Yesterday Stories: Dion's buses approach 100th anniversary in Wollongong

Since 1923 the family has owned and operated a bus service.

The resourceful Chinese-Australian family initially tried gold prospecting and market gardening before starting a bus service.

They used do-it-yourself wooden bus bodies built onto old truck chassis and drive-trains as their fleet.

"We used to build our own buses. We had a chap work for us and he was very versatile he could do anything," the late Les Dion Senior told Yesterday Stories before his death in 2018.

The Dion family and their blue buses grew to become a much-loved part of Illawarra life.

"I knew everybody and they knew me, they were pretty good people. Actually, no, I didn't have any trouble with them, they were all good people," Mr Dion Snr said.

The family was not just in it to make a profit.

They were willing to go out of their way to put back into their community and support people going through hard times and difficult circumstances.

"They would go off route and go and deliver some medications or fruit and veg to someone then they come back and get back on round," local historian Dr Glenn Mitchell said.

"During the Depression when people couldn't afford to pay their fares, they would. Nobody ever walked if they had no money - they still got a ride".

Wollongong soon grew from a sleepy rural town to a thriving post-war manufacturing and coal mining hub and the Dions were there to grow alongside their community.

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They provided vital transportation to schools and places of work, Dr Mitchell said.

"I think Wollongong people liked the certainty of there would always be Dion's bus, would always have Charlie or Barney or Tom driving, while everything around them is changing one of the certainties that kept driving through this landscape of industrial change was a Dion's bus.

"Come hell or high water, almost regardless of the rules and regulations, they're there to provide a service."

Times have changed.

Dion's no longer uses rickety DIY buses or delivers vegetables off-route in defiance of regulations.

But the one thing that hasn't changed is that they are still a hardworking and much-loved Wollongong family operating a safe and reliable bus service.