During the Great Depression, Adelaide's Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) needed to expand services, but finances prevented laying new tracks.

A decision was made to trial trolleybuses, and a converted petrol bus began running experimentally on the Payneham to Paradise tram line during the off-peak on 18 May 1932.

It was converted to a single deck trolleybus with rear platform and stairs removed and ran from May 1932 until August 1934.

[1][4][5] To operate the permanent services, 30 AEC 661T chassis were bodied by JA Lawton & Sons in 1937 and numbered 401 to 430.

The double deckers seated fifty-seven with a crush load of eighty-four with all withdrawn by June 1957, a few briefly returning to service in August 1958.

26 Leyland chassis originally built for the Guangdong province in China, were purchased and bodied by the MTT between 1942 and 1945 and numbered 471 to 496.