Volgren took pride of place when its home base, Dandenong – one of Australia’s busiest manufacturing hubs – showed off its transport wares on Friday April 17.
Australia’s leading bus builder took one of the 26-tonne articulated buses they are building for a Japanese city into the industrial suburb’s city square as part of the local exhibition ‘Dandenong on Wheels’ – a celebration of the many and varied vehicles the region builds.
Volgren also showed off the popular and successful Volgren Endura School, Charter Bus. Designed for school bus, charter coach and mining industry uses, the Endura uses its flexibility of specification to corner all aspects of each market.
The manufacturing exhibition of locally-built buses, trains and trams as well as trucks, recreational vehicles, concrete mixers, garbage trucks and off-road campers was a display of the Dandenong manufacturing sector’s capabilities and competitiveness.
Displayed alongside other world-leading vehicles, such as Bombardier’s E-Class tram and its electric train carriage for Adelaide’s rail network, Volgren’s Japanese-bound articulated bus was a big hit with visitors, both public and industry.
The Volgren Sales team said they had a flurry of people come through the artic and lots of very positive feedback, people just loved the bus.
The locals were saying things like, “the bus looks absolutely fantastic”; “why don’t we have this here in Dandenong?”; and “it’s fantastic that a country like Japan with its advanced technology would source its vehicles in Australia”.
We’re really proud of such a positive and enthusiastic response.
The display, in Dandenong’s attractive civic square, involved local schoolchildren and many of the 22,000-plus people employed in Dandenong’s manufacturing sector, including representatives from Volgren’s proud workforce.
Victoria’s Minister for Industry and Minister for Energy and Resources, the Honorable Liliana (Lily) D’Ambrosio took the opportunity to come to Volgren to meet CEO Peter Dale before the event and inspected the new Japan articulated bus.
This modern bodied articulated bus with its unparalleled Co-bolt aluminium frame is one of the first built for the Japanese market, and Volgren are excited to enter the burgeoning and potentially lucrative Japanese bus market.
The Volgren buses also received a mention in a report on the exhibition in the Melbourne Age newspaper the following day with Ms Jill Walsh, a board member on the Committee for Dandenong, which represents local businesses, telling the paper: “We want to send a message that manufacturing is alive and well in Dandenong and we make wonderful things on wheels.”
Ms Walsh said it was essential to maintain minimum content levels in manufacturing, and increase them where possible. “A commitment to long-term projects gives us work, training, skills and government must continue to support us,” Ms Walsh said.
