Emerald Coaches Pty Ltd is owned and operated in partnership by Murray and Noela Berkman.

We were both born and educated in Brisbane to year 12 and we moved to Longreach, where I attended the Longreach Pastoral College for two years. Noela was staying with her sister and attended Longreach State High School for her Year 12. We met at a school social and were married three years later, after relying heavily on Australia Post for a large part of our courtship.

Before buying a small Post Office and telephone exchange near Julia Creek, we worked on sheep and cattle properties for some years in overseer and managerial positions. Due to distances involved in educating our four children, and the need to move closer to a large town, with school and recreational facilities, we bought a school bus run near Emerald in 1980. Our first bus was a 22 seater, which was replaced by a 28 seater in March 1983.

Due to our reliability and service we were receiving more and more enquiries with regard to weekend charter for youth and sporting groups. Much of the time the bus was not big enough to cater for the size of the groups, so we bought our first 45 seat air-conditioned coach in 1986, and so the name of Emerald Coaches Pty Ltd was duly registered as a business.

Our goal was to provide the safest and most reliable passenger transport, with the highest levels of customer service, that we possibly could. Those ideals are still rigidly adhered to even to this day.

We were inundated with work in our first 6 months and bought a 22-seat minibus late in 1986 with a further coach being added in 1987. We were also receiving some requests to organize tours both for schools and for some senior citizens groups and we arranged our first tour to the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers with a full coach load of what we lovingly call our "oldies". Our first 5 star coach, of which we now have two, (including video and toilet) was purchased in 1982. Since then we have arranged our tour program to cover all of Australia, to include tours of 21 to 28 days duration, visiting Tasmania, Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia and including the Melbourne Cup, Floriade in Canberra and many other attractions throughout our "wide brown land".

The purchase of a school service to and from Springsure in 1998 has further consolidated the position of Emerald Coaches Pty Ltd in Central Queensland as the leader in service and safety. Purchasing our own depot has greatly enhanced our service and maintenance procedures, as well as building staff morale and showing a high degree of professionalism to all of our customers. The yard was recently sealed with bitumen and the front area landscaped, with lawns, trees and shrubs.

We have been specializing in school tours since 1982, with the aims of providing the best value for money with the highest standards of presentation and safety. We also provide a service within the Emerald town area for transport of students to and from school and various sporting venues in the town.

The call from parent groups and the general public has prompted us to fit seatbelts to our long distance coaches to further enhance our safety record. This, along with our strict adherence to Transport Department regulations regarding vehicle age restrictions and fatigue management will continue to ensure that our customers are traveling as safely as possible.

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