The Junction Service Station has served the Inverell community for close to seventy years now: a shrine to the millions of kilometres travelled by local families, tradies and those just passing through. Gary Campbell has been manager of the site for 14 years and started back when the site lay at the corner of Glen Innes and Tingha Roads, before the new roundabout was put in.
Now situated a few hundred metres back up the road and now running under the label of Liberty, driveway service has come as standard since the business opened seventy years ago.
“Driveway service means we load everything into people’s cars for them: Purchases of feed, and pumping their petrol and diesel,” says Campbell.
“We wash everyone’s windshields and pump up their tires too. We’re in the middle of bug season right now and there’s a lot of windshield cleaning going on.”
“People especially appreciate the windshield cleaning during bug season.”
The Liberty Servo started offering produce – think silage, dog and cat food, chook food, the list goes on – to customers when Gary came on board and it’s since expanded in leaps and bounds, with multiple shipping containers now dedicated to housing the amazing range of goods.
Gary says the decision to start offering their wider range of somewhat untraditional service station goods on top of petrol and diesel came as a result wanting to be unique in the Inverell community: “We wanted to offer something extra, otherwise we’d just be like every other service station out there: A clerk standing behind the counter and that’s it.”
“[Selling produce] started off with a single box trailer and a “see how it goes” attitude. That trailer was emptied within two days. “It just got bigger and bigger from there.”
“We have a little bit of everything. If there’s supplements that people want, we can get it for them on order, and people have responded to the new offerings incredibly well.”
“A lot of people come to us because we’re so much cheaper than the rural places, because they can purchase goods outside of normal trading hours and we are 7 days a week.”
At this point in our interview, Gary took a call from a customer looking for horse feed. Lucerne hay, specifically. “It’s hard to find the smaller bails now, but I know a guy so we keep getting it because our customers want it.”
With so many people passing under the massive Liberty awning comes a strong community element too: People stop by not only for fuel and a wash but also to drop off a package for a mate and have a chinwag too.
This makes the Liberty a social port of call for many in the community, and people are dropping in at all hours. Says Gary “I open up at 4.30 in the morning and there’ll be someone here, waiting for a coffee and a yarn.
“Sometimes you’re a servo manager, sometimes you’re a counsellor – it comes with the territory.”
“Social media has taken a lot of human to human contact away from people, and you can see how much folk still crave a good chat. We want to give that to our customers.”
Being so heavily involved in the community, it should then come as no surprise that Gary and the Liberty Station are frequent sponsors of local events. Horse events, junior soccer tourneys and most recently a young girl who travelled to Sydney for acrobatics – Gary ensured the petrol tank was full ahead of the trip.
“We like to support those who support us.”
It seems the support keeps on going around, and around, with Gary and the Liberty Servo taking out the gong for Best Service Station in the New England by New England Times readers.
Gary doesn’t operate the station alone, employing ten staff. Among them his daughter Mel: “She’s the brains of the business. Nothing gets past her and I wouldn’t have anyone else in the office.”
Mel’s children – Gary’s grandkids – also love hanging out with grandad after school, and have been raised against the backdrop of bowsers and lollies. At six and four years old they aren’t showing interest in learning the ropes yet but “they love raiding the lollies!”
Liberty Servo Inverell was voted by New England Times readers as the Best Servo in the New England 2024.
See the other winners and more details about this promotion.