Workers thrown in the deep end amid sudden closure of central Wagga service station

Employees of the Ampol service station at the corner of Station Place and Edward Street in central Wagga were left with little warning when it was sold and closed its doors at the end of May.

It's understood the service station has been sold by Tesco Petroleum to Pearl Energy.

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Moira Allen, 64, worked at the service station for 14 years and has been left without a job as a result of the sudden closure on May 29.

Mrs Allen has been forced to look for work elsewhere and has so far been unsuccessful.

"It was very short notice for everybody," she said.

"At my age it's not easy to get another job."

Fortunately her working husband can support her in the meantime, but Mrs Allen had been meaning to stay at the service station until retirement some years down the track and said the closure has really hit hard.

"At the moment I'm just doing nothing and it's driving me crazy," she said.

"And while it's lovely to have all the time in the world, I've still got bills to pay."

While the job had long days and weekend work, Mrs Allen has fond memories and will miss the regulars including Sean who would come in with Digger the dog.

"They were the first customers of the morning. Sean would come down for the paper and bring Digger with him," she said.

Another to be hit hard by the closure was Brian Clarke.

Mr Clarke worked at the service station for 21 years and while he would have loved to continue at the service station, he couldn't afford to wait.

"I was working two jobs at the time and I'm in a position where I can't go without my wages," he said.

"I basically lost half my wages as a result of this and I can't live on half... so I had to pick up work elsewhere, which I have done now."

But he also loved his time at the service station and will miss many of the customers.

Mr Clarke believes the service station was sold due to financial reasons.

"My guess is that it was going to cost Tasco a fair amount of money to bring the site up to standard," he said.

He said while the equipment at the site was still "working fine", he does not believe much had been done in the past 21 years he worked there.

"It was getting to the stage where a lot of equipment was going to need replacing," he said.

The service station also housed a Subway take-away restaurant outlet which is expected to continue trading at the site when it reopens.

Pearl Energy was contacted for comment about the sale and when it would reopen but no response was received before going to press.

The company already owns three other service stations in Wagga including a Pearl Energy branded outlet on Forsyth Street, a Mobil outlet in Lake Albert and another Mobil outlet on Pearson Street.

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