First drive-through petrol station in Australia

Do you remember this Adelaide landmark?

‘Bolton’s Corner’ was a motor workshop and service station on the corner of Greenhill and Fullarton Roads built by George Bolton Snr.

George Bolton was Mayor of Burnside Council from 1952 to 1954, then again from 1962 to 1967. Bolton entered the motor business in 1924 and a year later built Bolton’s Corner in Dulwich. It was the first drive-through petrol station in Australia. In 1939, the station was remodelled in art-deco design, and then in 1970, it was converted into a motorcycle showroom.

Bolton passed away in 1977 and his son took over the business, which eventually moved to Keswick. In 2012, the business merged with Bill’s Motorcycles.

Photograph courtesy of the Bolton Archives, 1971