Shirley Shuttle relaunch with two new gifted vehicles

Shirley Shuttle Inc was officially relaunched in last month with two new Mitsubishi Outlanders donated by the Freemasons on the Central Coast (FotCC) and the Lions Club of Gosford.

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

“Today we celebrate 17 years of Shirley Shuttle service to the Central Coast,” founder of the service Barb Galvin said.

“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, FotCC decided to help out by donating $10,000 towards the purchase of Shirley Two.

In 2023 Barb Galvin approached FotCC again for assistance and after getting an update on the 2009 donation and seeing how much the service had helped the community, the organisation decided to continue the support by purchasing and donating a vehicle, which was presented in May 2023.

Unfortunately, due to an accident, this vehicle was written off.

The latest Mitsubishi Outlander is the new replacement.

These vehicles are generally replaced at 100,000km or every three years, at a cost of $37,750 for a new 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.

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 made the decision to no longer fund the fuel costs as of June 2025.

FotCC said it was happy to support community service organisations on the Central Coast by supplying necessary equipment and regularly supports other organisations including Surf Life Saving Central Coast as well as individual Surf Life Saving Clubs, neighbourhood centres, educational facilities, public hospitals and sports clubs.

During the recent presentation Graeme Ingall thanked Barb Galvin 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.