Early history bodied
Scania L94UB at
Chadstone Shopping Centre in April 2008 bodied
Scania L94UB at
Heatherdale in September 2009 bodied
MAN 16.240in
SmartBus livery in August 2009 Ventura was founded in December 1924 by Henry Cornwall. The name and company colours (dark blue, light blue and yellow) derived from Ventura County, California where Cornwall had spent time after serving in World War I. A former employee of Track & Kintrack,
St Kilda, Harry decided to form his own bus company when his employer refused to run a bus service along dirt roads through what was then Melbourne's outer east. Cornwall began operating a bus route between
Box Hill and
Melbourne central business district, and in 1930 began running buses between Box Hill and
Mentone. The first depot was behind the petrol station on the corner of Station Street and Canterbury Road, in
Box Hill South.
Expansion In 1943, the
Aspendale to
Mordialloc service was acquired. In the late 1940s this was extended from Mordialloc to
Mentone and in 1951 from Aspendale to
Chelsea. Following the opening of
Chadstone Shopping Centre in 1960 services from
Burwood and
South Oakleigh were added. • Knibbs Bus Service with routes 225A
Box Hill to
Ferntree Gully and 226A Box Hill to
Burwood in June 1954 • Box Hill Bus Lines with the Box Hill to
Forest Hill service in February 1957 •
Clarinda Transport with the
Oakleigh to
Glen Waverley service in May 1958 • High Street Road Bus Service from Reg Carter with the Glen Waverley to
Glen Iris service in April 1968 In 1957, a new depot was opened on the corner of Centre and
Warrigal Roads, Oakleigh. This was followed in the mid-1960s by a depot on Mahoneys Road,
Burwood East to replace the original Box Hill depot. In 1969 the
Mitcham routes of C Young were purchased followed in September 1970 by Boronia Bus Lines from Don Nugent with 12 routes. In April 1987, Ventura acquired Bentleigh Bus Lines with three routes, and in December 1987 Hawthorn Bus Services, Rennies Bus Services, and Willis Bus Services all from Vic Haoust. As a result of these purchases, it built a new depot at
Knoxfield to replace Burwood East.
Further growth In 2000, Ventura introduced the first Australian buses to run on
ethanol fuel. In February 2000, Ventura purchased
Mount Dandenong Passenger Service from the Frazer family. On 5 August 2002, the State Government introduced the first
SmartBus service (as a trial project) run by Ventura that replaced the old timetable of the 703
Middle Brighton station to
Blackburn station with a new, high frequency service on route 703. Due to the success of the initial SmartBus trial (patronage increased by up to 25%), the State Government introduced another service that Ventura operated, the former route 700 from
Box Hill station to
Mordialloc station via
Warrigal Road. This was upgraded in April 2009 to the
Red Orbital 903 service from
Altona station to Mordialloc station via
Sunshine,
Essendon,
Preston,
Heidelberg,
Doncaster,
Chadstone and Warrigal Road. In 2004 it purchased
National Bus Company from
National Express becoming the largest private bus operator in Melbourne. In December 2009, Ventura purchased
US Bus Lines from the
Pulitano Group, operating route services in the outer east region. In July 2010, Ventura acquired
Ivanhoe Bus Company, operating in the north and north east region. In January 2012, Ventura purchased Grenda Transit from
Grenda Corporation, which consisted of
Cardinia Transit,
Grenda's Bus Services,
Moorabbin Transit,
Peninsula Bus Lines and
Portsea Passenger Service, as well as the operations of Smartbus routes 900 to 902. As part of the financing of the deal a 15% stake in Ventura was sold to the
Intermediate Capital Group. In August 2013, as the result of the re-tendering of a number of Melbourne bus routes, the operation of SmartBus route 901 to 903, the National Bus Company operations (the Doncaster and
Fitzroy North depots, including Smartbus routes 905 to 908), were transferred to
Transdev Melbourne, along with 346 buses. In February 2024, it was announced that Singapore-based
Keppel Infrastructure Trust would acquire 97.68% of the business. As part of the purchase, Managing Director Andrew Cornwall will remain as its
CEO, while retaining the remaining stake of the business. The acquisition was completed in June 2024. ==Fleet==