Thread: Ampol coming back

Originally Posted by S3ute

Hello from Sherwood.

Not sure about AMPOL, but the unions were behind the establishment of SOLO in the 70’s.

Cheers,

Neil

Neil you are correct must be getting old Thanks for jogging my memory.
Wayne

Originally Posted by 4bee

I bet the kids sat in the back without expecting to get crap from Jobsworth coppers. Looking back it wasn't really very safe but hey, it was the norm.

Never sat in the back, everyone just squeezed in across the bench seat.

Seat belts were more than a decade away.

cheers, DL

You were fortunate that there were so few of you then DL.

Our Sea Scout Master, Cliff, was ex RAN Cook & General Carrier & owned a couple of Diamond T flat top trucks (probably about 5 tonners) on one of which he took us to Easter Camp at Williamstown in the Adelaide Hills. No Sideboards, just the edge combing & a whole Sea Scout Troop bouncing on their arses all the way up Gorge road in the dark hanging on to tents & Poles, boxes of Dixies etc., anything..
A wonder we didn't have many "Man/Boy Overboard" events. And then we came home the same method but in daylight..

Never saw a Copper but then it may have been legal anyway, bloody stupid, but legal.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Cors.
Esso.
Philips 66.
Total.

.. How about PLUME Motor Spirit ?

Wasn't Plume Mobilgas/ Vacuum Oil?

Does anyone remember Purr-Pull petrol?

One of my dad's lodge brothers had an "Independent Service Station". A pre WW2 building with a small office, a large dark workshop and grease ramp, and a row of bowsers out the front almost on the footpath branded with almost all the available brands of fuel.

Was it self-serve or did they actually have customer service in those days?

I remember when a truck used to deliver fuel drums, I think Ampol, to our farm. The various farm vehicles, including tractors, a WWII Jeep (painted bright orange, as you do), a couple of Land Rovers and a massive water pump sucking up from the river to run the irrigation were fuelled from the drums. The family Vauxhall got filled up in town on Friday shopping days.

It was the highlight of the week when dad filled up the water pump with diesel and struggled to kick it over, with occasional swearing at it. It was some kind of truck engine, I don't remember what. It would explode into life with an ear-splitting roar from the short open exhaust and then settle down to a steady chug that could be heard a long way away. They had to site it well away from the house so mum wouldn't complain about the noise. The sprinklers would come to life one after the other along the irrigation pipes. Great fun for a bored farm boy to watch.

Was it self-serve or did they actually have customer service in those days?

Well around that time here, I recall Caltex blokes in their Jungle Greens & Peak Cap (not sure about the salute ) lifting the bonnet & doing the necessaries. Not sure that kicking the tyres was a very accurate method of checking tyre inflation though. Still, I don't recall any tyre dramas so it must have been ok.