What on earth is this?

I'd hazard a guess that the pic was taken sometime around the late 1940's to the early 1950's. It's too hard to narrow to a more exact date, because of the lack of other vehicles in the picture, that helps to ID the date. The car above the 48-215 Holden appears to be a Humber Hawk Mk III or IV, from around 1948-51.

I'd have to agree with Mammoth that the rig is built on a bus chassis. However, I'm not so sure about a wrecked bus that's been converted.

This mob had plenty of money, particularly if they paid to have a new American-style pan van built in 1940.
I'd have to say they organised a bus body builder to build them a new rig, to their design, on a bus chassis, and using the basic front end section of a bus body, modified to suit their passenger-carrying ideas.

The idea of carrying passengers along with their furniture was really a very advanced idea for the time, and perhaps this was due to American influence as well.

the appearance says ...''what a great big jigger'' but the pantech is not that long and eventually would have been a bit of a wasted exercise. (check the back RH pan tyre)

more than likely, the well heeled would have subscribed to this automotive folly...till the well heeled types run out!!

... the cab roof height at less than three tyres high would be too low to have been a bus body. I'm with onetrack, probably a custom-built body on the chassis.

Detective, we're talking about an era here, where a 25' semi-trailer was a Big Rig. Most trucks were 2-3 tons, and 14' was a massive tray. The biggest cranes lifted 5 tons.
Any bloke with a 7 tonner would have been a real Heavy-Duty hauler, and would have been admired like a bloke pulling 120 tonnes on triples today.
I would not be in the least surprised to find the pan trailer was only 30 feet long, at best.
We tend to forget how "up-sized" everything is today, and the old fellas from the 1940's, would be utterly gobsmacked just to see a basic tandem-tri semi of today, if they were brought back to see how the haulage industry has developed.

It may be a bus chassis, but that bodywork certainly is NOT bus inspired. The doors are the clue, buses would not have had that style of handles or opening.

It would have been custom built for the job, either to provide accom for the customers in the move, or perhaps for the staff, probably 3 men on a big move.

g'day one track i concur with your thoughts...

the perception of the picture says up front...big rig.

Looks like the 'B' pillar on the right side is set back further than the left side. Makes for a bigger driver's door and a smaller window on the right-side centre panel.

I think I agree it could be a bus and Mr TJ Richards could had something to do with the consvertion. Dave

Think the car behind the 48-216 looks like a ford pilot to me
Rusty

Rusty, yes, I agree, that's a Ford Pilot above and to the left of the 48-215. I was talking about the car to the right of the Pilot, as being a Humber Hawk.