{"id":584540,"date":"2026-04-04T07:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584540\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T07:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T07:34:10","slug":"australians-cancel-easter-travel-as-worries-mount-over-fuel-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584540\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians cancel Easter travel as worries mount over fuel crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney, Australia
Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

Every Easter, Sydney retiree Elsa Ucak is one of the millions of Australians that hit the road to travel during the four-day-long weekend.<\/p>\n

But this year, she has cancelled her trip with her husband because she could not justify how much petrol her getaway would use.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cars queue to cross Anzac Bridge during peak hour in Sydney, Australia, on 30th March, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Hollie Adams\/File photo<\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually go to the countryside, but because of the petrol situation, we decided to stay at home this year,\u201d said Ucak, 66.<\/p>\n

A long trip would be costly and also consume fuel that could be used by people who needed it more, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] six or seven hours drive to the countryside\u2026it\u2019s expensive. Also we\u2019ve got to think about it \u2013 working people need their petrol, [but] we\u2019re retired, we can stay at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually go with a group of friends, everyone cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Easter long weekend is typically one of the busiest travel times of the year in Australia. In 2025, more than 4.5 million people had been expected to travel over the period, spending $A11.1 billion on their trips, according to research firm Roy Morgan.<\/p>\n

\tWe rely on our readers to fund Sight’s work – become a financial supporter today!<\/p>\n

But many plans this year have been disrupted by the outbreak of the Iran war on 28th February and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked global energy supplies.<\/p>\n

Australia, which imports about 90 per cent of its fuel, has experienced localised shortages and seen prices soar, with diesel costing more than $A3 per litre and petrol more than $A2.50 last week before the government cut fuel taxes to help bring prices down.<\/p>\n

Rachel Abbott, a 27-year-old art director, has also shelved her travel plans this Easter.<\/p>\n

While she would typically go home to north-east Victoria, both the cost of driving and flights made her decide to stay in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cWork\u2019s just been quite busy and flights are very expensive, and then if I were to drive, obviously it would be a lot more expensive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Art director Rachel Abbott, 27, at Circular Quay in Sydney, Australia, on 3rd April, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Cordelia Hsu<\/p>\n

Aid worker Stav Zotalis, 59, said her holiday plans were unaffected since she prefers to stay at home for Easter, but this year \u201cdoes feel very different\u201d due to the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that we can celebrate. It feels like the world is shaky, it\u2019s unpredictable. And I feel that we don\u2019t know where things are going.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she has felt the strain of higher costs at the petrol station and supermarket, she said she was more concerned about those in the conflict zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been an overseas aid worker for 25 years and I lived in Asia for 14 years, and I know people that live closer to the conflict are having to forgo food. Not just trips interstate or to the coast, like some of us here in Australia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney, AustraliaReuters Every Easter, Sydney retiree Elsa Ucak is one of the millions of Australians that hit the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,271790,5575,206980,44,19136,130869,143126],"class_list":{"0":"post-584540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-easter-holidays","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-iran-war","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-oil","15":"tag-petrol-prices","16":"tag-strait-of-hormuz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}