That’s the opinion of Neville Marsden, who was one of the many locals to wander into D&S Motors while the Braidwood Times visited.

 After over 100 years on main street, what is now D&S Motors will close down in the coming months.

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Owner Murray Robertson has worked at the garage for 45 years, since he finished school at 18.

And that’s not counting weekends, and after-school he’d done before that. All up, it’s been about 50 years.

Before Murray took over the business, it was owned by his father Ian Robertson.

The decision to close has been a long while coming. Its impetus was the decision by IAG to close down its branch in Braidwood.

​“I’m still going to work, but I’m just getting sick of working the hours that I work,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, so the opportunity’s come.”

Even after giving up the NRMA Roadside Assist role 10 years ago, the work at D&S is still intense.

On Monday, Mr Robertson pulled a 22 hour day.

After 26 years using D&S Motors, customer Neville Marsden knows just how important the business is to the town.

It’s “the end of an era and a local institution,” by his reckoning.

“It’ll be a sad day for Braidwood,” he said. 

“There’ll be a lot of people, they’ve done a lot of work for a lot of people for nothing, that I know of.”