A new bus will be added to Moree's popular On Demand public transport service, and to celebrate, Reynolds and Fogarty has launched an Indigenous art competition in a search to find a local artwork to feature on the new bus.
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With the On Demand service now a permanent fixture in Moree, a brand new bus with wheelchair access will join the fleet in November to help meet the growing demand.
"When it gets busy, we can't meet the demand," Reynolds and Fogarty manager Andrew Amos said.
"Last Tuesday afternoon we missed 44 phone calls in one hour."
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Mr Amos said the Moree On Demand service was close to being Transport for NSW's most successful trial of the seven regional towns chosen to pilot the service in the state.
"We've gone from 20 people a day to between 180 to 200 a day," he said.
"The fares are so cheap that people are spending the extra money in town that they would otherwise have had to spend on a taxi.
"So it's helping local businesses too.
"It's also helped a lot of people who were stuck at home and couldn't afford to get a taxi around. Now they can just ring up and get the service to their door."
The addition of a new bus will put a total of three buses on the streets of Moree between 7am and 7pm seven days a week.
When the upgraded service is launched, it will also include an online app-based booking system, so people won't have to call up to request the On Demand service.
In celebration of the upgrade of the Moree On Demand service, Reynolds and Forgarty, in conjunction with Transport for NSW, is running an Indigenous art competition to find a local artwork to feature on the new bus.
There is $5000 in prize money up for grabs and the chance for the winners to see their artworks displayed on the On Demand fleet.
"The service has done a lot of reconciliation in the last two years and so the competition is all about reconciliation and community connection and togetherness," Mr Amos said.
The competition is open to everyone to enter, as long as they live in Moree or have lived in Moree and the artwork has a storyline relating to reconciliation.
Mr Amos said the artist doesn't necessarily have to be Indigenous, and the artwork doesn't have to be a painting.
All art forms are welcome, including painting, weaving, textiles, carving, pottery, sculpture and photography.
"It could be a wood carving, or boomerangs or photographs of things focusing on reconciliation," Mr Amos said.
"It just has to have a storyline, because we get so many visitors to town, they will ask what the story of the artwork is.
"We just want to promote the town. We think it's good for everyone."
First prize in the competition is $3000, second prize is $1000, third prize is $500 and an under 16s prize is $500. A $500 licence fee will also be paid each year while the artwork is displayed on the buses.
Mr Amos said if it's successful, he's hoping to make it an annual competition to "start a collection of Indigenous artworks".
Entries are currently being taken for the competition up until 4pm on Monday, November 2. Entries can be submitted to the Reynolds and Fogarty depot at 5-7 Greenbah Road (opposite Moree Golf Course).
The entries will be displayed at the Dhiiyaan Aboriginal Centre during NAIDOC Week, starting Monday, November 9 when the winners are announced ahead of the new bus' launch on November 30.
