When Leanne Bull was just 13 she worked at the family service station serving fuel, washing windscreens and counting the takings. It was in Geelong in the 1970s, and a good long weekend might pull in $26,000. The family also had a car yard and panel shop.
The family was doing well. “We had farms at Drysdale; we had a blocks of land at Port Arlington; we had boats; we had absolutely everything,” says the founder and principal of Bull Financial Group, based in Bundaberg, Queensland.
But all that changed in 1980. “As soon as the petrol price doubled from 30c [a litre] to 60c in 1980, they sold everything and moved to Queensland with $1000,” Bull says.