No Petrol, No Diesel!

Big business and a struggling rural town collide in this good-natured movie, which was made with extensive community goodwill and a shoestring budget. Writer, director and policeman Stef Harris reunited the key cast from his debut movie The Waimate Conspiracy, but moved the action up the highway from Waimate to Temuka. Screen veteran Jim Moriarty and Helen Pearse-Otene play siblings fighting to retain the town petrol station against a slimy corporate negotiator (Mark Hadlow). David McPhail plays the kind-hearted cop caught in the middle. Harris based the script — very loosely — on his 2003 novel The Hydrosnipe.

No petrol, no jobs. No jobs, no blokes. No Blokes, no beer, no pub. Those bastards are killing this town.

– Stella (Janice Gray) complains about the effects of the local petrol station not having any petrol

Key Cast & Crew

Stef Harris

Director, Writer, Producer

Jim Moriarty

As: Oscar Devlin

David McPhail

As: Elvis

Helen Pearse-Otene

As: Frankie

John Brawley

Cinematographer

Mark Hadlow

As: Martin Bligh