Lendon Condon ran a service station just north of Holbrook from 1966 to 1997, when he retired and sold the business.

With his prices 4½-cents a litre lower than rivals, consumers were attracted from as far away as Corryong.

“The customers tell us it’s the cheapest petrol between Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Condon told The Border Mail in 1997.

“Everyone that pulls in here fills up – you can can fill up here and drive all the way to Sydney or Melbourne.”

Stepson Rob Condon said the truckies loved his father.

“He was the benchmark, he was a big player in the fuel wars,” he said.

Born on August 24, 1921 in Wagga, Mr Condon grew up on a family farm at nearby Ladysmith.

At 15, he got his first job at the Commonwealth Oil Refinery’s Wagga depot before struggling to join the RAAF at the outset of World War II.

In 1941, Mr Condon was accepted as a mechanic after some pressure on the air force from his uncle who was Wagga mayor.

His war years included a stint at the wireless air gunnery school at Parkes and fixing aircraft in Borneo, including converting bombers for passengers to fly home in after the hostilities.

"There were a lot of prisoners up there who were that poor, they had to feed them up for a month or two to fatten them up a bit," Mr Condon told The Border Mail in 2008.

After the war, Mr Condon and his wife Frances set up home at Holbrook on a block next to the bakery which included a service station and workshop.

He also operated a taxi and hire car business.

In 1953 after having four children, Mr Condon split from Frances and married Pat, a mother of five.

In 1966, after two years touring Australia, Condon’s Holbrook Motors began two kilometres out of town.

“It’s a good spot for a busy service station because nobody’s going to complain about the noise,” Mr Condon said.

In 1975, Pat died after a long battle with cancer and in 1977 Mr Condon married Pek Fong who he met after she broke down while travelling from Sydney to Melbourne to start a nursing job.

Mrs Condon had accepted his proposal on the basis he would build her a castle.

As a result, a distinctive three-storey turreted brick home was built with the name Monshisen, which means “dream come true” in Mandarin.

Mr Condon, who died last Thursday, is survived by Mrs Condon and eight children from his earlier marriages.