From a one-horse town rescue to a Kombi named Pamela Vanderson, George and Alyce of Hire a Kombi have built more than a fleet of vintage vans from their patch on the Bellarine. Their 1970s Kombis aren’t just vehicles—they’re stories, joy, and a little bit of Kombi karma.
George and Alyce have built something that’s more than a business. A shared love for vintage Volkswagen vans led them to each other and eventually to the idea of creating Hire a Kombi together. It has grown into a way to share the joy of exploring parts of our country behind the wheel of a 1970s Kombi.
The seeds of Hire a Kombi were planted years earlier on the Gold Coast, when George was working at a Surfers Paradise car rental, “We were hiring out Nissan Pulsars for $50 a day and still struggling to rent them,” he remembers. “For the price of one Nissan you could buy three Kombis.” Management weren’t keen on the idea so George decided he’d go it alone and one Kombi led to another, until Alyce wanted to buy one - this was where their story started.
George has been tinkering with engines and parts since he was a kid. He became a motor mechanic and while the trade is what gets the motor running again for George it is so much more about the heart of the vans. He’s poured hours of time into honing his self-taught Kombi restoration skills so he can lovingly bring each Kombi back to its former glory. From upholstery to rust repair, painting, wiring, the lot, “I’m not the best painter. I’m not the best upholsterer. But I try,” he says with a grin. He forgoes the lure of any modernisations, add-ons, or accessories - just the Kombi as it was when it was first born. Their vans, almost all from 1974 and 1975, are kept as authentic as possible. “We’re restoring, not refurbishing,” George says.
A few years into their Hire a Kombi venture, Harriet arrived, Fox FM called looking for a Kombi for a promo tour - George had six weeks to restore her. “They named her Pamela Vanderson,” Alyce laughs. It was a baptism of fire, but it set the tone for the unpredictable adventure ahead.
Since then, more vans have rolled into their lives, each with its own story. Clancy, a bold and bright orange van. Dawson, rescued from a ‘one-horse town’ in Central Queensland where it had been sitting on a hoist for 12 years. With a crowd of doubting onlookers jeering from the pub, George got it running, and drove their newest member of the fleet out of the town and all the way home.
Over time, they’ve homed almost 35 vans. Some, like Dawson, Harriet, and Clancy, have been restored after months of painstaking work, often just George in the shed, slowly bringing them back to life. Others are enjoying a life of retirement in the paddock, “maybe they’re restorations, maybe they’re collectors’ items. Either way, they’ve got a future.” Alyce, with a laugh, describes him as a good salesman, “He’ll say, I’ll get them on the road soon. Then a few years later, they’re still there.” When he was younger, George thought he could get them all back on the road one way or another. “Now it’s one day at a time,” he admits.
The business is as much about people as it is about vehicles. George and Alyce are hands on, managing almost every customer check-in over the past 13 years, teaching people how to drive old-school: winding windows, no power steering, no screens. “People don’t always know what it’s like to drive a car without power steering,” Alyce says. But that’s the beauty of the experience. A Kombi forces you to slow down, to be present, to laugh at the quirks and lean into the simplicity.
“Our whole business is about creating joy,” Alyce says simply. That philosophy shows up in unexpected places, like a new project they are creating. A small symbol of brightness and joy they will bring to so many people - ‘Wattle’ as an ode to not only its soft yellow tone but also shows respect to what wattle represents - a symbol of resilience and spirit of our people.
Customers are drawn by the nostalgia of a Kombi and the promise of something slower and more joyful. Every hire is a story waiting to be written, another thread in the fabric of what George and Alyce call Kombi karma—the way these vans seem to bring people together, weaving memories that outlast the miles on the odometer.
For George and Alyce, it’s never been about chasing scale or running the slickest operation. It’s about people, place, and the feeling you get when you slide into the driver’s seat of a Kombi and head for the open road. We discovered that first hand as the Ranger team had the pleasure of sitting behind the wheel through the Surf Coast Hinterland and back down the Great Ocean Road.
You can find Alyce and George at Hire a Kombi.
Photography by Frankie Kaye
