About Sunraysia Petroleum

In 1985 John and Louisa Saunders started trading as independent fuel and lubricant suppliers from what was then a small run down Golden Fleece service station located on the Corner of Commercial St and Main Ave in Merbein. They primarily catered to the Merbein irrigation district. Prior to this John had been working as a delivery driver for Golden Fleece that was located in Irymple and being managed at the time by his Father Ray. Subsequently Golden Fleece was taken over by Caltex and John was told he was no longer required and made redundant. At the time John had just turned 40 and was quite upset that he had lost his job but as things turned out it ended up being one of the best things that happened during his working career.

The Business then known as Merbein Bulk Fuel Supplies flourished during the early years and continual renovations and expansion went on seeing the Merbein site grow to be one of the busiest Service Stations throughout the district at that time. John’s delivery business also grew to service most areas throughout Sunraysia.

In early 1990 Steven (Johns & Louisa’s eldest Son) joined the business at a time when the industry was facing severe turmoil from the entry of Supermarket sites which turned the retail fuel sale business on its head in only 2 or 3 years. Unsure of the industry’s future and our own viability to compete against the might of the supermarkets, decisions were made to diversify our customer base away from smaller retail sales and primarily vineyard customers and instead concentrate on bulk deliveries whilst trying to target more commercial diesel customers.  We also began exploring the possibilities of expanding our delivery service to cover neighboring towns and regions that we had never considered delivering to previously.

We proceeded to upgrade John’s delivery vehicle and purchase our first B-Double road tanker. In the following years we began a major undertaking of building a brand new truck stop (known locally as Buronga IGA X-press) to fill a gap in Bp’s truck stop network between Adelaide and Sydney on the Sturt HWY.






















Late in 2006 Bp Australia offered us the opportunity of taking over the operation of their fuel delivery Depot in Mildura. This began a rapid growth stage for our company that has seen staff levels increase from around 30 to nearly 60 in just 2 short years. It also meant that we felt it was time to change our business name to Sunraysia Petroleum since we were now doing the majority of our work outside of Merbein.

In March 2012 Steven along with his Wife April began planning a state of the art bulk fuel and oil handling facility that incorporated a 24hour retail outlet to be constructed in Irymple. All their hard work is now a reality with the Irymple depot being completed in Jan 2015. The New Depot is the most impressive Facility in the region and Meets or exceeds current compliance and environmental regulations.

In more recent times we have added several more B-doubles to our fleet that has now increased to 8 and we deliver much further afield to a wide variety of locations throughout S.A. VIC and NSW.

The final part of the story so far is the major change we have made by forming a new alliance with Viva/Liberty which has seen our service station network rebranded to Shell or Liberty. Our local network of fuel stations include Buronga IGA Xpress, Liberty 7th St, Shell Redcliff’s, Shell Merbein, Liberty Ouyen and several smaller independently owned outlets scattered throughout the district in places like Pooncarie, Wemen and Nangiloc.

The new partnership has greatly increased our business overall competiveness along with giving us potential access to new markets. Since the brand change we have launched a New company Central Murray Petroleum which is now servicing the Swan Hill district along with joining forces with Poole & Jackson which has extended our local depots reach through Ouyen, Walpeup, Speed and other Mallee towns in adjoining districts.

The Future is bright and you can rest assured we understand the importance of providing Local people the service and quality products they deserve, whilst still reinvesting in local communities whenever possible.

















Phone: (03) 5024 7455  |  2170 Fifteenth Street Irymple  |  Home  |  Contact Us   
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