early 2000s. No buses were included in the sale, with City Sightseeing continuing to operate its existing routes only with its fleet of

MCW Metrobus The MCW Metrobus is a two and three-axle double-decker bus manufactured by Metro Cammell Weymann (MCW) between 1977 and 1989. The Metrobus was conceived as a semi-integral product manufactured completely by MCW in both MkI and MkII variants, but ...

es. From May 2012 new Anhui Ankai buses were introduced on these routes. Operations initially operated under the City Sightseeing brand, before the Big Bus name was introduced in 2016 and the Sydney Explorer brand retired.

Vehicles

The Sydney Explorer was initially operated by a fleet of five Pressed Metal Corporation bodies

Mercedes-Benz O305 The Mercedes-Benz O305 is a single deck, double deck or articulated bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz in Mannheim, West Germany from 1969 until 1988. It was built as either a complete bus or a bus chassis and was the Mercedes-Benz adaptation ...

s out of

Randwick Bus Depot Randwick Bus Depot is a bus depot in the Sydney suburb of Randwick operated by Transdev John Holland. History In 1881 the Randwick Tramway Workshops were established on the corner of Darley Road and King Street, Randwick as the main workshops f ...

. These were replaced by four new O305s in 1985 which were replaced by six

Mercedes-Benz O405 The Mercedes-Benz O405 is a single-decker bus manufactured by Mercedes-Benz buses, Mercedes-Benz from the mid-1980s to the early 2000s as either an Bus manufacturing, integral bus or a bus chassis; it was the last VöV-Standard-Bus, VöV SL-II s ...

s in 1990. The first two fleets, apart from being painted in red Sydney Explorer livery and having a public address system, were identical to those used in normal service. The last fleet were fitted out with

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

seating.

References

{{Reflist Bus routes in Sydney Tourism in Sydney 1980 establishments in Australia 2016 disestablishments in Australia