A family business with a single van.
Plum Oak Pty Ltd was founded in the Kimberley in 2003 — a 50% Aboriginal owned passenger transport business serving the communities and country we call home. We started by holding the WACHS PATS contract for medical transport runs, ferrying patients from remote communities to clinics in Broome, Derby and beyond.
Two decades on, those runs still happen every day — and they taught us something most operators never learn. The Kimberley needs transport that’s reliable, culturally safe, and locally owned. Not seasonal. Not extractive. Not run from Perth.
Why Uber called us.
In April 2026, Uber’s regional expansion team approached us with a proposition: be their official launch partner for the Northern Expansion. Broome and the Kimberley first, then the Pilbara, then the rest of regional Australia.
The conversation started because our co-founder Lockie Cooke launched Splend across Australia — the country’s largest Uber vehicle solutions partner — building the metro playbook for getting drivers on the road. Uber needed someone to bring that playbook to the regions, paired with an operator who actually understood the country.
They needed a partner who could recruit drivers locally, supply vehicles to those who needed them, and do it in a way that built community trust rather than eroded it. Plum Oak and Pearl Coast were the only operator in the region that fit.
What we’re building.
Pearl Coast Car Hire Pty Ltd was incorporated as the trading entity for the Uber partnership — a dedicated subsidiary of Plum Oak that holds our vehicle solutions, driver development, corporate charter and community programs.
The model is simple. We use Uber’s platform to create driver income in places that have never had it. We use the proceeds to fund Aboriginal community programs. And we use the Pearl Coast brand to bring corporates and partners along with us — because no one organisation can do this alone.
