“I’ve been driving since about 1964,” he said.

Born and bred in Armidale, driving has taken Max across Australia.

“I’ve been to Melbourne, Cairns, Darwin, Mount Isa,” he said.

“Those days it was called Armidale Coaches but today it’s called Edwards Coaches.”

These days Max has been doing the Uralla school run.

“My day starts at 7am every morning and I finish at 9am,” he said.

“Then I start back at 3pm and knock off at 5pm.”

“I’ve seen about three generations of school children.”

So what’s the secret to a long career?

“I’ve got a very good boss,” he said.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t enjoy it and I think the kids and the people that I work with here have been the best part of the job.”

Max said he was looking forward to fishing in his retirement. 

“I’ll travel about a bit,” he said.

“I think I’ll do some fishing and anything I want to do … which is good.

“I look forward to waking up in the morning and saying ‘I’m off’.

And a half-a-century career has certainly come with some changes.

“When I first started there were only about two buses but now there are around 50 here,” he said.

“The first real good coach they had here would have been about 1976 and then we got another one later on which was a 1980 model.

“They were the first two ‘flash’ buses.”

Max said he still remembered his first day on the job as “horrendous”.

“I was trying to steer this bus around a corner in a paddock but it just wanted to go straight ahead … there was no power steering those days,” he said.

“But anyway I got the swing of that.”

Edwards Coaches colleague and friend James Cross said the entire Armidale team would be sad to see Max leave.

“This is his third time at trying to leave,” he said.

“Max is pretty much a table in the corner and it’s going to be hard not to see that table anymore.”

Max’s last day will be next Friday, April 7. It will be celebrated at a farewell at Edwards Coaches with friends and colleagues.