History

The Pacific Oil Company Pty Ltd of  517-519 Collins St Melbourne was established in May 1930 by a group of  businessmen including George Shepherd, earlier employed by the Shell Company ( Aust) and Bernard Cowen, previously a commercial traveller and father of Sir Zelman Cowen, former Governor General of Australia.
Dan Bardin who was previously the director and Melbourne branch manager of General Motors ( Aust ) soon joined the executive team as an associate director.

Their PAX ( pax- the Roman goddess of peace ) motor spirit was proudly marketed as independently "Australian Owned & Controlled" and their familiar black & white striped pumps which were scattered on the main highways of  service stations in Victoria & Southern NSW provided "Gold PAX" & "Super PAX Ethyl" to passing motorists. The Pacific Oil Company were the first independant oil company to be registered in Victoria & were  distributors of the American  Pennzoil lubricants as well as their own PAXOL brand of motor oils.

In 1932 manually operated PAX kerbside pumps began to appear accross the land & one of the first to appear was at Peterson' Garage in Stony Point VIC. Some other locations PAX was available included United Auto Service, in High St, St Kilda, VIC,  Trevaskis Brothers Garage in Shepparton VIC, Kelland's Tyre Service Station in Horsham VIC,  Lloyd Brothers Garage in Melton VIC, Doonan & Guppy's Garage in Mooroopna VIC, Henty Motor Garage in Henty NSW & the Regent Service Station, Albury NSW where in Sept 1936 the proprietor installed four new pumps incl one PAX petrol. 

Little is known how they sourced motor spirit in the early days however, in July 1932 they purchased an oil tanker vessel from an Italian shipping company for £4800, built in 1908 by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd. at Newcastle Upon Tyne shipyards & launched originally as the SS ( Steam Ship or Screw Steamer ) ROUMANIAN for the Petroleum Steamship Co. of London.

It was registered as the SS Vincas by the previous owners in Genoa, Italy in 1928 & was of approximately 7000 gross registered tons.



























In November 1932 with the assistance of the companies shipping agent Arthur Perry & under the command of Captain Thomas De Carteret the newly purchased Vincas carried a cargo of 2 million gallons of high grade petroleum spirit from Bullen Bay, Curacao in the Dutch West Indies & moored at Western Port Victoria where it was unloaded at the end of the 918 feet ( 280 metres ) long timber jetty which had been strengthened & altered to support the large number of heavy drums which were to be transferred from the Vincas to the depot on shore, the transfer system required winching the drums onto a 'lighter' ( a low open boat ) & brought ashore at the jetty where a four ton truck was used to transport the drums from the jetty to the new depot around 600 metres away.  Each customers fuel order included a drum hand pump for convenience & the Pacific Oil Company considered themselves as "Pioneers of Low-Cost Handling". The ship now around 25 years old & in average condition became the Pacific Oil Companies floating storage depot.

In June 1933 they chartered a british built ship the M/T ( Motor Tanker ) Nina Borthen, owned by H. Borthen Co. of Oslo, Norway & transported a further 2 million gallons of motor spirit from America which was discharged into the floating depot 'Vincas' for distribution. The Vincas was replenished on one other occasion by the Dutch tanker the 'MV Woensdrecht' however in November 1935, the maritime authorities regarded the Vincas a risk to the environment & future shipping movements after it had sat idle for 3 years in its original moorings,  therefore the owners under the instruction from new agents H.C.Sleigh agreed to a sale with a Japanese shipbreaking company.

It was towed out of Western Port Bay on its way to Osaka, Japan nearing Christmas eve 1935 by the SS Paringa which had also been sold to the same scrap company. The Paringa under the command of Captain A. Mcinnes was three times smaller than the Vincas, however within a few days of leaving Melbourne it released the chain tow line with the Vincas after coming to grief in heavy seas. The last time the two ships were seen together was passing Wilsons Promontory. The Paringa was thought to have taken on water & sunk & with its crew of 31 was never seen again, a maritime mystery that still remains to this day. 



















































With a crew of four, the Vincas, still full of petrol fumes from remaining liquid residue in its tanks ended up being anchored three quarters of a mile off Lakes Entrance ( around 200 miles east of Melbourne ) awaiting salvage & was eventually towed to Japan around 3 months later in March 1936 by the SS Kawatiri, a journey of approximately 4 weeks. 






In October 1932 the Pacific Oil Co. secured a plot of land just under an acre in size at Morradoo ( later to be renamed Crib Point ) VIC. which they leased from the Lands Department to establish a depot for storage of their motor oil & spirit. They would later relocate around 55 miles ( 90 klms ) away with large storage tanks at the Spotwood terminal alongside Alba Petroleum.















































The company expanded steadily varying their motor spirit price to be competitive however, due to the depression of the 1930's they struggled to endure in a difficult market, the discerning motorist was now bypassing the more expensive first grade fuel for second grade, however PAX did not have second grade fuel in the offering, and as profits declined along with so many other companies they found the competition closing in.
In October 1935 with an ongoing price war on petroleum & the subsequent findings of the Royal Commission  into the Petroleum Industry a year earlier they merged with the Alba Petroleum Company of Australia Pty Ltd & continued as a subsidiary trading under the Pacific Oil name until August 1941.