I took my van to work recently, where I often work with our longest serving operator. The sight of my van prompted his memory, as he remembers having a mini K van in the early 1970’s when he was a metering tech. He was regaling me with stories of all the mischief they’d get up to in the mini vans (basically racing each other and hand brake turns everywhere).

That prompted me to hit up our fleet division to see if they had any photos of the era, especially around the logos that were used 1965-1975. To my great surprise they actually had photos of two different Mini panel vans used back in that era! As our library had shut down years ago I was concerned any of these photos would have been scrapped.

So, see below, the two SCC (Sydney County Council) Mini panel vans. While these are black and white photos, SCC vehicles were painted in a colour called ‘Silver Pine Green’. The hexagonal logos were a black background with yellow writing (probably Telecom gold)

The round nose had ‘1969 Morris Mini 1100 Panel van’ on the back of it

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1963 850 - laid up
1970 Morris mini K van - eating up the kms!

What does "Telecom Gold" mean? Is that a specific paint code?

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1986 Mayfair (998 auto), 1974 S, 1974 Van, 1972 PMG Van

Too many minis

Well it certainly isn't their service level. .
Excellemt photos of the vans, hope you can find more history as it all needs keeping.

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Cheers Dave.

A bit before your van saw service but here is an example of the BMC documentation that enabled Sales to quote fleet customers a price on non-standard painting.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

It is good that you've encouraged this history to be preserved.
I can remember seeing all the County Council minis, vans and trucks at their head office in Parramatta. In those days, they actually provided a service for people. The work crews would fix fuses and minor wiring problems for customers, free of charge.
It was a loss when the County councils and the gas company were corporatised/privatised to improve 'efficiency'. Much the same happened with Telecom/Telstra.

I think it’s meant to be a bit old gold-ish

The picture of the EJ Holden van below shows the colours, but it has the earlier SCC emblem on the door (they were both used at the same time until the roundel was phased out). In the old emblem there’s a yellow-gold, which I think was similar to the ‘telecom gold’ used in the hexagonal emblem



Ah yes, Parramatta would have been the sister company Prospect County Council, but same idea.

Yeah, we don’t do that anymore because we have a competitive advantage, and it’s unfair to contractors. So we’re basically banned (it’s called ring fencing) from offering those services



Thanks Winabbey, it’s interesting info, although to be honest I don’t really understand it all

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1963 850 - laid up
1970 Morris mini K van - eating up the kms!

Great pics Brad.

That's a great looking panel van - like you've just driven out of the past!
Does Sydney County Council want their ladder back? (Nice touch).

P.S.: You're right about Prospect CC in the western suburbs. Sydney CC covered the centre of Sydney. My mistake.