Len Tuit Case Study

The company was formed to engage in the operation of long distance motor coach tours, with a particular emphasis on employing ex service men and women, and war widows. The RSL publicly placed their support behind the enterprise, and praised Aussie’s further policy of preference for the en route provision of tourists’ meals and accommodation from businesses run by ex service people.

The late 1940’s saw the company plying the many routes throughout south eastern Australia for which it had gained licenses, from the Great Ocean Road and the Murray Valley to The Grampians, Lakes Entrance and Mt Buffalo.

There were plans to greatly extend the company’s route network, which by the beginning of the 1950’s saw extended round tours being conducted into NSW, South Australia and Queensland, with

This business eventually became Atlas World Tours.

Tuit’s Coach Services

Although often remembered as the ‘Father of Central Australian Tourism’ Len Tuit was also the proprietor of one of the longest interstate passenger services and Royal Mail runs in Australia. This was the weekly service from Alice Springs to Darwin and Mount Isa.

Len was awarded the mail run license after the war and was soon operating with an ex-military KS5 prime mover, with tropical removable canvas roof, pulling an equally ex-military round nose semi trailer. He set the trailer up with bench seats to accommodate passengers to whom he managed to sell tickets for the bone-jarring 1500 km ride with the mail to the top end! I have included a picture of this rig later, in a forthcoming section about the history of Central Australian