General News
17 April, 2025
Maffescioni’s mark 50 years in buses
This year marks a major milestone for Maffescioni Buslines, as the business celebrates 50 years in operation throughout Maryborough and much wider parts of the country.
Established in 1975, former manager Peter Maffescioni pur-chased the first of their fleet, an Austin bus that travelled on their first route, Maryborough to Majorca.
Shortly after, he commenced a bus route to Clunes, which is still used today, followed by Dunolly.
By 1979, the company began their popular tours to Melbourne for full day shopping tours, and then interstate poker machine trips before they were legal in Victoria.
Maffescioni Buslines manager David Maffescioni said despite that law long being changed, those trips, and numerous others are still popular.
“We used to go twice a month and the clubs would pay us a lot to come up. That law has changed, but people still go about once a month, they love it for the day out,” Mr Maffescioni said.
By the early 2010s, the group embarked on it’s biggest tour so far, a 2500km each way trip to Alice Springs, lasting 11 days, a trip that is still requested.
Since then they have run back to back trips as far as Mt Gambier and the Blue Mountains, with trips to Melbourne in between.
As a result, their bus fleet has grown and modernised.
“In eight years, we’ve more than doubled the size of our fleet. We had five buses and now we’ve got 12, four school bus services, a spare coach, mini buses. We operate buses as far out as Inglewood,” Mr Maffescioni said.
“We do a lot of V/Line rail replacement now, we signed on two years ago, and during the last Bendigo shut down we did 60 runs across 12 days, for a little company, that’s huge. We even have a night coach on the Ballarat line.”
Throughout 50 years in operation, Natasha Maffescioni said she has witnessed many journeys become very memorable.
“We had a medical emergency on a King Island trip and we pulled over to the side of the road to evacuate, but no one could get off because there was a tiger snake right at the bus door,” she said.
“Last year we went to Merimbula and in the seven days we were gone for, we went there through floods. Then for a day and a half, we were in a bushfire and had to get evacuated. Another day later, we were back in floods again, all in the same region.”
Mr Maffescioni also recalls other moments that were frightening at the time, but the team laugh about now.
“Years ago, one of our drivers took a brand new bus, that we had for only six months, over the West Gate bridge. He went to change gear and the gear lever came out in his hand,” he said.
But for all the rest, Mr Maffes-cioni said those stories are best left on the bus.
During these tours, Ms Maffes-cioni said putting the community at the heart of their operations has lead to the busline’s expansion.
“We know what our travellers like, I put the tours together from scratch so it’s more personalised. We know them by name, they know us, and we get a lot of requests,” she said.
This year’s anniversary marks not only the company’s longevity, but it’s adaptability in an industry that has largely changed.
“There’s different regulations, buses are vastly different, they used to have a double clutch and you used to need certain skills to drive one, now you can put it into drive and off you go. They are bigger and heavier too,” Mr Maffescioni said.
“There was no air conditioning in those days or seat belts. There were the old vinyl seats, slide around them on summer and freeze on them in the winter.”
“There’s a lot of modern tech-nology on them, stability control and USB charging points. The kids have got their phones or their earphones in, they don’t even ask for the radio, they used to have nothing to entertain them. They are much quieter now, not throwing things out windows or climbing over seats.”
As for the future of Maffescioni Buslines, Mr Maffescioni said the company may be taken over by a third generation if they are interested.
“Two of the kids have just come on board now. If they are keen on taking over, the opportunity is there for them,” he said.
However, Mr Maffescioni said he hopes to continue the work and support the community for years to come.
“We are always very greatful to the community. We love it here, the people here are really good, they have supported us for years and years, and we have tried to repay that by supporting local sporting teams and local community organisations. We hope to do that for a few more years yet,” Mr Maffescioni said.