Apr 22 2024 - Priscilla Queen of the Desert Rides Again

 

The bus in the 1994 movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" has begun a journey to being restored into a museum artifact.  This story hit the news in the last week - $2.2 million Australian is being raised to restore the bus and its interior for display at the National Motor Museum. Priscilla started out as a 1976 Japanese model Hino RC320. It was owned by Sydney company Boronia Tours before it was sold to a couple who leased the bus to Latent Images, the film’s production company, for the duration of the shoot in September and October 1993. Afterwards, the couple hired it out occasionally, including to the Australian band the Whitlams, who used it as a tour bus for six months in 1994. Its location was lost for all these decades, although there have been "pretenders to the throne" - for example the bus that was driven around the 2000 Olympics closing ceremony in Sydney.   "Michael Mahon said he bought the property, and unbeknownst to him the bus in the paddock, in 2016. He said the property belonged to musician Ian Ross East, whose friend brought the bus to Ewingar when she moved there. After the community told him about the bus, Mr Mahon did some research on the provenance of the bus and started making calls." Then it got complicated as it was abandoned on a deceased estate.  They had to wait a year for someone to come forward to claim it.  That completed, they got started on moving the bus to the museum and starting the restoration.  There's talk of putting the giant high heel back on the top again. I've used all the filters on this version of the Spring Magnolia around the corner.

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