Roadhouse offers friendly comfort

BY ALF WILSON

With the tourist season winding up into full swing the BP Bamaga Roadhouse now employs about 25 workers, 90 per cent of whom are local.

The popular roadhouse services those living in sister communities, Bamaga, Injinoo, Umagico, New Mapoon and Seisia, and has the largest fuel tanks in the NPA.

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has been told staff are amongst the friendliest you might meet, and always try and please their customers.

General Manager Tom Kelly said as well as locals, there were aways a lot of visitors from as far away as Cairns coming through.

“There is a lot of construction work going on up here and the trucks come from south, and we also get local Council vehicles and tourists buses here,” he said.

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“We have fuel tanks with the biggest capacity and stock more than we need to but want to be sure we have enough at all times.”

He said many of the staff had worked there for a long time, including roadhouse manager Bewan Idai.

“Bewan has been there for 10 years and the roadhouse has been around for 15 years,” Mr Kelly said.

“Staff are well known to locals.”

Being under the BP banner, that is also of great benefit to staff who receive the latest training.

“They get the latest online training which assists greatly,” he said.

The roadhouse has a café and mini mart restaurant which serves up tasty food, and also some is cooked at the nearby lodge run by Bamaga Enterprises Limited.

“We serve up fresh food as much as we can and try and keep it as healthy as possible. The staff often do health kicks, ” Mr Kelly said. It is open between 6.30am and 8pm daily and customers take advantage of 24/7 services and re-fuel around the clock with a 24-hour outdoor payment terminal, offering unleaded petrol (ULP 91), premium unleaded (PULP 95) and diesel.

A 24-hour ATM is also on site so customers can top up on cash at their convenience.

The café offers hot take-away food ranging from dim sims and hot dogs to daily specials including hot and spicy chicken and crab claws. Also some of the favourites include burgers, fish and chips, pizzas and sandwiches and these mostly sell out daily.

Whilst a lot of supplies are road transported to Bamaga along mostly red corrugated roads six months of the year, in the wet season it has to come by sea.

I asked Mr Kelly this thoughts on why the roadhouse was so popular.

“It’s like being in a successful football team, you want to be part of it,” he said.

Do you really need it? Watch out for these marketing tactics to avoid being sucked the mid-year sales vortex

There are several behavioural biases exploited by business when it comes to sales season: fear of missing out (FOMO), scarcity bias, confirmation bias, anchoring bias and loss aversion bias, to name a few, RMIT Associate Professor of Finance Dr Angel Zhong says.

“With the current rising cost of living, uncertainty in the economy and rapidly rising interest rates, consumers may be more likely to fall victim to certain behavioural biases,” she said.

bias and scarcity bias, which may cause them to feel like they need to take advantage of sales and discounts, even if they don’t need the item.

“The economic uncertainty and anxiety that can arise during times of rising cost of living can also make consumers more susceptible to other biases, such as confirmation bias and anchoring bias.

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“When prices for essential goods and services such as food, housing, and healthcare are increasing, consumers may feel more pressure to find ways to save money.

“This can make them more vulnerable to behaviours driven by FOMO, loss aversion

“This may cause them to seek out information that confirms their decisions to make a purchase, while ignoring any evidence that suggests they should reconsider, or to be influenced by the original price of an item even if the actual price is still relatively high.”

She said it was important to be aware of these biases and take steps to avoid overspending.