Historical information

This item is from a collection donated by Les Cole of Wodonga, who among several occupations in his life time, drove buses around the Wodonga and district for the Mylon bus company.

In March 1952, Transport Parks Pty Ltd. purchased 20 acres of land from the Kelly Estate on the outskirts of Wodonga. The land sold at the record urban price for Wodonga of £300 an acre. They had plans to establish a transport park advertised as the first of its kind in Australia at a cost of £50,000. The park was to have accommodation for up to 1000 transports, caravans and cars, as well as all amenities ranging from showers to a cafeteria. It was to be known as "Twenty Acre Service Station” When the park first came into operation it was to have accommodation for up to 200 transports. Wodonga had been chosen for the site of the company's first park because it was a ''half-way house" between Sydney and Melbourne, and because transports had to stop there to obtain permits to proceed on crossing the border.
The service station section of the Transport Park began operation in June 1954, with other facilities following. The business operated profitably until at least 1971 as the Transport Park, but perhaps never reached its aims of providing for 1,000 transports at any given time.
The Vacuum Oil Company was the first oil company established in Australia. In 1916, Vacuum introduced its "Plume" brand to the Australian market. Vacuum replaced the famous Plume brand name with Mobilgas in 1954.

Physical description

A collection of 3 different match books representing a variety of businesses.