2025 was not necessarily like any other year for us bus enthusiasts in Perth, nor even me behind the lens!

I’d like to hone in on what really made this year, and my journey up until now so special. So… me. A little about me, I have been in the enthusiast’s grandstand watching the buses evolve through the years for what some may say is quite some time now, four years maybe? Yeah, about that now! It’s wild even to think about, I know!

One of my biggest achievements this year would most definitely have been the start-up of this site! Yes, the one you’re unfortunately on right now (lol). For quite some time I hadn’t had a traditional haven to share my most favoured pics, depot/fleet allocations, and all the other random smarts that one gains from being behind the blockades of this untraditional hobby.

I picked up this hobby/lifestyle in 2022, way back when I knew almost nothing about a bus, the suburbs of Perth, and the city around me. It was quite a miracle that I found a niche at this time where too the world had just re-opened, and I had been dormant for years in the confines of the four walls around me in a not so healthy shape.

I began to find the excitement in the CAT buses around me on my local street! I discovered which numbers were the lowest, the highest, and anything in the middle out of Claisebrook’s Perth CAT Depot, including the buses without an advert on the back! Crazy, I know. During this period, I took the daunting first ride on a bus, the CAT bus to the city for the first time. Was I scared? Yes! It wasn’t the worst concept ever for the younger version of myself though, as looking back now, this was my first of many ventures into the realm of public transport, meeting new friends, and the city I called home.

Following this exciting ordeal, I spent the next six-months riding as many CAT buses as I could after school, on the weekend, and in my free time. From what I recall, I had reached approximately 2,200 bus journeys at the end of the year. This number comprised of majority CAT buses, but also some standard (what we bus nuts call…) ‘green n’ silver’ buses too.

Following on from this inner-city part of my story, as time went on I slowly begun to find my own little nook in the vast amount of crannies there were/and still are to being a ‘public transport’ enthusiast or, in this case, a ‘bus enthusiast’, those who know me will likely say that I absolutely dig them new buses in the fleet… and well, they are not wrong. During my early days as a ‘phone photographer’, I found great interest in spending hours at a destination awaiting a certain fleet number of the highest range of the time before hopping on and riding to it’s next destination, or two, or three, or four for that matter, eagerly waiting to grab a quality snap of the bus before moving onto my next mission. This has been my intention since 2022!

2024 saw me pickup something of a little more mass, a new state-of-the-art camera with technology which was way too advanced for my narrow minded phone photography mind! Time went on though, as it does, and I had the help of some of the best mates on the West Australian soil over that year, and even into the next to get my shots to a good standard. I am ever grateful to be taken under those wings by those people, whom are now some of my best mates!

I’m someone who loves a good challenge. That is why, now that I have graduated high-school I’ve made it my mission to snap some of the newest buses in the fleet, the old ones, the ones with ‘cool’ advertisements on the sides, or even anything which ticks the boxes for being something interesting! As of writing today, this ‘fun’ doesn’t come without it’s difficulties, finding these buses has never been easy until the 21st century developers among us broke an arm and a leg getting some code together to build us enthusiasts the tools we need, and that really is just one example of a long line of others!

Another one may be that you’ll also get swooped by a friendly cultured magpie along your travels!

I won’t bore you with too much more, so thanks a tonne for tuning in this year, I’ll have so much more as time goes on!