Southern Bus Charters: Bus and Coach Hire in Albany WA
We are a family-run charter operator working out of 20 Mallard Road, Willyung, on the northern edge of Albany. When a group needs to get somewhere together — a school year level, a sporting side, a wedding party, a crew heading to site — we supply the bus and, if you want one, the driver. Bus charter in Albany WA is the whole of our business, and we cover the Great Southern and beyond.
A local family that has been running buses since 1967
Southern Bus Charters is owned by Brett and Debbie Edwards. The company has traded under this name since 2014, but the family’s involvement with buses started a long way further back — the first school bus was bought in 1967. We began in 2014 with a single bus. The bookings kept coming, more vehicles followed through 2016, and the fleet now stands at 18. Our customers are businesses, community groups, schools, sporting organisations and members of the public.
The vehicles, from an 11-seater to a 57-seat coach
We publish a profile for each vehicle type rather than leaving you to guess what a category name means.
What is in the fleet
- Toyota Commuter, 11 to 12 seats: air conditioning, seat belts, cruise control and AM/FM radio with Bluetooth, with automatic options available.
- Fuso, 24 to 25 seats: the step up from the Commuter for a mid-sized group.
- MAN midi coach, 34 seats: a coach body at a size that suits a class or a club side.
- Iveco coach, 48 seats: full-size coach for a large group.
- Yutong coach, 51 seats.
- Iveco coach, 57 seats: the biggest we run, with air conditioning, seat belts, AM/FM radio with AUX, underfloor storage and a microphone on request.
Air conditioning and seat belts are fitted across the fleet. The larger coaches carry underfloor storage, which is worth knowing if you are moving a school camp, a sporting side with gear, or a wedding party with luggage — it is the difference between bags on laps and bags in the hold. Every coach also carries a first aid kit.
Self-drive or with a driver
These are two separate ways to book us, not one with an afterthought attached. Book a driver and the route, the parking and the fuel are our problem rather than yours. Or hire the vehicle and drive it yourself: for the Toyota Commuter, our own profile states that self-drive requires a C class licence or above, so an ordinary car licence is generally enough for the smallest vehicle. Ask us what a larger vehicle requires before you plan around driving it.
What we are most often booked for
- School excursions: transfers to and from sporting events, out-and-about days, school camp transfers, the Leeuwin II sailing camps based in Fremantle, university tours and Perth Art Festival event transfers.
- Weddings: getting the guest list to the ceremony, on to the reception and home again.
- Business functions and corporate transfers: conferences, staff movements and company events.
- Mining transfers: including transport for the Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine.
- Cruise ship visits: moving passengers when ships call into Albany.
- TransWA: we operate the service between Albany and Hopetoun.
- Sightseeing, field trips and celebrations: the general group-movement jobs that do not fit a category.
Ticketed event transfers, sold by the seat
Not every job is one organisation hiring a whole bus. For public events we offer a price-per-head option, where passengers buy their own seat through an online booking system that confirms straight away, issues a QR code ticket and runs a waitlist once a service fills. Events we have run this way include West Australian Opera in the Valley of the Giants, outdoor music festivals and Ladies Day at the Races. It answers three real problems for an organiser: parking restrictions at regional venues, the environmental cost of everyone driving in separately, and driver safety at the end of a long day.
Group travel around the Great Southern
We work closely with local tourism bodies so that large groups can actually reach the parts of the Great Southern that are awkward to get to without a vehicle. Conference delegates, field trips, sightseeing tours and celebration outings are all arranged the same way — give us the numbers, the pick-up point and the timings, and we will match a coach to them.
Booking a bus in Albany
Our Willyung office is open Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 4.30pm, and closed on weekends. Ring 08 6834 4011 or email [email protected] with your date, your passenger numbers and where you are heading, and we will tell you what we have available.