Four-wheel-drive school bus opens doors for remote Wiluna school

Students at a remote Goldfields school now have access to more on-country learning opportunities and interschool activities following the purchase of a four-wheel-drive bus. Wiluna Remote Community School took delivery of its 22-seater Toyota Coaster off-road bus on Wednesday after five years of planning and fundraising. The $215,000 vehicle is equipped with a four-wheel-drive conversion, lifted suspension, bull bar, and snorkel air intake, allowing it to tackle tough northern Goldfields terrain. Principal Emidio Boto told the Kalgoorlie Miner students were eager to get their first glimpse of the bus, with many arriving at the school bright and early before the vehicle was delivered. “I usually (arrive at school) about 7.30am but I showed up earlier today because I knew we had to get prepared for this bus to arrive,” he said. “When I arrived there was about half the school already outside of the gates waiting. “You could hear this massive cheer from the kids when the bus rocked up in our carpark, they all spotted it immediately.” Mr Boto said after five years of fundraising, collecting donations from mining companies, and balancing the school’s budget, Wiluna RCS had set aside $90,000. However, the school required about $200,000 to buy an off-road bus which would meet their requirements. The school then appealed to mining company Northern Star Resources who cut a cheque for $140,000 to cover the remaining costs. Mr Boto said the school then sourced a suitable second-hand bus, previously used by a South West school, through a vehicle supply company. “Altogether we had $230,000, even though that sounds like a lot of money, it’s really hard to get (off-road) buses in that range,” Mr Boto said. “The week that I took over as principal, I got a phone call saying, ‘hey we found a bus that’s just come on the market.’ “Straightaway we jumped on that and got all the paperwork signed and it was ours.” The 22-seater bus then underwent a month-long four-wheel-drive conversion in Perth. Additional safety features including seatbelts, seat covers and a child check button were also installed. “The bus is perfect for us,” Mr Boto said. “It’s got a (suspension) lift, we needed a snorkel because of the dust out here and we needed the bull bar because of the animals, so it has everything we need.” Northern Star’s donation also helped to fund an exterior wrap with the school’s logo and motto “stand strong” in English and in language. Mr Boto said the custom vehicle would allow the school to host more on-country learning trips or attend interschool events. He said the remote school often had to limit student numbers or knock back opportunities because of the lack of suitable transportation. “Our core curriculum up here in Wiluna is two-way science, we’re teaching the kids ranger work, we’re teaching them about the land and the country, and we have to take them out,” he said. “But we’ve had to limit (on-country trips) to small groups but now we can take a full class. “We’re a very sporting school but we’ve had to knock back interschool competitions because we can’t take the kids down, we didn’t have a bus but now we’re able to take a full team. “There’s just so much that we can now do with the kids that we weren’t able to do before. “Because it’s a four-wheel-drive bus, it’s designed to go off road and go to these on-country areas that traditionally only our four-wheel-drive cars can do.” Mr Boto said the school had continued to grow in recent years and recorded its highest ever on-site attendance on Monday with 52 students. He said the vivid vehicle wrap gave students a sense of school pride when they travelled to interschool events. “Our school logo and school motto, Wiltu Ngara, which means stay strong is represented on the bus,” Mr Boto said. “It’s very much a source of community pride when we visit other schools and other areas with our bus.”