Lowes Petroleum was awarded the 2025 Marg Taylor Award for Community Spirit at the Australian Fuel & Convenience Awards Dinner on the Gold Coast.
The Award was presented to Lowes Petroleum by External Judge Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBEFO) Bruce Billson.
“The AFC Awards are an externally and independently judged merit based awards program that recognises excellence. The Marg Taylor Award for Community Spirit is one that is very special to the industry. It is fitting that this award go to Lowes Petroleum for their broad community engagement and programs,” explains ACAPMA CEO Rowan Lee.
“All of the Nominees and Finalists were exceptional operators who really do enrich their communities by being part of them, and they all have a reason to be proud. The judges really struggled with awarding this one, but in the end there can only be one winner, and this year its Lowes Petroleum”, added Rowan.
2025 Marg Taylor Award for Community Spirit – FINALISTS
- Inland Petroleum
- iOR
- Riordan Fuels
- Shell Beerwah
- Lowes Petroleum – WINNER
Sharon White gave a heartfelt acceptance speech that stunned and completely silenced the audience as she recounted the experience of Lowes Petroleum and the impact of the programs on the local and broader communities.
As the industry congratulates the Winner of the 2025 Marg Taylor Award for Community Spirit we take a moment to look a little deeper at this Award Winning Business;
AFC Award Profile: Lowes Petroleum
Sharon White, Head of Sales & Marketing
Lowes Petroleum is more than just a business. While our shared venture with bp means we’re more corporate than ever before, we uphold our ‘country’ ethos through philanthropy: doing the best by our communities. Our commitment to regional Australia is ingrained in our operations, it defines our people who know what it’s like to go through tough times and overcome adversity, so it’s second nature, reflex actions that see them stepping in during challenging moments or performing acts of heroism. Our employees set the standard and, as a company, we proudly follow their lead.
Take a simple corporate golf day that started 18 years ago. Our now General Manager for Queensland/NSW Bernie Morris still remembers the day he and another employee finished a meeting, stepping outside to see a young school student hit by a car, while riding their bike. Fortunately, the child wasn’t badly injured, but as Bernie tells it: “a chrysalis moment occurred” where the corporate golf day would become a biennial charity golf day.
With those first funds we bought a trailer that went from school to school with road signs that could be set up in a car park where kids would ride their bikes around in a ‘real road’ environment. From the early days of raising $2500, our golf day last year raised $75,000. We missed a golf day during the pandemic but to date have raised close to $200,000 with eight golf days. Lowes Petroleum thoroughly considers each charity choosing those who most benefit regional Australia. When one of our team members passed away from a heart attack at work, it was a unanimous decision to support the Heart Foundation with our 2022 fundraising. This money went to help subsidise research for people within the transport sector – a group identified at most risk of heart disease. Last year we chose Ronald McDonald House– a charity close to our hearts as we know many rural families have sadly had to use their support services.
The event has grown thanks to the support of the town, the golf club and our incredible sponsors who share our philosophy. So, we also share some of the monies with small local charities chosen by our team such as Meditrans (medical transport), the Goondiwindi PCYC and one year a local family whose house burnt down, and they had no insurance. When you deliver fuel to so many primary producers, it’s impossible not to be affected when their lives are upended by natural disasters of flood, fire and drought.
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In March when two tropical lows delivered a year’s worth of rain in a matter of weeks, communities were evacuated, cut off by rising flood waters with farmers unable to get fuel nor feed to save their livestock. In Blackall, (Western Queensland), when our team heard the State Disaster Management team was coordinating as many as 20 volunteer helicopters to deliver fuel and hay to properties, they pooled their money together to provide the pilots with a hearty breakfast. Once we were informed the relief effort would take days, Lowes Petroleum ramped things up delivering everything from wraps and sandwiches to drinks every day for all the pilots, to thank them for their amazing efforts and use of their aircrafts.
From a business perspective, the Disaster Management Team, coordinated and run by the local council, was able to run more efficiently and effectively because we were also able to supply drummed Av gas and other aircraft fuel locally. We brought in fuel and staff from our other depots nearby so there were not added costs of transporting fuel to the area. Pilots could take off and land knowing fuel supply was close at hand as they worked to keep up a continuous supply. This is the very reason we have fuel depots and local staff in our remote regions: we rally and support the communities we live and work in, show up when we are needed, working all hours in times of crisis.
Across the Tasman – it was bushfires, and our Lowes Aviation team again was there ensuring rescue efforts continued around the clock with fuel for the firefighting support crew as more than 95,000 hectares burned.
Our commitment goes beyond servicing our communities but ensuring their safety. Every year we support Rural Road Safety Month for the Australian Road Safety Foundation (ARSF). We know more than most people that these roads are dangerous: we see it first-hand every day and it’s backed by the ARSF. Their statistics reveal motorists struggle to maintain focus due to fatigue, admitting to experiencing terrifying moments of microsleep, (where they were awake but unable to recall driving), along with confessing to speeding and talking on their phones. In 2024 we created a “Don’t be THAT driver” campaign: you know the one people keep talking about for years to their friends: the one who overtook you on a blind corner, across double white lines, texting on their phone as you passed. The one that put your families lives at risk, with their stupidity, that people are talking about it for years. Sadly, almost every one of us has a ‘THAT” driver story. We received extensive media coverage across mainstream media including TV and industry publications. On the back of that we also acknowledge our drivers who every day not only have to drive their trucks and work vehicles but be alert for the unexpected. Our Professional Driver Awards continue to lift Lowes Petroleum’s driving culture, helping to recruit younger and experienced drivers to the profession.
Drivers are nominated by their peers across the 500 plus staff with nominations more than tripling since their inception in 2021. We recognise drivers for more than their transportation skills but for working towards the betterment of the trucking industry as a profession. Drivers like Jon Jon Charles who was only eight when his family emigrated to Goondiwindi (western Qld) from the Philippines. Few would have blamed Jon Jon from walking away from the industry after he was seriously injured in a head on collision in 2017 which claimed three lives. Even though he wasn’t at fault, all these years later he’s reluctant to talk about it out of respect for the family and their grief. So, we also support Fatality Free Friday for the Road Safety Foundation. Every May, a host of our service stations share information through a morning tea or sausage sizzle – helping to raise driver awareness to manage fatigue, watch their speed and plan their journey so they don’t have to rush.
To keep communities safe, we also plan for the worst. Every year we undertake an annual ‘catastrophic incident drill’. In 2024 Operation Big Bang was a large-scale disaster exercise providing emergency response organisations and Lowes Petroleum staff to undertake annual crisis training. Our safety team and executives, together with 30 ambulance, firefighters and police personnel from the St George command regional area, conducted a large-scale emergency drill at the company’s St George Depot. The exercise provided a realistic incident: an explosion of a small gas cylinder located on the back of a caravan at the Lowes BP fuelling station: with two deaths, multiple casualties, and a large area lockdown. This collaboration with emergency services ensures we’re always on the front foot and responsive to crisis, but it also provides invaluable learning opportunities for the QAS, and other regional emergency services, to manage a large-scale event beyond their daily response capabilities.
Our eyes are also on future drivers with continued sponsorship of On Country Pathways Driver Mentor program, to get ‘at-risk’ kids into the driver’s seat. With just under 500 Lowes Petroleum employees, and as many as 60% on the road at any given time, we understand a drivers’ license is more than a document—it’s a gateway to opportunities. For First Nations youth aged 16 to 24 years, overcoming barriers to obtaining a license is crucial. In regional and rural areas, a driver’s licence is a pre-requisite for many jobs and a must have for access to health services, education and training providers and civic and social amenities. But how do you log driving hours when you don’t have a car, are living often house to house or with no one in your family able to support you – let alone pay for petrol? Thanks to our fuel sponsorship, On Country Pathways has now assisted more than 100 young First Nations’ learner drivers to reach their 120 supervised driving hours and gain their independence.
From land to sea: we continue to make a difference with ongoing support to Marine Rescue Woolgoolga with fuel and lubricants. Woolgoolga is one of 45 strategic marine rescue locations across the NSW coastline. Our Grafton team instrumental in creating a partnership that saves lives every day.
Our people continue to be our shining lights. Like Cobram’s Rachel McKay and her husband Colin. Rachel may have been recognised for an OAM in 2022 (the last honours bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II) but her service to the Cobram community continues like never before. Last year her Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea raised a staggering $60,000: all of which is going towards research into better treatments for cancer.
We never forget it’s also about those gestures in our regional towns, where everyone knows everyone, that may seem small but make an enormous difference. Take Phil Jackson in Tassie – where everyone knows a horse is a horse, of course, of course—unless that horse offers unparallelled therapy that changes your life. Phil saw first-hand the remarkable changes equine therapy had on 12-year-old Piper Braid, the niece of fleet mechanic Davey Kelly. Piper’s autism and selective mutism makes her so panicked she cannot speak. Through sponsorship, instigated by Phil, Piper’s parents are now able to afford a ‘luxury’ they considered beyond their means.
We continue to support the towns we work and live in. It’s not unusual in any given year to support over 50 shows, sporting teams and rural events: investing back to local communities that make a difference to rural lives. Lowes Petroleum sponsors, and continues to sponsor, such varied events that include Toowoomba’s Elders Farm Fest, the Riverina Field Day, Tasmania’s AgFest, Rockhampton’s Beef Week to Wimmera Machinery Days, Elmore Field Days and Gunnedah’s AgQuip. We also sponsor rural show events such as the Barcoo Pastoral Society, Moree Show Society, Narrabri Show, St George Show and the Wheat Awards and dinner. Then there are the sporting and community clubs as varied as the Couatwong camp draft, the Shearers Shindig Thargomindah 2025, Hillston Golf Club (Cancer council Australia), Hill Grove Progress Association, Goondiwindi Lions Club Christmas Eve fireworks celebration, Narrabri Clay Target Club, Narrabri Junior Rugby Club, Armadale Rams Rugby League Football Club, Civil Contractors Federation TAS, Moree Show Society, Yellow Belly Hunt Fishing Competition 2025, Rob’s Memorial Clay Target Shoot, Dungowan Junior Rugby League, Cumnock Village Preschool, Tomingley Picnic Race Club, Walcha Jockey Club, Monto Race Club, Cooma District Junior Rugby League Club and the Cooma Colts, The Variety Bash, West Lawn Tigers Football Club, McGrath Foundation, Griffith Swans Australia, Cambooya Pony Club, Cunnamulla Bowls and Golf Clubs, Lifecycle Upper Murray, Yaraka Gymkhana, the Stroud Stockman Challenge, Walcha Rugby Union Club, Townsville Yacht Club, Mulgrave Basketball and the Lake Meran Public Purposes Reserve Committee. The list goes on and on. Our community engagement initiatives also extend to supporting national Australian annual events including Australia Day and Anzac Day. Our retail sites ‘theme-up” their stores encouraging conversations and celebrations. We also understand our professional sports people also need support throwing our commitment behind Baileys Racing. For more years than we can remember we have also provided sponsorship of the Agricultural Societies Council of NSW Ltd ASC/ Suncorp Dryland and Field Wheat & Durum Wheat competitions. In Tasmania, local and thanks to Mate TV, national character Squizzy the Lobsterman also receives our support through fuel and lubricants. Behind the glory of TV, he struggles to keep his boat running year after year.
And then there’s our commitment to Movember – our annual ‘lip fur fest’ continues to grow as participants, and funds raised, literally double and triple every year. In 2022 we made it into Movember’s Hall of Fame when we raised our highest amount of $12,500. In 2023 it was a record $31,797 and then last year just under $45,000 – close to $110,000 raised since our staff decided to rally.
Philanthropy is one thing – but it’s also through our business, we have committed to making a difference by building a thriving regional Australia. Ask any Chamber of Commerce or Local Council what is needed to hinge a town, and they will tell you – commercial commitment by major retailers. And we’re doing just that. We’ve embarked on a long-term plan and strategy to roll out “The Local Hub” in Lowes Petroleum service stations and add to existing retail landscapes. This provides locals and tourists with services not often available in regional centres. We’re creating a hub where people can get together: whether they come for a coffee or to charge their phone at our charging stations, grab a bite to eat or even exchange or fill a gas bottle. A one-stop shop with virtually everything you could want from fuel, to somewhere to dine, to even picking up some groceries for the trip. As the name suggests, we’re here to support the local community and create a space that feels like your neighbourhood hub. Increased commercial confidence also creates further employment in the regions.
While many companies are pulling their resources out of country Australia – we continue to put them in.
ACAPMA
