6 July 1963 Trolley buses

On 6 July 1963 the Advertiser announced that trolley buses would run for the last time on Friday 12 July, ending a service that began on 2 May 1932. The first trolley bus in Australia was an open top, double-decker, purchased from the South Australian Railways, affectionately dubbed the ‘Green Goddess’ which ran on an experimental route along the Lower North east road between Payneham and Paradise. The experimental line closed on 11 August 1934 and the Green goddess was stored until it became a trolley wire greaser and later a tow-away kitchen for workers. Twenty new trolley buses were built by J.A. Lawton & Sons and were commissioned with the opening of the City of Tusmore service on 5 September 1937. In April 1938 the Tusmore route was connected at Morphett Street with a service to operate to Semaphore and Largs Bay. This had necessitated changing the superstructure of the Jervois Bridge and the building of two converter stations to supply electric power. In 1960 the Jervois Bridge was declared unsafe for heavy vehicles and buses were re-routed over the Birkenhead Bridge, but problems occurred with the wiring and motor buses were used from Port Adelaide until the problems were overcome and the trolley buses returned to the Largs Bay run on 25 September 1960 and Semaphore on 13 February 1961. After World War Two the trolley bus system was extended and operated until 1963 when motor buses replaced them.

Advertiser, 6 July 1961. Newspaper Cuttings Book, Vol.3, p100, SLSA.