Our Story

On the 10th of March 1991, Mal and Kerry Tolson open the doors of Alstonville Automotive Services. Two days prior, Mal had marched out of the Australian Army after 10+ years as a Mechanic working on all types of vehicles (petrol & diesel) from motor vehicles, 4WD's, Trucks to Armoured Personal Carriers. Mal joined the Army as a fresh face 16-year-old recruit to undertake his mechanical engineer apprenticeship and served in various postings and field workshops. Leaving the Army on March 9th, Mal and Kerry, along with their then two-year-old son, Sebastian, moved to the North Coast deciding to settle in Alstonville, a village and area where they knew absolutely no one but had fallen in love with the close-knit community atmosphere and values. They considered it to be the perfect place to raise a child.

Alstonville Automotive Services first open its doors at the end of Green Street, Alstonville, in a little green shed behind the showgrounds. Five years later, the business, which had grown in both services and employees, moved to the corner of Kays Lane and Russellton Drive in the Russellton Industrial Estate, where it became a well-known business icon of the area. Over the next 15 years Alstonville Automotive Services grew and continued to expand, offering services beyond the general mechanical repairs & services to LPG Conversions and repairs, RMS inspections including LPG, Blue Slips and Defect Notice Clearances and over the years trained numerous apprentices into the automotive trade, some of whom have gone on to own and operated their own mechanical workshops.

In 2010 Alstonville Automotive Services moved again, to its present site at 33 Northcott Crescent in the Russellton Industrial Estate (cnr of Hugh & Northcott) which gave further room for growth, incorporating engine reconditioning, Australian designed in-house brake and power steering hose manufacturing and general machining. This expansion came about when the business went into a second generation with son, Sebastian joining the business.