Buckland Auto Service, one of Queensland’s oldest family-run servos is run by owners Marilyn Russell with her husband Bill. 

Visiting Buckland Auto Service is like taking a step back to an era when local garages were mechanics’ workshops and fuel was pumped by attendants; when shelves were stocked with oil bottles and car parts, rather than loaves of bread and brightly coloured packets of chips and lollies; and when petrol brands were hand-painted on tin panels, rather than printed on glowing signs

The Buckland service station first opened, sometime in the 1930s. 

Out the back of the servo, set between two frangipani trees, is the old car hoist that he still uses today. When it was installed, it was common to mount them outside, since workshop ceilings often weren’t high enough to accommodate raised cars. 

As a child, Bill lived in the upper storey of the weatherboard building with his family, and would help his father in the garage when he could.

Bill has worked at Buckland as an automotive engineer since the early ’70s, when he was in his 20s

Bill looks at home in his workshop, with wife Marilyn. The wooden shelves and workbenches lining the walls are covered in tools, oil cans, grease rags, hubcaps and spare parts. 

Now in his mid-60s, Bill has seen countless new buildings spring up in the suburb, and he’s tinkered with all kinds of new motors, but the block on which the Buckland servo stands and the garage where Bill works have remained relatively unchanged.

When he started out, the servo was run by his father and uncle, who bought the business in 1956. Bill doesn’t know how long the place was running before that, but says the machinery compliance certificate for the car hoist outside is dated 1939.

Petrol was about one threepence a gallon back then – that’s about 13c, and there are four-and-a-half litres in a gallon. That’s what it used to be likee,” says Bill. At that time, service stations were generally open on only weekdays.