---
title: "Firewood side hustle grows into a four-state winter business"
author: "Tom Walsh"
datePublished: 2026-07-20T21:44:00.000Z
canonical: "https://dudeworld.com.au/post/00tig5c0uygcy/firewood-side-hustle-four-state-business"
---

A cold week does funny things to a servo forecourt. One minute the firewood stack is just another thing beside the ice freezer; next thing, everyone who forgot to top up the wood box is loading bags into the boot. [ABC News reporting on Peter Chauncy’s business](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/petrol-station-firewood-starts-at-canyonleigh-farm-nsw/106883990) shows the NSW farmer turning a drought-and-bushfire workaround into a four-state operation selling about 1 million bags a year. That is a lot of old-fashioned heat sold in very modern convenience packaging.

Chauncy, 70, started cutting and bagging timber on his 670-hectare Canyonleigh farm after drought and bushfire blew up his original farming plan. What began as bags sold from the front of a service station now reaches roughly 3,000 servo sites across NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia through [Best Burning Fire Fuels](https://www.bestburningfirefuels.com.au/). The practical lesson is not hard to spot: people still want wood heat, but plenty would rather grab it on the way home than organise a trailer, a load and half a Saturday.

This is more useful than the usual side-hustle fairy floss. Firewood is heavy, dirty and seasonal. Scaling that sort of product should be awkward. Yet Chauncy’s business is loading up to 25 trucks a day nationwide, according to the ABC report, because cold weather creates demand that does not need much explaining. Put the product where people already stop and the weather does half the selling.

In [the ABC’s interview with Chauncy](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/petrol-station-firewood-starts-at-canyonleigh-farm-nsw/106883990), he put the business in plain survival terms.

> “I guess I’ve always had to live off the skin of my teeth”  
> Peter Chauncy, ABC News

That line keeps the story out of startup theatre. Chauncy saw that campers, fireplace households and anyone caught short in a cold snap wanted bagged wood where they were already pulling in. No pitch deck needed.

The demand showed up quickly. Chauncy told [ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/petrol-station-firewood-starts-at-canyonleigh-farm-nsw/106883990) the forecourt bags started moving almost straight away.

> “After about three weeks, I had enough business where I didn’t have to knock on a door”  
> Peter Chauncy, ABC News

That is a cleaner signal than polished sales talk. Once a winter product solves an immediate problem, distribution does the heavy lifting. Service stations put firewood in front of regional travellers, suburban households and anyone who realised, usually too late, that the wood box was getting low.

## What it says about winter demand

There is a broader retail read here. A bag of split timber is bulky, rough and low glamour, which is exactly why the servo works. The car is already there. The boot is empty enough. The customer knows what the lounge room will feel like tonight.

Chauncy also framed the business around family rather than expansion jargon when he spoke to [ABC News](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/petrol-station-firewood-starts-at-canyonleigh-farm-nsw/106883990).

> “Family is everything for me … and that’s what I work for and what I live for”  
> Peter Chauncy, ABC News

That is probably why the story travels beyond agriculture. It sits with all the winter household decisions around heating, fuel bills and getting through a cold week without making life harder than it already is. The product is old-school. The convenience piece is not.

For readers in the southern states especially, the takeaway is pretty simple. Winter still creates bankable demand around warmth and home comfort. Businesses that remove hassle from those purchases can go a long way. One bloke selling bags from a servo sounds small. A network across four states and about 3,000 locations says the firewood run still has a fair bit of life in it.