22/04/2026
Ampol Service Station, 675 South Pine Road, Everton Park.
Today we are on South Pine Road in Everton Park looking towards the former Ampol Service Station and former BP Service Station back on Monday January 13th 1969.
With today’s lo e survivor Caltex Everton Park.
This garage was constructed on the corner of South Pine Road and Halle Street sometime after July 1955 and was operational by April 1958.
The aerial photograph taken in July 1955 showed what was likely the baggings of a construction site.
Interestingly this was the first garage to operate in the Everton Park area, which at the time I am told featured a single bay mechanical workshop and a small store.
The garage was constructed beside the Downey family home for one of their sons, Mr. Mick Downey.
Prior to this the vacant site was used for square dancing.
While I have been informed that the two mechanical bays to the right of the existing mechanical bay were added later, I can not confirm.
Just a couple years earlier in December 1953 Lord Mayor Alderman Frank Roberts had told his administration the only way to end allegations of graft and malpractice was to approve all applications for service stations.
While Brisbane City Council would not confirm the number of service stations approved in the past year, it was estimated that there were approximately 290 service stations in the metropolitan area.
This Ampol Service Station remained on its own on this section of road until sometime between July 1965 and August 1967 when a BP Service Station was constructed on the corner of South Pine Road and Old Northern Road.
Sadly I have not been able to find out who had operated this site in the earlier years, but do know that by at least 1974 the mechanical workshop was being operated by a man named Mr. Dick Pitt and his wife operated the store.
Interestingly by 1976 there were a total of nine garages operating in the area by various fuel operators.
I do not know when the BP garage had closed down and assume that it may have occurred after the 1984 merger with Amoco, but can confirm that it was no longer trading by late 1993 and had been cleared in 1998 for redevelopment.
I am told that the freehold for the Ampol garage was owned by Ampol Petroleum Ltd. and was placed up for auction, with Dick allegedly having wanted to acquire the site for some years and Ampol was unwilling to sell it.
Unfortunately for Dick the freehold was then sold at auction to brothers, Mr. Peter O’Keefe, Mr Laurence O’Keefe and Mr. Terry O’Keefe, who were behind the Matilda Fuel Supplies brand.
I then looked into the property sale records and saw that two sales had occurred on the same day, with this occurring on Friday June 21st 1991 for $140,500 and $57,000.
I noticed in aerial photographs during the 1990s the garage was occupying the front portion of this site, but the smaller portion at the rear appeared fenced and not having vehicles stored on it.
I believed that it might be that the second smaller figure was for the rear portion of the site, which I have since confirmed with the current owner of the site.
I believe that this is most likely when the O’Keefe brothers purchased the freehold and it likely remained as an Ampol due to a lease or contract that was in place.
I have been able to follow the Ampol garage until at least the 1994 Telephone Directory and believe that it likely had operated under this banner until the 1995 merger between Ampol Petroleum Ltd. and Caltex.
I am told that the site had sat empty for a little while and believe it may have been during this period, which the O’Keefe brothers then rebranded it as a new concept site called Flagstar Service Station.
I am told that this garage was being operated by Mr. Alan Murphy round this time.
At 6pm on Sunday June 13th 1999 a man in his 30s entered the Flagstar garage with a shotgun and threatened the attendant, before escaping with cash.
In 2004 Mr. Les Hanifin and Mrs. Desley Hanifin, who were the operators of the Matilda Service Station in Albany Creek, took over the lease of the Everton Park Flagstar garage from Mr. Murphy.
Mr. Hanifin had convinced the O’Keefe brothers to rebrand the site from Flagstar to Matilda, which occurred in 2004.
With this change he noticed an increase in traffic with motorists recognising the Matilda name over the unfamiliar Flagstar brand.
The Hanifin’s had initially taken over this site as a trial and if they liked it the O’Keefe brothers would sell the freehold to them.
Sadly in July 2005 they were informed that the lease on their Albany Creek site was being terminated 18 months early, with the reason being that the garage was past its use by date and the tanks were too old.
While it was said that the site would be cleared it was later turned into a coffee shop.
At the time the Hanifin’s were said were still offering full driveway service at their Everton Park site, which in 2005 were the winners of the North-West News Business Achiever Awards.
Interestingly by this stage out of the nine garages that were operating back in 1976 this was the last one remaining, while also being the first.
Now staying true to their word on Wednesday October 5th 2005 the O’Keefe brothers sold the two land titles to Mr. and Mrs. Hanifin for $700,000 and $220,000.
The final freehold transaction occurred on Friday November 17th 2006 when the site was listed as transferred for $217,500.
In August 2007 it was announced that Mr. and Mrs. Hanifin had bought the lease of the Mobil Service Station on the corner of South Pine Road and Bunya Park Drive after the operator went into receivership.
This Mobil was the last of three operating in the area, which as a result Mr. Hanifin saw it as a wise investment.
They then continued to operate the garage as a Mobil, which made it the third brand they were operating behind the Matilda in Everyone Park and BP in Albany Creek.
Mr. and Mrs. Hanifin reportedly had help in running their family business at the time with their 25 year old son, Mr. Skie Hanifin.
In late 2007 owner of the Matilda Fuel Supplies brand, Mr. Peter O’Keefe, sold the fuel business to Gold Coast based Neumann Petroleum, who then rebranded some smaller outlets as Matilda Blue Service Stations.
Then in January 2013 Newmann Petroleum Ptd. Ltd. was sold to Puma Energy Australia.
This sale saw Puma Energy of Switzerland acquire 125 Matilda and Neumann branded service stations as well as a bulk seaboard fuel terminal at Eagle Farm.
This acquisition was finalised on Thursday February 28th 2013 and resulted with 120 service stations being acquired, which I assume that 5 were either closed or had switched brands.
In August 2015 the Everton Park Matilda garage underwent a $500,000 upgrade which saw the mechanical workshop expanded.
This saw one of the original three bays in the original building converted into an office while a new four bay workshop was erected on the rear parcel of land.
The work was completed on August 3rd 2015 and was officially opened as Hano’s Car Care in late August 2015.
Then in late 2016 the Matilda Service Station closed for a full rebuild, which saw a new canopy, underground tanks and petrol pumps installed.
This also saw the original three mechanical workshops merged with the small retail space to create a larger convenience store.
The site was relaunched in May 2017 as a Puma Service Station which at the time Mr. Skie Hanifin was operating Hano’s Car Care and his sister Kearma was in charge of administration.
Mr. Les Hanifin had also indicated at this point that the garage still provided Full Service, which was unique in Brisbane.
In December 2019 Puma Energy agreed to sell its Australian operations to Chevron Corporation for $425 million, with this sale being finalised on Wednesday July 1st 2020.
Meanwhile around the same time it was announced that Chevron Corporation, owner of the Caltex brand, would not be renewing their licensing agreement with Caltex Australia.
Caltex Australia was formally 50% owned by Chevron Corporation and 50% owned by Australian shareholders until they divested the Australian business in March 2013 for $4.61 billion.
They then leased the brand back to Caltex Australia.
The termination of the licensing agreement had forced Caltex to resurrect the Ampol brand and rebrand all of their outlets, with this change over needing to be completed by Saturday December 31st 2022.
After this date Chevron Corp. commenced rebranding their Puma sites as Caltex.
Due to their agreement with Chevron Corporation the Everton Park Puma Service Station was then rebranded as a Caltex Service Station in May 2023.
**The time and effort put towards compiling these articles are unpaid. Any brands or business depicted in my postings are purely coincidental and are done without remuneration. The information supplied in my articles are sourced from a variety of locations, such as newspaper archives, State Heritage Register, Council Heritage Registers, current newspaper articles, QImagery, word of mouth and many more locations.
(Taken: 1969/2024)
(Source: BCC/John Prpic)
(Identifier: BCC-B54-30318)
(Please Like👍🏻& Support)
