Trundling between Katoomba and Broome, Katoomba and Uluru, Katoomba and Vanuatu, Katoomba and Greece and Katoomba and the Holy Land for 40 years sharing the word of God with likeminded travellers on tour, the daily devotions – and kilometres – added up.
So renowned tourism forefather John Cronshaw (affectionately known as “Buspa”) did what he had done for thousands of tourists on holiday: he bundled them up into manageable packages ready for consumption at leisure.
The Fantastic Aussie Tours and Blue Mountains Explorer Bus founder and Anglican Church lay preacher has so far published three books and a CD, with more tomes in the pipeline.
The first book, Coached by God: The Successful Christian (2015), began as an attempt to reconcile the conflict within himself between humanist philosophy, ambition to drive a successful business and a desire to live a godly Christian life.
Rather than be yet another self-help book, Coached by God aimed to resolve the pendulum of conflict between humanism which places all power to change on the individual, and conservative Christianity which defers to God alone.
“I was talking about this on a tour once when one of the guests said: ‘Rather than trying to pull these opposing truths together, it’s like a violin string – you have to anchor it and tighten it, and when you get the right tension you make beautiful music’,” he said.
Coached by God is a product of two decades of writing, peppered with experiences from Mr Cronshaw’s own life.
His second book, Buspa’s Corner: Thoughts for the journey of life, was published in 2017 and follows the Moving Devotions with Buspa CD of 2006.
Both stem from the daily devotions given during Christian Fellowship Tours trips for the Anglican-run Bush Church Aid Society (BCA), which he instigated in 1978 to support remote and rural churches in Australia, and articles written for BCA’s The Real Australian magazine and the Mother’s Union magazine Mia Mia.
“When we go on tours we have a little devotion each morning, so I started putting some of them together, a bit ad hoc, a bit rough, but next thing you know people are relating to it and being encouraged by it.
“What you see is what you get. They are practical, easy-to-read, down to earth things.”
The last book, Land of the Bible (2017) was published as an accompaniment to the Land of the Bible tour through Jordan and Israel operated by Christian Fellowship Tours.
Each traveller on the tour receives a manual with information on each location and activity, a link to relevant Bible verses and a short devotion.
“One verse, one thought. It’s not a full blown sermon – you’re on holidays,” Mr Cronshaw said.
“You can sit there looking out the window if you want, or you can read the manual or bits and pieces of the manual you are interested in. It’s a holiday tour, not a university course.”
Best known locally as a driving force of the Blue Mountains tourism industry, his tour company is now managed by son Jason and includes Fantastic Aussie Tours, the red double-decker Blue Mountains Explorer Bus fleet and Christian Fellowship Tours.
The business is the longest running coach operation in NSW and second oldest continuous family-owned tourism business in the Blue Mountains.
Mr Cronshaw’s foray into tourism was in 1968 when the then Oberon high school team organised one of the first overnight school excursions for NSW public schools (a beach trip to study coastal ecology).
Before long, he was arranging excursions for schools throughout the NSW Central West and Blue Mountains, Central Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, as well as fostering local tourism.
Mr Cronshaw, who now lives at Bonny Hills near Port Macquarie with wife Nancie, moved to Katoomba in 1974 where he took over Katoomba Scenic Tours and established Golden West Tours and Blue Mountains Sightseeing.
Since then he has helped develop and promote tourism infrastructure, services and products in the Blue Mountains, steered several industry boards and been part of the committee which initiated Yulefest in the 1980s.
He negotiated the first TV filming destination in NSW showing 4WD tracks and developed several tourism opportunities which brought thousands of visitors to the region by train and the express coach network.
Mr Cronshaw promoted the destination to international tour companies, established the Blue Mountains as a daytrip location for Sydney tour companies and in 2010 was accepted into the National Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs.
A director of the largest tourist vehicle operation in country NSW and the longest continuous day tour operator in NSW, locally Mr Cronshaw began Megalong Valley Farm in 1986 and had the longest overland horse trek since Cob & Co relocated.
Katoomba-based Fantastic Aussie Tours (FAT), last year became the first certified 100 per cent carbon neutral bus charter transport service in Australia under the Federal Government’s Carbon Neutral Program.
Blue Mountains Explorer Bus was the first tourism operator/transport service in the country to be certified.
FAT and Blue Mountains Explorer Bus was also the first in the country to operate a certified carbon neutral bus and coach fleet.
While the day-to-day operations of the company are now managed by son Jason, Mr Cronshaw continues to lead tour groups around the world, with trips to Vanuatu, Kenya and the Holy Land scheduled this year.
Mr Cronshaw does not aim to proselytise but equip likeminded travellers with the resources to, as American idealist Sargent Shriver once said, “travel with a purpose” on a spiritually enriching journey.
“The key thing is the devotions. For me, that’s why I pack my bags and go, and for a lot of people who travel with us, that’s why they go with us.
“You can be a Christian without going to church, but to be an enriched Christian it’s good to go to church and to read the Bible. You can be a Christian and understand the Bible to a certain degree by not going to the Holy Land, but to go there gives you an understanding of the depth of God’s reaching to people.”
Coached By God, Land of the Bible and Buspa’s Corner ($20 each) are available in the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus shop at Katoomba railway station and can be ordered through the Koorong Bookshop in Penrith.