The Aquarium Bus - Looking Back 1958-59
by Tom Atkinson

The mobile bus idea began after two shows at the Winter Show Buildings in Newtown put on by Dawn Stilburn, Roy Perrett and I back in 1958.

We went to a NZ Railway bus sale and bought (PD3 400) a railway bus. Cost  £400. It was driven to my Mother's house and parked in the driveway. The bus was 36 feet (10.9m) long which was longer than was allowed for free travel on NZ roads. So we cut off 6 feet (1.8m) from the back and built a new one.

Dawn did the decorations on the bus, Roy did the electrical work, and I did the carpentry and the driving as I was the only one with a heavy traffic licence.

We took the seats out, sold some gave others away but kept one for the passenger, usually Roy, then proceeded to install a tank stand on the right and side to take ten 24" x 12" X 12" (60cm x 30 x 30) tanks.

Under them we had a floor heater run by the bus battery when we were driving and mains power when stopped for display. Don't ask me how it all worked - that was Roy's job.

On the left side of the bus we built a room so we could store things and also sleep there when on overnight stands.

People entered by the driver's door, paid their entrance fee, looked at the tanks and exited out the rear doors.
Adults 1 shilling & 6 pence. Children 9 pence.

We learned to carry tanks of water in a moving vehicle without loosing any water. How we did that is a big secret so don't ask. To test the tanks would work we got Iain, a mate, who had no consideration of the speed laws, to drive a flat top truck down Queens Drive in Lyall Bay with a tank on the back then we hit a bump and the tank was airborne which proved that our method of keeping the water from spilling really did work !

When the bus was set up we went on trips to the Wairarapa, another to Palmerston North, a spell at Paraparaumu, where Roy spent a week at the beach, and finally to Woodville, returning to Wellington each time.

The fish were a selection from our tanks including Zebras, Guppies, Swordtails, Tiger Barbs, Oligolepis (my favourite), Pencil fish, Angels and others. We also had some coldwater fish, not Roy's show ones, but good colourful examples. It is hard to be exact now on the types of fish but we had plenty to choose from as we were breeding a lot in those days.

Plants were plentiful but some would be not so lawful these days.

Eventually we were forced out of business as our prices were too cheap for the rest of the Show Association members.

We did not make any money but had a lot of fun in showing our fish to people. As we each had to hold down a day job the shows we could go to could only be weekend shows within travelling distance of Wellington. There was not enough to make it our livelihood.

It was an interesting experiment which only lasted 1958/59 and we had a few problems with the bus, mainly with water in the petrol - and how we got it out is another story.

We sold the bus to a man in Featherston and I still have the fishing rod I got as part payment and am still waiting the the rest. We delivered the bus to its new owner in Featherston on a Saturday, on a Race Day, then parked it on a ploughed field where he was going to live in it.

Here endeth the bus story.

Tom Atkinson
Patron, Wellington Aquarium & Water Garden Society.

PS: Well, seeing how you have twisted my arm - the way we stopped the water sloshing about was by part filling a plastic bag with air and lowering the water level in the tanks then putting the bag in the top of the tank and holding it under the edge of the metal framed tanks. Simple !

Reproduced from Aquarium World May 2007 with permission of the Author. Thanks Tom.

From the Webmaster
Note that the above talks about metal framed tanks - this was before we had the marvellous aquarium glue that we have today. Also in those days heaters and thermostats were in individual glass tubes and not the combined ones we have now. Fishkeeping in the 1950's was very much different to what it is today.

Dawn, Roy and Tom were stalwarts of the Society for many years and were all duly elected Life Members.