Station back
REGION: A tiny Tararua town has blazed trails, broken ground and raised a quarter of a million dollars in a two-year passion project to bring back a village petrol station.
A tiny Tararua town has blazed trails, broken ground and raised a quarter of a million dollars in a two-year passion project to bring back a village petrol station.
In a New Zealand first, the people of Pongaroa jointly funded and built one of the country’s most remote petrol stations, which opened on Saturday.
Pongaroa Fuel Stop committee member Mark Wheeler said villagers had faced two-hour round trips to fuel up ever since their last garage closed four years ago.
Two years ago, the village’s 100 residents decided they were tired of waiting for a petrol company to take a risk on their community. So they decided to offer to pay for half of a new station themselves.
The community took a bold risk to raise $245,000, and partnered with Allied Petroleum.
‘‘We thought, ‘how hard can it be’. Two years, and a few setbacks later we realise it was actually quite hard,’’ Wheeler said.
‘‘This is huge for us ... It bucks the trend of rural communities curling up and dying when services pull out.‘‘
Almost the entire village, and a few out-of-town supporters, turned up to Saturday’s opening festivities to celebrate.
Children ran back and forth on a treasure hunt, adults tucked into the free coffee and barbecue, everybody was a fan of the horse and carriage rides, and keen to win the raffle to be the first to fuel up at the station.
Allied Petroleum national sales manager Ray Marsh said Pongaroa was the first community in New Zealand to jointly finance a new petrol station with a commercial company.
‘‘Pongaroa’s new station is probably one of the most remote petrol stations in New Zealand.
‘‘These things aren’t easy to make commercially viable in a small community. There needs to be real passion and commitment behind it from the community.’’
Wheeler said as the first town in the country to take on such a project the fundraising had been more difficult. Funding from trusts and government grants were off-limits because of their partnership with a commercial company.
Villagers and farmers gave donations and interest-free loans; helping the committee raise $245,000.
The Tararua District Council contributed another $60,000, and Allied Petroleum covered over $600,000 in construction costs.
Pongaroa’s success proved similar community-led partnerships could be beneficial to rural towns - so they were petitioning the government to change funding rules to allow other small towns to follow in their footsteps, Wheeler said.