Half a century of humble service

With no one to operate the new service station, Tino wrote to Pat in Italy asking him if he would run the service station and saying that to do so, he would need to find a brand to operate under.

Pat secured permission from the Guyatt family who ran Goulburn Valley Motors, the only other Shepparton bp service station across from where the Shepparton Sports Stadium is now located. They signed the agreement opening Pat & Tina’s Service Station under the bp banner on April 4, 1973.

Before there was Pat and Tina’s, there was Pat & Tino’s, a Golden Fleece Service Station operated by Pat Di Conza and his brother in-law Tino Leo, married to Tina’s sister Frances. Situated across the road from where Pat & Tina’s is now, this venture into the service station industry in 1967 benefitted from Pat’s background in mechanics, having worked at Smith Motors, a Ford dealership on the corner of Wyndham and Nixon Streets.

Together the two sisters and brother in-laws operated the Golden Fleece Service Station for five years, finishing up in 1972. At that time, Pat’s father in Italy became ill and the family returned to Italy for six months to care for him. While the family was overseas, Tino and Frances bought land in Shepparton on Verney Road, where he opened Tino’s Paint and Panel, and on Numurkah Road, where Pat & Tina’s Service Station was constructed at the site it remains today.

According to the consensus of the local people at the time, Pat was crazy to open a service station so far out of town. They said it wouldn’t last six months, but as soon as Pat and Tina’s customers from the Golden Fleece Service Station found out they had moved, they followed them.

Pat & Tina worked tirelessly to get the business off the ground, living in a small part of the building at the rear of the service station, offering fuel and complete mechanical servicing through the day and detailing cars at night for extra money. Joe said, “To try and establish a business at that time, even though we had a lot of clients from the old service station, it wasn’t enough.

The 70s were a particularly difficult time for Pat & Tina’s. The worst floods in Shepparton’s history took place in 1974, less than a year after their opening. The floods devastated north Shepparton and Pat & Tina’s was inundated and forced to close. Joe said, “We sandbagged as much as we could from the front, but the water inundated us from behind and knocked all the sandbags out. The clean-up was extensive, and we were forced to close for about three weeks. Dad always said it felt like a year.” After re-opening it was business as usual.

By the age of eight in 1976, Joe had started pumping petrol and helping around the service station, and his sister Alfina began helping with bookwork and being involved in the family business at around the age of 10 in 1981.

In 1978 EFTPOS was introduced with approximately five percent of customers utilising the modern technology. In 2020, there were 7.6B electronic transactions, which includes debit and credit card transactions, online payments, and direct debits.

Joe said, “Dad could never understand the concept of EFTPOS because he liked cash. It’s the European background in him and to have very little cash, but to still have the sales that we were doing... he couldn’t comprehend it.”

Joe completed his HSC in 1988 and joined the business full time. Throughout the 80s and 90s Pat & Tina’s won several customer service and compliance awards through bp Australia-wide. It was a rewarding time.

The Di Conza family was left devastated again in September 2003 when Pat passed away from a short battle with Pancreatic cancer at the age of 68. Joe said, “He never showed that he was sick, he never complained. It was 28 days of suffering and the week he passed, there was a procession of our customers, family and friends who came to the service station to say goodbye. Nobody knew he was dying until that last week.”

After Pat’s passing, under difficult circumstances, Joe became the head of the family supporting his mum and continuing his dad’s legacy, a role which he was honoured to fulfil.

Alfina passed away after her battle with Hodgkin’s Disease in 1991, devastating the tight knit family. She was just 20 years old. In response to her passing, Pat & Tina launched their initial fundraising efforts in support of GV Hospice Care Services in Shepparton in appreciation of the care they had shown Alfina. bp came on board donating a significant sum of money to the cause in support of Pat & Tina.