What $226 got you in 1975: Decades-old travel brochure reveals seemingly low cost of a ten-day interstate holiday - but was it REALLY that cheap compared to today?
- Ansett Pioneer offered Sydney to Brisbane bus tours for $226 in August 1975
- The ten-day tour option cost equivalent of one-and-a-half times average wage
- A two-day trip to Brisbane with an overnight motel stop in Kempsey cost $63
- Before the COVID-19 border closures, a Sydney to Brisbane bus trip cost $120
A Sydney to Brisbane bus tour cost $226 in 1975 or more than one-and-a-half times an average, weekly wage.
Ansett Pioneer offered travellers a series of short or longer journeys up the single-lane Pacific Highway back when the Queensland border wasn't closed.
'Only Pioneer gives you air-conditioned "super clipper" travel,' the brochure said.
Air conditioning was considered a luxury during an era when it took all day to get to Kempsey, on the New South Wales Mid-North Coast.
A Sydney to Brisbane bus tour cost $226 in 1975 or more than one-and-a-half times an average, weekly wage. Pictured is an Ansett Pioneer travel brochure from 1975
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Today, a drive from Sydney to the town north of Port Macquarie takes little more than four hours with most of the Pacific Highway now a dual carriageway.
In 1975 getting from Sydney to Brisbane, with an overnight stop at Kempsey's Stardust Travelodge Motel, took two days, and cost an adult traveller $63, or 40 per cent of an average, weekly salary of $157.10.
The cost included motel accommodation with a shower and toilet, which today would typically cost $100 a night.
Before the 2020 COVID-19 border closures and social distancing restrictions, Greyhound coaches was offering Sydney to Brisbane bus journeys from $120 - or just seven per cent of last year's mean, weekly wage of $1,658.20.
Ansett Pioneer brochures in 1975 also featured an image of Brisbane's Story Bridge, with the misspelt caption: 'Storey Bridge across Brisbane River.'
In 1975, Ansett Pioneer offered travellers a series of short or longer journeys up the single-lane Pacific Highway back when the Queensland border wasn't closed. Pictured is the brochure with Brisbane's Story Bridge misspelt
There was no scheduled stop in Byron Bay in any of the bus tours, something unthinkable today, with the bus instead stopping at the Richmond River town of Woodburn for lunch.
The bus didn't arrive in Queensland until the late afternoon, dropping passengers at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast at 4.15pm followed by Surfers Paradise at 4.45pm.
'Reach the famous Gold Coast, the fabulous Surfers Paradise before travelling on to Brisbane,' the brochure said.
It didn't arrive in Brisbane until 6.15pm, two hours after crossing the state border.
Today, it would take an hour to drive from Coolangatta to Brisbane.
Air conditioning was considered a luxury during an era when it took all day to get to Kempsey, on the New South Wales Mid-North Coast
Ansett Pioneer offered six tour choices in August 1975, three months before then governor-general Sir John Kerr dismissed Gough Whitlam as Labor prime minister.
A ten-day 'red carpet round tour' cost $226 for an adult and $168 for a child, with stops at Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid-North Coast on the way up to Brisbane.
On the way back, the bus stopped at at Toowoomba and Warwick in Queensland, and Glen Innes and Tamworth in NSW on the inland, New England Highway.
Promoting another 'three-day, international, red-carpet tour', the brochure referred to Gosford, on the Central Coast north of Sydney as the 'centre of a rich fruit-growing district'.
Ansett Pioneer was previously owned by the late transport and aviation magnate Reg Ansett.
After his death, his bus company was sold in 1986 and later rebranded as Pioneer, which in 1992 merged with Greyhound.
Promoting another 'three-day, international, red-carpet tour', the brochure referred to Gosford, on the Central Coast north of Sydney as the 'centre of a rich fruit-growing district'
A ten-day 'red carpet round tour' cost $226 for an adult and $168 for a child, with stops at Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour on the NSW Mid-North Coast on the way up to Brisbane
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