Brisbane's Lulu Lemans got inside original Priscilla bus
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Brisbane’s Lulu Lemans got inside original Priscilla bus
Brisbane drag queen Lulu Lemans has gotten behind the wheel of the original Priscilla bus from the iconic Aussie film.
The Adventure of Priscilla Queen of the Desert is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. The 1994 drag classic is returning to cinemas this month.
Earlier in the year, it was announced the long-lost original bus from the film was located. Decades on, the bus was on farmland in country New South Wales.
A specialist restoration is planned, and Priscilla was transported to Queensland. The bus was taken to Brisbane and put in the safe hands of a specialist coachwork repairer.
A few months back, Brisbane drag queen Lulu Lemans got the opportunity to do what every drag queen wants to do – get behind the wheel of Priscilla for a photo op.
“I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to board the original Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” Lulu said.
“To be one of the only drag queens in the world to have ever boarded this bus is absolutely mind blowing.
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“This little bus birthed a whole new wave of drag and a renewed interest in drag, and in particular Australian drag, all across the world,” Lulu said.
“I’m so humbled to have had this opportunity, and I will never forget it… I cant wait to see what happens to her while she undergoes her restoration!”
Once restored, Priscilla will have a permanent home in Birdwood’s National Motor Museum. The museum has been looking for Priscilla for years.
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Retracing Priscilla’s second journey across Australia
This week, ABC’s 7.30 program shared wild new details of Priscilla’s life over the past 30 years.
Back in the early 1990s, Australian rock band The Whitlams went on the road and rented the bus from a Sydney man known as “Fast Nick”.
“It was known as the Whitlams bus for that year. We got it between the shoot and between the release of the movie,” frontman Tim Freedman told the ABC.
“He’d just got this bus back from a film shoot. We didn’t know what film, we just knew that it was pink, there was leopard skin curtains and there was a lot of red dust in the luggage hold that used to get in everything, all our gear.
“We were touring in the big pink bus about 18 months, and towards the end of our tenure, the movie came out.
“So it started to be known as Priscilla, rather than the Whitlams bus. ‘Fast Nick’ stopped offering it to us because it became part of a property dispute which I didn’t entirely understand nor did I want to understand.”
‘Why’s everyone asking about the bus?’
Somehow, Priscilla ended up on farmland in the small town of Ewingar in Northern New South Wales.
Former owner Michael Mahon told the ABC he bought the property in a deceased estate. Priscilla was already on the property, next to his shed.
“We went to the bar, and I asked the barman, ‘Why’s everyone asking about the bus?’
“He said ‘Oh, that’s Priscilla – Queen of the Desert,’ and I said, ‘Struth mate, fair dinkum?‘”
Before Priscilla turned up, a bushfire very nearly destroyed the bus. In a fluke, a water bomber saved her.
“I’m looking forward to [seeing her] redressed, restored, so all Australians can see the old girl,” Miohael said.
“Because she has touched a lot of lives, in a lot of different communities.”
Watch the fascinating story below:
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