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Average Fuel Prices Per State
Owning a car opens up a whole new world of freedoms - but it also adds significantly to your list of responsibilities. Not only are there the ongoing costs of registration, servicing, and maintenance to worry about but there’s also the price of petrol, which is something we’re all guilty of overlooking.
Whether you run the tank dry or ensure it doesn’t drop past that half-full mark, all motorists will find themselves at a service station from time to time. But thanks to technological advancements and app development, there are plenty of ways to save yourself on price at the pump. Before heading out on the road, you can browse local petrol prices, compare types of petrol, and even point other motorists in the right direction to save some cash.
If you don’t mind driving that little bit further once you’ve found a good deal, read on below to discover tips and tricks to saving big time at the pump.
annual average retail petrol prices
Petrol snapshot June quarter 2022
Below we can see a snapshot of the June 2022 quarter’s average retail petrol prices
across Australia compared to the previous quarter.
Tap on petrol icons (
) to view petrol prices
Darwin
194.8c
8.7
Brisbane
190.8c
6.2
Sydney
189.8c
7.1
Perth
186.2c
4.5
Adelaide
184c
5.2
Melbourne
189.3c
7.7
Hobart
197c
1.8
5 largest cities
Source: ACCC
average petrol prices in the 5 largest cities
Components of retail petrol prices in the quarter
The changes in the components for this quarter reflect the halving of the excise and the significant increase in Mogas 95 prices.
- Other costs and margins (wholesale and retail)
- Taxes (excise and GST)
- International cost of refined petrol (Mogas 95)
Source: ACCC
Retail prices by state: March 2022 to June 2022
There’s plenty to consider when looking at the jump between the March and June 2022 quarters. The average retail petrol price for June increased to 188.0 cpl (cents per litre) for the country’s five largest cities.
That’s 6.1 cpl greater than the average for the March 2022 quarter of 181.9 cpl. Though this is quite a jump, we saw a larger increase in fuel prices from December 2021 to March 2022 when prices jumped from 162.8 cpl to 181.9 cpl: a hike of 19.1 cpl.
The table below shows a breakdown of the five largest capital cities and the petrol price fluctuations from March to June.
As we can see, the biggest price increase was in Melbourne (7.7 cpl), while Perth saw the smallest (4.5 cpl).
Quarterly average retail petrol prices (cpl) for Australia’s 5 largest cities: March 2022 and June 2022 quarters
|
Sydney |
Melbourne |
Brisbane |
Adelaide |
Perth |
5 largest cities |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
March 2022 |
182.7 |
181.6 |
184.6 |
178.8 |
181.7 |
181.9 |
|
June 2022 |
189.8 |
189.3 |
190.8 |
184 |
186.2 |
188 |
|
Change |
7.1 |
7.7 |
6.2 |
5.2 |
4.5 |
6.1 |
Source: ACCC cal culations based on FUELtrac data
Regional vs. metropolitan fuel prices
Realistically, there will always be disparities in petrol prices between regional towns and metropolitan areas thanks to the saturation levels of local competition. ACCC Chairman Rod Sims explains that "regional Australians have [historically] paid more for petrol than motorists in the five largest cities". Other reasons for this price disparity include:
- Decreased levels of local competition
- Location and distance factors
- Lower volumes of petrol being sold
For the June 2022 quarter, regional petrol prices were fairly similar to capital city prices, averaging 193.1 cpl - 5.1 cpl higher than the average prices seen in the country's five largest cities.
We can see in the graph below how average retail petrol prices have fluctuated in metropolitan versus regional areas over the past couple of years.
Monthly average retail petrol prices (cpl) from January 2020 to June 2022, for regional locations vs 5 largest cities
Source: ACCC calculations based on FUELtrac data
How much do Australians spend on petrol?
We know the average petrol prices per state, and in regional areas compared to metropolitan areas, but how much do Australians actually spend on petrol each month?
According to Compare the Market’s Bill Shock Tracker survey, the average cost for filling up in June 2022 was $192.68, an increase of 75% from September 2021. That’s about $20 extra per week! New South Wales takes the cake for the highest average petrol costs for residents. On average, they can be looking at a staggering $198.35 a month.
Paying more than $2 per litre is becoming the new norm for Aussies all around the country.
|
Avg monthly spend |
Avg monthly spend on |
Percentage |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Nationwide |
$110.58 |
$192.63 |
^74.19% |
|
New South Wales |
$113.50 |
$198.35 |
^74.75% |
|
Queensland |
$123.40 |
$188.72 |
^52.93% |
|
Victoria |
$111.60 |
$194.24 |
^74.05% |
Source: Compare the Market
Global costs of fuel: How does Australia compare?
Even though petrol is expensive here, it can always be worse. Spare a thought for our friends in Switzerland, who, in July 2022, were facing prices of $2.37 per litre.
And that’s not in Australian dollars. That’s US dollars, which at the time of writing (September 2022) is a whopping $3.44 AUD.
Australia is not actually that close to being the most expensive place to buy fuel in. We’re currently 14th among 23 G20 countries. The top 5 are as follows:
Switzerland: $2.37 USD/Litre
Netherlands: $2.15 USD/Litre
Singapore: $2.03 USD/Litre
The United Kingdom: $1.99 USD/Litre
Spain: $1.88 USD/Litre
Source: Trading Economics
Developments in the petroleum industry
ACCC monitoring the halving of the fuel excise and reintroduction of full excise
One big step to attempt to reduce the exorbitant prices being paid by Australians on fuel was to halve the fuel excise. The fuel excise is a tax included in the price of fuel when you pay at the counter, intended to cover the cost of the transportation of refined products. It represents a significant part of the wholesale price and is then reflected in the retail price.
In March 2022, the Australian Government announced that there would be a halving of the fuel excise from 44.2 cpl to 22.1 cpl for 6 months until September 2022. While it might seem like this cut isn’t doing anything to keep prices down, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said otherwise.
“We can see from our petrol market monitoring that the cut to the fuel excise has been passed on to Australian motorists in the vast majority of locations,” she said.
According to the ACCC, daily average petrol prices calculated across the five largest cities decreased by around 42 cpl between 29 March and 19 April after the excise was halved.
Following the announcement, the ACCC has been closely monitoring how the excise cut has affected the nation by examining the movements in daily average petrol prices. The ACCC upgraded its collection of fuel prices to receive the averages daily, and with this has regularly assessed the data, “to consider the extent to which retail prices had decreased in line with the decrease in excise.”
The excise is planned to be reintroduced on 29 September and will start strong as 46.0 cpl.
Significant increase in inflation due to fuel prices
In July 2022 the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) results from the June quarter. The CPI is the measure of inflation for the Australian economy and helps define the cost of living. Each category for living expenses for an Australian household (goods and services like food, education, health etc) has a certain weight in the CPI.
Over the 12 months since the June quarter of 2021, the CPI rose 6.1%, with automotive fuel prices rising a staggering 32.1%.
Tips to save on fuel
While prices remain high, here’s what you can do in the meantime to save money on fuel. For more tips on how to save money on fuel, check out our top 6 tips to save on fuel article.
Keep a close eye on the cycles and fill up in the troughs rather than the peaks.
Enjoy some bonding time with others and save money by making trips together instead of separately.
Not only does public transport save you on fuel, it’s also better for the environment as it’s much more energy efficient than one person driving a vehicle.
As your tyres are holding the entire weight of your vehicle, it’s important to keep the air pressure at the correct level.
Fuel apps to help you save
Another way to save some cash when filling up is to download a fuel comparison app and do some digging into where fuel is the cheapest.
Not only do these provide real-time fuel price information, but most offer in-built satellite-map programming, so you can view petrol stations on a map and click around to find the best deal near you.
Within these programs, motorists can update prices after visiting a service station, and even earn rewards for being a regular user. To make things even more appealing, some even offer ‘price locks’ where users can ‘lock in’ a cheap price deal to use at a later date. There’s no shortage of fuel apps for Australians to download. We’ve compiled a list of the most popular ones below:
