Fuel prices spike in Outback towns

Bourke truckie and mechanic Scott Parry gives the thumbs down to diesel prices surging over $3.00 per litre. Photo Ian Cole TWH

Story Ian Cole

Fuel prices have risen by as much as 60 cents per litre in the last week in outback towns like Bourke, Brewarrina and Walgett, and some operators are being asked to pay more than $3.00 per litre for bulk fuel.

Local truckie and operator of Garf’s Mechanical Services at North Bourke, Scott Parry was shocked this week to be quoted $3.10 per litres for a delivery to his bulk storage.

Mr Parry, who has years of a lot experience in trucking and mechanical work on farms and workshops, said he has never seen anything like the current spike in prices.

“It’s just come out of nowhere, every day its seems to be going up again and I can’t see it dropping until this war is over,” he told The Western Herald.

“I was going to get 4000 litres, and I cut it back to 1300, and paying for that was bad enough. It could be $4 or $5 a litre next time and I’ll be kicking myself for not buying earlier.”

Mr Parry deals daily with farmers, travellers, business people and truck operators who tell him that they are feeling the pinch of these enormous fuel prices.

“Everyone is feeling it,” he said, “I’ve got a couple of trucks, and you’ve got to ask yourself, do you put your prices up or do you keep them as they are? You can’t absorb extra cost and it’s hard to put your prices up, so you just hang on and see what happens.

“It might even come to a situation where we can’t afford it without passing on the price to customers, or we won’t have fuel supplies at all.

“I wouldn’t like to be harvesting a cotton crop or trucking sheep or cattle in or out – that would be a problem”.

On Tuesday in Bourke, diesel was selling at BP and Ampol for $2.95/litre and ordinary unleaded petrol was $2.49/litre.

At Brewarrina the Shell Service station had diesel at $2.99 per litre and at Walgett, Inland Petroleum was selling diesel at $2.96 per litre. Lightning Ridge was slightly cheaper with Ampol prices at $2.93 per litre for diesel.

In Dubbo diesel prices were as high as $2.80 per litre and at Nyngan, one service station was selling diesel at $3.00 per litre.

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