By MICK ROBERTS.

PUBLIC transport has moved forward in leaps and bounds since Lance Brown drove the Bulli railway bus in 1927.

Lance was one of the Illawarra region’s early bus drivers and revealed his memories in a 2003 Looking Back story in the Northern Leader.

Living at Tarrawanna, he was 93 at the time.

Lance was given his first job driving a bus for Ivo Bunker at the age of 17.

“Ivo built an aluminium bus body on a T model Ford chassis and I drove it for him,” Lance said.

Nothing unusual about that, even though buses were as rare as hen’s teeth. But what really was unusual, was the fact Lance never had a driving license.

“At the time I didn’t have a license and one day I was at the (Bulli Railway) Station and a policeman named Terry Lyons said if you come here with the bus tomorrow without a license I will boot you up the backside,” he said.

The newly employed bus driver, in his regulation long white trench coat and cap, went back to tell his boss.

Ivo Bunker immediately wrote a letter to a “certain” Wollongong police officer, Lance recalled.

“I got on the Austinmer to Wollongong bus and handed the letter to this policeman and he wrote my license out and I caught the bus back home – Never had a driving test,” he said.

Read the full story at the Looking Back website.