Developing a working relationship with Caltex and Golden Fleece allowed Purtill Petroleum to expand, taking over several fuel depots across the years.

The first was based in Deniliquin, at the corner of Wood and Hardinge Streets. Next was Jerilderie, just a short drive north-east, in 1985. This was followed by an Ampol fuel depot in Hay two years later, and the Finley NSW fuel depot in the early ‘90s.

But with the advent of bigger, more productive semi tankers by the early 2000s, these depots slowly became less necessary as they were able to run the truck further out than ever before.

In the first year of operation, eldest son Norm was able to deliver 1 million litres of fuel within a 60km radius of Deniliquin. Now, a single truck can deliver 86,000 litres in one trip – nearly a 10th of that first yearly total.

The very first truck Keith owned for fuel haulage, an S-Model Bedford, held just 8,000 litres total across four bulk delivery tanks. This would slowly continue to be upgraded over time, as the fleet and capability of the trucks in it grew.

Six Purtill brothers, all of whom have played a part in the family business.

“Just prior to me starting in the business, Dad had bought an International Acco 1830A, 1976 model with an aluminium barrel on it,” owner Neville Purtill explains.

“Prior to that it was Bedfords with cross tanks on them. When that came along, we were only carting 8,000 litres at a time.

“When I was driving, we evolved into having the first semi-tanker in the mid 80s. We put pumping gear on it and started delivering straight to farms. It all grew from there.

“When we first started, we could only do a radius of 60km from Deniliquin. It was all rural based. In the ‘80s we branched into retail fuel and service stations. We’ve now got a radius of about 300km.

“The majority of our work is in Southern NSW. We do some in Victoria, we cart our fuel out of there now.

“Back in the early days our fuel only came by rail.

“That was also one of my jobs after school, to unload rail cars.

“The equipment has gotten significantly better, more efficient, safer and bigger. I was running out in a truck that could only carry 16,000 litres and now we’re carting 80,000. There’s a lot more regulations and responsibility that comes with that.”

The old green paint jobs really stood out.

While they’ve purchased plenty of trucks throughout the years, the fleet still remains relatively small. Neville is running just five trucks at the moment, and a Kenworth T409 which acts as the yard truck.

They currently make use of four Volvo FH16 700hp models, which Neville says they chose and continue to buy for the safety offerings they provide.

“We’re running five tanker sets at the moment. There’s four A doubles and a 19 metre tanker,” he says.

“We chose the Volvo models mainly for safety and reliability. In the bus industry we use predominantly European vehicles, so we already have the understanding of that product. They get a very good run.

“We’ve got buses that have done two million kilometres on contract work. We were happy to embrace the European trucks.

“There’s six permanent drivers and a few part-timers, and managers that will jump into a truck if they need to.”