After 42 years driving thousands of children to and from schools all over the Huon Valley, Cathy Griggs has decided enough is enough and she is calling it quits.
Cathy is proud of what she has done over the years and estimates she has driven two, possibly three generations of youngsters during her time driving buses.
The Griggs name is synonymous with the Huon Valley over generations and her part of the family has played an important role in its history.
Her plans for the future are undecided so far, but one thing is for sure, she will not miss the daily ritual of sticking to a timetable no matter what.
“I’ve been showing up for the past 13 years as a sole operator and you cannot miss the schedule,” she said.
“That is not part of the job.”
Cathy started driving for her father, Ray, when she was 21 and did all the bookwork and wages to turn the role into a fulltime job.
The business has been in the family for 50 years, but times change and come the 2026 school year, it will be no longer.
Obviously, times have changed since Cathy stepped into the drivers’ seat in 1983.
Her first bus (pictured) was an Austin, capable of carrying 46 passengers.
The gear system was described as having a split box, which meant changing gears was a skill where both feet manipulated left and right pedals, unlike today’s buses which use mostly an automatic transmission where the choices are D for drive, R for reverse or N for neutral.
The door operation was manual with the driver pushing or pulling a lever to open or shut the door.
Today it is a button and operated by pneumatics.
That Austin driven by Cathy in the 1980s is still around and forms part of the collection owned by Huon Valley’s Josh Lovell, the region’s bowerbird when it comes to machinery and old vehicles.
Like everything in life, things have changed; the Griggs family business, at one stage, operated seven separate runs around Huon Valley – Glen Huon, Lonnavale, Judbury, Crabtree, Braeside Road, Pelverata and Huon Central.
Those runs have all been lost in the name of progress, and the latest to go is the run up Swamp Road in Franklin, where there used to be seven children to pick up.
Now they will be getting to and from school courtesy of their parents or friends.
Cathy said she has noticed a change in children over her time behind the wheel.
“I reckon the kids today are a lot sadder,” she said.
“It seems they have lost the purpose of going to school and can’t find a reason to go.”
During her marathon role as bus operator, Cathy said there was a lot more to the job than just driving.
“You step into the role to become a (part-time) parent, nurse, cleaner, mentor, peacemaker and really anything to make the journey safe,” she said.
“It’s like transporting gold, because that’s what children are, gold and it’s my responsibility to look after their safety to and from school.”
There is one achievement Cathy is proud of during her career; she has never dented any of the buses she has driven.
“There was a scrape once, someone came out of nowhere and I thought I was gone; but it was just a scrape on the side of the bus and not my fault.”
