FOR as long as anyone can remember, the petrol station opposite New Norfolk’s Bush Inn Hotel has been “Caltex”. In more recent times it has been trading as Mood Food New Norfolk, selling fuel and food at all hours of the day and night, but the Caltex branding has still been there.
But an even older brand name now adorns the fuel pumps, with the return of Ampol to the town after an absence of more than 20 years. The revamped Mood Food site on the corner of Montagu and Burnett streets is pictured above.
Previously, Ampol was a fixture on the corner of High and Stephen Sts for several decades until 2001, when the site was sold to Woolworths and redeveloped as Woolworths Plus Petrol. The Ampol brand was disappearing by that time anyway, following its merger with Caltex in 1995.
In 2019 the fuel company lost the rights to use the American-owned Caltex brand name, and it has been progressively rebranding its sites across Australia as Ampol. This process is due to be completed this year and has now reached New Norfolk.
Caltex signage began to be removed from the Mood Food site this week, replaced by new Ampol branding. To complete the circle, the old Ampol site at 81 High St – now known as Woolworths Caltex New Norfolk – will once again become an Ampol site, trading as Ampol Woolworths.
