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 For a short period in the 20th century before service stations became standardised, corporate and slick, they were a distinctive and sometimes quirky local landmark. The local service station on a prominent suburban corner was typically a modest building, perhaps of Spanish Mission design, where the prized family car was taken for petrol and mechanical care. Heritage consultants Ian Kirk and Megan Martin have discovered more than 120 original service stations from the interwar years still surviving in NSW. Their thematic study of interwar service stations has unearthed a wealth of information on this distinctive building form. "In 1901 there were just 20 known motor vehicles in Australia," says Megan Martin. "By 1923 motor vehicles outnumbered horse-drawn vehicles in Sydney by nearly two to one. The 1920s really ushered in the era of the motor car."
 The Four Ways Car Service photographed in 1938 when it was a stylish new service station for Concord. Photograph by A.E. Foster, courtesy of the Mitchell Library In the early days of motoring car owners bought motor spirit in cases and tins and filled their tanks themselves. By the mid-1920s the invention of the petrol bowser and safety concerns about the storage of fuel in tins led oil marketing companies to begin the widespread installation of petrol pumps at commercial garages. The modern service station was born. The idea to undertake a study of this unique 20th century building type began, appropriately enough, with a local service station in Five Dock. Heritage Consultant, Ian Kirk had long admired a small interwar bungalow style service station in his local area - the BP in Five Dock which is still operating today as a service station. Ian wondered how many of these purpose-built service stations remained in Sydney, and in what form they had survived. With historian, Megan Martin, he applied for a small grant of $5,000 from the Heritage Incentives Program to undertake a thematic study of service stations in NSW. Their brief was to identify and research service stations in Sydney built between 1920 and 1950. Over two years the team was able to identify and document 120 service stations. They found the original buildings through a combination of careful detective work and hands-on research. Days were spent driving along Sydney's secondary roads to follow up leads. They used primary sources from the interwar period, such as directories like Wise's NSW Post Office Commercial Directory as well as cadastral maps and building magazines, to find out where service stations were located. Every service station was then visited, documented and photographed. Most of the service stations they found were built in the 1920s. The peak years for the construction of service stations and garages in Sydney were 1927, 1928 and 1929. The severe economic depression of the early 1930s led to a dramatic decrease in the number of new service stations built - a decline that was not reversed until the 1940s. "Between the wars there were highway service stations and local suburban service stations. The typical neighbourhood service station of the 1920s and 1930s was run by an independent operator who sold as many brands of petrol as there was room for pumps," says Megan. Service stations came in a range of architectural styles. The earliest were structures that could be best described as "decorated sheds". These simple buildings had evolved in the early 1920s from blacksmiths' shops. As the number of service stations grew, they began to be built in styles reflecting the domestic architecture of the period, including Federation, Streamlined Moderne and occasionally Art Deco. But Spanish Mission became the style of choice for many service stations in the late 1920s and early 1930s, particularly in Sydney. Surviving examples include the Broadway Garage and Service Station in Bellevue Hill, the former Seymour's Service Station in Roseville, Malcolm Motors in King Street, Newtown, the former Auckland Garage in Manly and the Pyrmont Bridge Service Station in Pyrmont. The situation changed forever in 1951 when the Shell Oil Company introduced "solo" marketing. Other oil companies soon followed suit and began to buy and rebuild existing service stations and to build new outlets with a house style: uniform signage, architectural style and colour schemes. The focus now shifted to highway service stations on larger blocks of land. "The small local operator on a prominent corner with a variety of bowsers and on-site mechanic was really a phenomenon of the 1920s and 1930s", said Ian Kirk. "The study confirmed that these original service stations are now very rare. But what surprised us was the number that have managed to survive. " It is the local service stations on secondary roads that have survived. Very few, however, are still operating as service stations. Most have been adapted to house businesses such as auto electricians, mechanics, cafes, funeral directors, video shops, car dealerships, hardware stores, tyre outlets or dry cleaners. "Part of the problem was identifying them as service stations. Some you would never pick in a million years. We became very good at reading buildings for signs of a former life as a service station," says Ian. One of the most important things about the thematic study is that it allows a comparative analysis to be undertaken of those services stations that remain.
 Early service stations, such as this one at Lake Macquarie, were simple and practical and had evolved from the blacksmith shops of the earlier generation. Photograph by Sue Jackson "It helps us to understand what is left and what is important" says Ian. Megan Martin believes that these original buildings can help us to understand how our modern lifestyle has developed. "They tell us how our love of the motor car developed in the 1920s when this form of transport was beginning to have an impact on the environment," says Megan. With so many of us being able to relate to service stations and remember old local servos, the consultants have found the response to their study to be overwhelmingly positive. "Everyone I've talked to has been really interested. And they have been spotting old service stations ever since! I think this is really important. If people are doing that, then they are learning to read the built environment and to value it. There is a much better chance of protecting something if people can understand it and like it," says Megan.
 Broadway Garage and Service Station in Bellevue Hill is a very rare example of a service station built with flats on top. The researchers have found only four other examples in NSW. Well-known architect E. L. Sodersten designed this service station in 1929. Photography by Megan Martin
  Dynamo, 810 Princes Highway, St Peters, former Lightning Service Station Photograph by Megan Martin |