The Purtill family have built an empire in the New South Wales border town of Deniliquin, and continuing to grow their fuel haulage business has helped it to thrive.

Neville Purtill has lived his whole life surrounded by transport, thanks to the ambitions of his family.

The story started when father Keith moved to Deniliquin in the early 1950s, meeting his soon-to-be-wife Pat and setting about building their family.

While Keith began work as a mechanic following World War II, his dream had been to buy a truck to work as a driver carting stock. This instead resulting in buying a bus, to work transporting children in the region to and from school.

It may not have been his ideal ride, but this was where the foundations of the Purtill Group began. In 2021, it celebrated 70 years in operation, and in 2024 it marked 50 years in the fuel haulage business.

But back to Neville – his earliest memories involved spending time in and around the trucks and buses. Today, as Purtill Group’s Managing Director, a role he took on after his father’s passing in 1988, he says there was nowhere else he ever thought about working.

“Fifty years of the fuel haulage operation is a particularly special milestone for me personally since it’s been around for most of my lifetime, given Dad started the business originally with the buses before I was born,” Neville tells PowerTorque.

“I grew up in the bus industry. The buses were always in our backyard, so they became our cubby houses!

“I was 13 in 1974 when dad started in the fuel jobs, just a kid starting high school. I would spend the weekends and school holidays with the drivers. I got a fair understanding of what it was all about. It had an allure to it.

One of Keith’s original KGL Bedfords, which could cart 12,000L of fuel.

“I started working after school in Year 12, manning the depot when the staff would go out to drive the buses. I’d man the phones, fill drums and paint them. Probably drive trucks illegally back then too!

“In 1978 I was working part time before and after school. When I finished my HSC I just stayed there and kept doing it. It’s always been the family business. I could have gone to university but the idea of driving a truck around was more exciting.

“As soon as I turned 18 I got my licence and started driving the tankers from then on. I did that for about six years full time, then there was a necessity for me to get back in the office.

“The business was growing, so I was needed more on the management side than out driving trucks.”

So just how did it go from one man driving a bus around to the multi-business empire that is the Purtill Group?

Nowadays, it consists of Purtill Petroleum, which encompasses the fuel haulage and distribution operations, The Depot, a historic vehicle and memorabilia collection, a restaurant called Cruizin* Diner and the Wired Entertainment store.

“Some of the story of how we’ve grown has become urban myth!” Neville laughs.

“Dad had outgrown our backyard with the buses, so he was looking for a commercial site for them. He found a location that was an ex-Golden Fleece depot. He negotiated to buy it and next thing you know they approached him about restarting the agency again.

“At that stage there were two bus operators in the area, so he carted half the district’s kids to school and knew all the farmers already. He had drivers that were idle between 9-3, and thought trucking could be a good fit.

“At the 11th hour the Caltex depot was also becoming available. It was already an existing operation with its own depot. He ended up negotiating to take that over instead of negotiating to start from scratch with Golden Fleece.”