{"id":626513,"date":"2026-04-23T21:23:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626513\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T21:23:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T21:23:26","slug":"fuel-prices-in-australia-how-rising-costs-are-forcing-australians-to-change-their-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626513\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel prices in Australia: how rising costs are forcing Australians to change their habits"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Iran-United States-Israel conflict nears two months, many Australians have had to adjust their lives to manage rising fuel costs.<\/p>\n

From cutting weekend trips to walking to work and restructuring an entire farming program, people are implementing strategies to ease the pressure on their hip pockets.<\/p>\n

Here’s what people from across Australia are saying.<\/p>\n

Melbourne, Vic<\/p>\n

Melanee Jordan is a primary school office manager who lives in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.<\/p>\n

She recently visited her daughter in Tasmania and decided against taking her car on the Spirit of Tasmania due to petrol costs and a 15 per cent fuel surcharge imposed by the ferry operator.<\/p>\n

“It was just going to be too expensive,” Ms Jordan said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u00a0Melanee Jordan says petrol prices are curtailing her weekend drives. (ABC News: Monty Jacka)<\/p>\n

She also scrapped plans to rent a car in Tasmania, deciding it was a “waste of money”, and relied on her daughter and public transport instead.<\/p>\n

At home, she said, rising petrol prices were making her reluctant to go out as much.<\/p>\n

“I was getting in the car and going for weekend drives somewhere, but now I’ve put a halt to that,” Ms Jordan said.<\/p>\n

“Because why would I spend $100 on a tank of fuel just to visit some places?”<\/p>\n

If fuel prices do not improve soon, Ms Jordan said she would look to spend less on entertainment and cancel subscriptions to some streaming services.<\/p>\n

Brisbane, Qld<\/p>\n

Brisbane postal worker Dean Brown said spending $150 a week to fill his car and motorbike was becoming stressful.<\/p>\n

“I have to buy less,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I buy less food and groceries because I’ve got to factor in a different budget with these higher fuel prices.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u00a0Dean Brown is spending $150 a week to keep his car and motorbike fuelled up. (ABC News: Liana Walker)<\/p>\n

Mr Brown said he tried to hold off on filling up until prices went down.<\/p>\n

“I end up spending more money regardless of what I do,” he said.<\/p>\n

Track the latest petrol and diesel prices around Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

See what’s happening with petrol and diesel prices near you, updated constantly.<\/p>\n

He said, to save money, he has been using more public transport, which has been challenging due to track closures around Brisbane.<\/p>\n

He said if prices continued to stay high, he would have to sell his car, which he only purchased eight months ago.<\/p>\n

“It’s not worth it when it’s high petrol prices, high insurance prices, and high registration prices all combined into one thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Griffith, NSW<\/p>\n

Southern New South Wales cotton grower Sam Ryan said the conditions had created a challenging environment heading into harvest.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a perfect storm, I suppose, coming into the picking season now with fuel prices where they are,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The pickers themselves will use over a thousand litres a day in diesel. So that’s a concern.”<\/p>\n

\"Cotton<\/p>\n

Sam Ryan says the fuel prices have created a “perfect storm” as he prepares for harvest. (ABC News: Cara Jeffery)<\/p>\n

Mr Ryan said fertiliser availability was also weighing heavily on growers as they planned for next season.<\/p>\n

“My main concern at the moment is not only the price of it, but the uncertainty of if it’s going to turn up,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said rising input costs and stagnant returns were putting farmers under pressure and influencing decision-making about winter crops.<\/p>\n

“With fuel where it is, fertiliser where it is and the climate outlook with water, I’m expecting an even lower allocation of water and probably higher prices,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Just on my farm, I can see us probably shutting the gates for the season now and hoping for rain.<\/p>\n

“We’re copping it at all angles at the moment.”<\/p>\n

Karratha, WA<\/p>\n

In the regional city of Karratha, 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, grandmother Tammy Brown said the\u00a0cost\u00a0of fuel\u00a0has meant\u00a0missing\u00a0out on\u00a0seeing her family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said her daughter and granddaughter can no longer afford the fuel for the 16-hour drive north to see her.<\/p>\n

“She’d probably be looking at about $900 each way, and then she needs accommodation \u2014 she’s got a one-year-old \u2014 she doesn’t want to drive the whole way through,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Tammy<\/p>\n

Tammy Brown says the\u00a0cost\u00a0of fuel\u00a0has meant\u00a0she is missing out on seeing her grandchildren. (ABC News: Mietta Adams)<\/p>\n

“I feel a bit devastated; I see my grandkids every school holidays if I can \u2026 and it just makes me feel like I have cut them off.”<\/p>\n

Ms Brown’s parents, who are pensioners, can also no longer afford their planned visits.<\/p>\n

She said the uncertainty of when she would see her family was starting to take its toll.<\/p>\n

“FaceTime’s a great thing, but that doesn’t give you that contact,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It affects your mental health because you look forward to these times to spend with your family \u2026 It makes me feel even more isolated.”Hobart, Tas<\/p>\n

Hospitality worker Stratton Meyer has been forced to change his 20km commute from Gagebrook to Hobart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“With the rising cost of fuel, I’ve had to change things around so that I now drive halfway to work and then walk the other half,” Mr Meyer said.<\/p>\n

The decision added about 30 minutes to his commute each way, but helped his household achieve their new target of operating on a “half-tank basis”.<\/p>\n

\"Stratton<\/p>\n

Stratton Meyer is driving halfway to work, then walking the rest. (ABC News: Monty Jacka)<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to eke out a half-tank week to week to make sure we’re not having to spend twice as much on fuel,” he said.<\/p>\n

If things continued to head in the same direction, he was preparing for the possibility of abandoning his vehicle altogether.<\/p>\n

“I’m hoping it doesn’t come to me having to cycle an hour to work each day \u2026 but if things don’t get better, we’ll see what has to happen,” Mr Meyer said.<\/p>\n

Riding his bike from his home in Sandy Bay to work in the Hobart CBD has helped Keiran Quartly avoid pain at the petrol bowser.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re not impacting me [because] I ride my bike to work,” Mr Quartly said.<\/p>\n

\"Keiran<\/p>\n

Keiran Quartly rides his bicycle from his home in Sandy Bay to the Hobart CBD each day. (ABC News: Monty Jacka)<\/p>\n

It was a habit the public servant already had before the fuel crisis, something he said he was “not really thinking about”.<\/p>\n

“I just don’t let it bother me, basically,” he said.<\/p>\n

While he did notice the higher cost when he filled up his car on the weekend, Mr Quartly said he was not letting it affect him.<\/p>\n

“I notice it’s a lot more expensive to fill up, but I’m not letting it stop me from going on adventures on the weekend and things like that,” he said.<\/p>\n

Wauchope, NSW<\/p>\n

Chris Sturt, who runs a nursery at Wauchope on the NSW Mid North Coast, said demand for vegetable seedlings had skyrocketed, with interest from backyard growers reaching levels similar to during the COVID lockdowns.<\/p>\n

Mr Stuart said demand was being driven by cost-of-living pressures and fears of further price rises.<\/p>\n

“This is a whole different ball game,” he said.\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Sturt says everything has gone up, not just fuel. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“The problem isn’t getting out now; it’s the cost of fuel and the cost of living in general.<\/p>\n

“We’ve noticed in the supermarkets, prices where things were $3.50\/kilo are now $10.90\/kilo, and it’s a vegetable that’s still in season.<\/p>\n

“People are thinking, ‘instead of paying $11\/kilo, I can spend $30 on a range of seeds or seedlings.”<\/p>\n

“They’re out into the garden now \u2026 so they can become self-sufficient.<\/p>\n

“They’re already feeling it at the bowser with fuel \u2026 so they’re being proactive [in the garden].”<\/p>\n

Wyalkatchem, WA<\/p>\n

In Western Australia’s Central Wheatbelt, Owen Garner crops around 3,300 hectares between Wyalkatchem and Trayning.<\/p>\n

He said this was among the toughest of times he had experienced in farming.<\/p>\n

Fertiliser supply had seen him pivot from traditional wheat crops \u2014 which needed a few fertiliser applications \u2014 to crops such as lupins, which used much less.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Owen Garner says this is among the toughest of times he’s experienced in farming. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

“We’ve gone from one paddock of lupins to two, and that’s [only] because of available seed, otherwise we probably would have increased more again.”<\/p>\n

Fertiliser-hungry canola is already in the ground, planted at a bigger scale before the scope of the Middle East unrest became clear.<\/p>\n

“We can’t suck it back up and change that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, that is our highest nitrogen consumer as well, but it’s also our highest gross margin, so we need to look after that, and that will be our priority going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Any nitrogen we get will be going on the canola.”<\/p>\n

He said the mood among the local farming sector was “pretty flat”.<\/p>\n

“Knowing that you’re likely to bust your freckle all year and you need a good season to break even, it can weigh on people a bit.”<\/p>\n

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