Royle Family

Inducted into the Shell Rimula Wall of Fame at Reunion 2010.

The year 1928 saw brothers, Trevor and Eric Royle, migrate from their Welsh homeland to Australia. For the first two years Trevor and Eric worked as farmhands in NSW. Returning to Sydney in 1930, they decided to buy a promising small suburban bus business.
With this purchase of three buses, the Royle brothers laid the foundation for Forest Coach Lines, now Sydney's longest established family-owned bus company. In 1935 the brothers attempted to establish a service and mail run for the 40 or so families living in the Frenchs Forest district, which was then a remote outpost of Sydney. The roads into the general area were rough red soil tracks, dusty and virtually impassable in wet weather by buses. However, with true pioneering spirit, on such occasions, the brothers utilized a motorcycle and sidecar to deliver mail.From the late 1940s the district blossomed, reflecting the establishment of the camps for Armed Services in WWII. This saw the need for full-time bus services beyond the Roseville Bridge into the Forest area for post-war housing in the 50s and 60s. From the early 1960s, the now 15 vehicle fleet incuded new heavy duty large capacity buses, including a coach business for charter and tours. Around this time Trevor's two sons, Bernard and Tony steered the company through the next thirty years. In 1979 the new Terrey Hills depot, classed as one of the state's most modern bus and coach facilities, was opened, as the fleet was already nearing 60 vehicles. From humble beginnings, Forest Coach Lines is now a major provider of transport in Sydney's northern suburbs. Bernard's children Anthony, David and Sally are now the 3rd generation of Royles operating the bus business with the 90 vehicles in their fleet carrying in excess of 20,000 passengers per day every day.Forest Coach Lines lives in memory of its founders Eric and Trevor Royle