Petrol Prices Statistics in Australia 2026 | History, Prices & Key Facts

Petrol Prices in Australia 2026

Petrol prices in Australia 2026 have told one of the most dramatic stories in the nation’s modern fuel-price history, swinging from a relatively stable start to the year into a genuine crisis and back toward normal within four months. When a conflict in the Middle East escalated sharply on 28 February 2026, it triggered an immediate shock through global oil markets, sending Australian terminal gate petrol prices surging by 78.6 cents per litre, or around 52%, between 20 February and the end of March alone. Retail prices followed closely behind: the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recorded average retail petrol prices across the five largest capital cities climbing to a peak of 257.2 cents per litre by 31 March 2026, with diesel hit even harder, surging 146.9 cents per litre (around 91%) at the wholesale level over the same five-week window.

The federal government responded decisively, announcing on 30 March 2026 that it would halve the fuel excise for three months, a move that, combined with states and territories agreeing to forgo GST revenue on the cut, delivered combined relief of approximately 32 cents per litre from 1 April 2026. Since then, prices have fallen even further than that relief alone would suggest, as global oil markets calmed following a 15 June 2026 diplomatic breakthrough between the United States and Iran. By the ACCC’s most recent weekly fuel price monitoring report, released 19 June 2026, average retail petrol prices across the five largest cities had fallen to just 163.9 cents per litre, below pre-conflict levels and the lowest point of the entire 2026 cycle. This article compiles the latest, most current verified statistics on Australian petrol prices, the excise system, and the historic 2026 price cycle, sourced directly from ACCC monitoring data.

Interesting Facts About Petrol Prices in Australia 2026

Source: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring Reports, 13 March 2026 through 19 June 2026; Australian Taxation Office, Excise duty rates for fuel and petroleum products; Grant Thornton Australia, “Fuel excise halved” client alert (April 2026); Department of Infrastructure, Fact sheet: fuel excise relief measures (April 2026)

The facts table above documents what is almost certainly the most volatile single petrol-price episode in recent Australian history, compressed into roughly sixteen weeks. The scale of the initial shock is striking on its own: a 52% jump in wholesale petrol prices and a 91% jump in wholesale diesel prices within five weeks reflects just how directly and immediately Australia’s fuel market, which imports the overwhelming majority of its refined product, is exposed to international supply shocks — in this case, disruption linked to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical oil shipping chokepoints. The ACCC’s data shows retail prices in major cities moved largely in step with wholesale costs on the same day, rather than the typical lagged response seen in calmer markets, suggesting the speed of the international shock left little room for the usual buffer between wholesale and bowser pricing.

What makes the 2026 episode equally remarkable is the speed and completeness of the subsequent recovery. By the time of the ACCC’s fifteenth weekly report, published 19 June 2026, average retail petrol prices across Australia’s five largest cities had fallen to 163.9 cents per litre — actually lower than prices recorded immediately before the conflict began. This recovery was driven by a combination of the government’s 32 cents per litre excise relief and a genuine de-escalation in global energy markets following the 18 June 2026 interim agreement between the United States and Iran, which included provisions to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ease sanctions on Iranian oil exports. The ACCC’s own consumer complaint data offers a useful real-world gauge of public sentiment through this period: fuel-related complaints made up 29% of all ACCC contacts in March 2026, the peak of the crisis, before collapsing to just 300 reports across the first 25 days of May as prices fell and public anxiety eased.

The 2026 Petrol Price Spike: Week-by-Week Statistics

Average Retail Petrol Price, 5 Largest Cities (cents per litre), Feb–Jun 2026
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
20 Feb 2026 (pre-conflict)  │████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  ~161 cpl (est. baseline)
11 Mar 2026                 │████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░  240.2 cpl
31 Mar 2026 (PEAK)          │████████████████████████████████  257.2 cpl
27 May 2026                 │█████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  183.5 cpl
3 Jun 2026                  │████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  173.3 cpl
17 Jun 2026 (most recent)   │███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  163.9 cpl
                            └──────────────────────────────────────────
                                   (Source: ACCC Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring
                                   Reports, March–June 2026)

Source: ACCC Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring Reports — 13 March 2026, 2 April 2026, 29 May 2026, 5 June 2026, and 19 June 2026 editions

The week-by-week trajectory captures both the violence of the initial spike and the steadiness of the subsequent decline. Prices climbed from a pre-conflict baseline to 240.2 cents per litre by 11 March, just twelve days after the conflict escalated, before continuing to climb through the entire month of March to a confirmed peak of 257.2 cents per litre on 31 March 2026 — the highest point recorded in the ACCC’s entire weekly monitoring series. Notably, the ACCC’s 2 April report flagged that terminal gate (wholesale) prices had actually already started falling by 31 March, down 17.9 cents per litre from the previous week, even as retail prices continued rising 5.0 cents per litre over the same period — a lag the regulator monitored closely, going so far as to write to fuel companies to seek information about their timelines on passing on savings from the incoming excise cut.

The decline through April, May, and June has been remarkably consistent: prices fell to 183.5 cents per litre by 27 May, then 173.3 cents per litre by 3 June, and finally 163.9 cents per litre by 17 June — a cumulative fall of 93.3 cents per litre from the 31 March peak in just eleven weeks. The ACCC’s 19 June report specifically noted that average retail petrol prices “in many capital cities have reduced to around or below pre-conflict levels,” with weekly average international crude oil and refined fuel prices recorded “at their lowest in over 3 months.” This near-complete round trip — from baseline, to a 50%+ spike, and back below baseline again within sixteen weeks — represents an extraordinarily fast resolution for what began as a major geopolitically-driven energy shock.

Diesel vs. Petrol: Comparative Price Statistics for 2026

Diesel vs. Petrol Price Movement, 5 Largest Cities (cents per litre)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
              20 Feb        31 Mar (Peak)      3 Jun           17 Jun
Petrol (Retail)│~161cpl │ 257.2 cpl │ 173.3 cpl │ 163.9 cpl
Diesel (Retail)│~177cpl │ 322.4 cpl │ 209.3 cpl │  n/a (falling)
               └──────────────────────────────────────────────────
                 Diesel rose further & faster than petrol at peak;
                 also took longer to fall back
                 (Source: ACCC Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring Reports)

Source: ACCC Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring Report, 13 March 2026 and 5 June 2026 editions; ACCC analysis of Singapore Mogas 95 and Gasoil 10ppm benchmark movements

The diesel-versus-petrol comparison reveals one of the more technically interesting aspects of the 2026 price crisis: diesel was hit considerably harder than petrol at every stage, and recovered more slowly even after the conflict began easing. The ACCC attributes this directly to the structure of Middle Eastern oil supply, explaining that the region “is a key supplier of both diesel and the crude oil grades that yield the greatest diesel volume upon refining,” meaning the same disruption hit the diesel market through two channels simultaneously. This shows up starkly in the wholesale data: while petrol’s international benchmark (Singapore Mogas 95) rose 52% at the peak, diesel’s benchmark (Singapore Gasoil 10ppm) rose by approximately 91% — nearly double the proportional increase.

The practical consequence for Australian consumers and businesses was a diesel price that, even by early June, remained meaningfully above pre-conflict levels, unlike petrol, which had essentially returned to baseline. The ACCC’s 5 June 2026 report noted that “compared with 20 February… average retail diesel prices across the five largest cities were 32.7 cents per litre higher,” even as petrol over the same comparison was “only 2.4 cents per litre” above its starting point. This divergence carries real economic significance beyond the petrol bowser, since diesel powers the freight, agriculture, and construction sectors underpinning much of the broader economy — meaning elevated diesel costs continued flowing through into the price of transported goods for longer than headline petrol figures alone would suggest.

How the Federal Fuel Excise Cut Worked in 2026

Fuel Excise Rate Timeline — Petrol & Diesel (cents per litre)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Pre-2026 standard rate (CPI-indexed)   │████████████████████████  52.6 cpl
1 Apr–30 Jun 2026 (temporary halving)  │████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░  20.6 cpl
Scheduled reversion                    │████████████████████████  Returns 1 Jul 2026
                                          (decision pending as of 19 June)
                                          └──────────────────────────────────
                                          (Source: ATO; Wikipedia Fuel taxes
                                          in Australia; Grant Thornton, 2026)

Source: Australian Taxation Office, “Excise duty rates for fuel and petroleum products”; Department of Infrastructure, “Fact sheet: fuel excise relief measures from 1 April 2026”; Grant Thornton Australia client alert (April 2026); Australian Automobile Association, “Fuel excise explained”; SBS News, fuel excise OECD comparison (March 2026)

Australia’s fuel excise system is genuinely one of the oldest taxes in the country, applying continuously since Federation in 1901, and the mechanics behind the 2026 relief package are more nuanced than the simple “halved” headline suggests. Because the excise rate is CPI-indexed twice yearly, the temporary cut announced on 30 March did not simply restore an old fixed rate — it instead halved whatever the indexed rate happened to be at the time, which Grant Thornton’s analysis clarified after “initial commentary… referenced a fuel excise rate of 26.3 cents per litre on the basis of a simple halving of the historical headline excise rate,” when the actual calculation produced 20.6 cents per litre instead. The Road User Charge for heavy vehicles was simultaneously reduced to zero, delivering operators a combined benefit of approximately 32.4 cents per litre — enough to save a 200-litre tank fill roughly $64.80.

It’s worth noting, given these dramatic 2026 swings, that Australia’s underlying fuel tax burden remains genuinely low by international standards. ANU’s Associate Professor Ben Phillips told SBS News that “our taxation for roads via excise is really very, very low… when looking to other similar economies,” with Australia ranking among the lowest fuel-tax-burden nations in the OECD. With the temporary excise cut scheduled to expire on 30 June 2026, and the ACCC’s 19 June report noting that “the Government has indicated it will soon decide on restoring the excise,” the coming weeks represent a genuine inflection point: should the full 52.6 cents per litre rate return as scheduled, Australian motorists could see prices rise again even as global oil markets continue stabilising.

City-by-City and Regional Petrol Price Statistics for 2026

Capital City Petrol Price Comparison — Selected 2026 Readings (cents per litre)
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Darwin (NT)             │████████████████████████████████  Up to 265.1 cpl (Apr 2026, highest)
Sydney                  │██████████████████████████████░░  Largest absolute increase during spike
Adelaide                │██████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░  Frequently cheapest capital
ACT/Canberra            │██████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░  224.1 cpl (Apr 2026, lowest reading)
Regional avg (190+ locs)│███████████████████████░░░░░░░░░  185.4 cpl (3 June 2026)
                          └──────────────────────────────────────
                          (Source: ACCC; Petrolmate, April 2026)

Source: ACCC Weekly Fuel Price Monitoring Reports (March–June 2026); Petrolmate national fuel price database, April 2026 (13,360+ stations); GDP.com.au, “Australian Petrol Prices 2026”

The geographic spread of Australian petrol prices in 2026 reflects long-standing structural patterns that persisted even through the extreme volatility of the crisis. Darwin and the Northern Territory consistently recorded the highest prices of any capital city, reaching as high as 265.1 cents per litre in April 2026 according to Petrolmate’s database of more than 13,360 fuel stations nationally — a pattern attributed to the Territory’s greater freight distances, smaller population base, and thinner retail competition compared to the larger eastern and southern capitals. At the other end, Canberra and Adelaide alternated as the cheapest major markets throughout the crisis, with the ACT recording the lowest reading of 224.1 cents per litre in April 2026, and Adelaide repeatedly noted by the ACCC as having the lowest daily average retail prices among the eight capital cities during multiple points in the monitoring period, including 27 May 2026.

Regional Australia experienced both the spike and the recovery somewhat differently from the major capitals, with the ACCC’s monitoring of more than 190 regional locations showing regional petrol prices running consistently above the five-largest-cities average — 185.4 cents per litre regionally versus 173.3 cents per litre in the five largest cities on the same 3 June 2026 reading, reflecting the additional transport and distribution costs of supplying smaller, dispersed markets. Encouragingly, the recovery in regional areas has been just as substantial as in the capitals, with the ACCC’s 19 June report recording regional petrol price falls of around 84 cents per litre and regional diesel falls of around 118 cents per litre since the 31 March peak — figures that closely track, and in diesel’s case even exceed, the proportional declines seen in Australia’s largest cities.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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