On The Road Again

On Saturday 12 April, Shirley Shuttle Inc was officially re-launched at the Gosford RSL, with two new Mitsubishi Outlanders donated by Freemasons on the Central Coast (FotCC) and the Lions Clubs of Gosford.

Five members of FotCC, Graeme Ingall, Simon Pierce, David Levesque, Ben Falconer and Derek Crawford, were present along with other community organisation representatives and personalities to show their support for this vital and unique Central Coast service.

Founder of the service, Barb Galvin said: “Today we celebrate 17 years of Shirley Shuttle service to the Central Coast. We support transport-challenged cancer outpatients within our region. Shirley Shuttle commenced in 2008 with my donation of Shirley One, the first vehicle, in memory of my mum Shirley Galvin, who died in 2006 after a two-year battle with cancer.”

“The vision of Shirley Shuttle was inspired by our attendance at numerous medical appointments, where we couldn’t ignore the difficulties of other cancer outpatients in getting to and from potentially life-saving appointments. And in some cases, patients were considering no transport, no treatment.”

In 2009, Freemasons on the Central Coast decided to help out by donating $10,000 towards the purchase of Shirley Two. Then in 2023 Barb Galvin approached FotCC again for assistance. After getting an update on our 2009 donation and seeing how much the service had helped our community, it was an easy decision to continue our support, and it was decided that FotCC should purchase and donate a vehicle which was presented in May 2023.

Unfortunately, due to an accident, this vehicle was written off. This latest Outlander is the new replacement.

These vehicles are generally replaced at 100,000 km or every three years, at a cost of $37,750 for a new Mitsubishi Outlander, chosen for comfort and price. As of last year, according to data from Community Transport, the Shirley Shuttle service completed 9,200 individual transports.

Why a re-launch?

The Shirley Shuttle Service was administered by Community Transport Central Coast Limited, with fuel costs funded by Central Coast Local Health District, but late last year at very short notice, Community Transport Central Coast Limited went into voluntary liquidation – although the service only closed for the following five weekdays. Additionally, Central Coast Local Health District will no longer fund the fuel as of June 2025.

Barb Galvin, with her many volunteers have managed to re-organise the service and Saturday was the official re-launch.

Freemasons on the Central Coast are always happy to support community service organisations on the Central Coast by supplying necessary equipment. Other organisations we regularly support include Surf Life Saving Central Coast as well as individual Surf Life Saving Clubs in the area, neighbourhood centres, educational facilities, public hospitals, sports clubs etc.
During the presentation Graeme Ingall thanked Barb and all the volunteer drivers and staff at Shirley Shuttle for their ongoing support to the Central Coast community and presented her with a surprise donation of $7,500 on behalf of FotCC to help with vehicle running costs.