Ten years, seven capitals
We compared each capital's terminal gate price with the national average for every weekday from 2016 to 2025. Most of the differences are small, and very stable.
| City | Petrol vs national | Diesel vs national |
|---|---|---|
| Perth | −0.6 | −0.8 |
| Melbourne | −0.2 | −0.3 |
| Brisbane | −0.1 | 0.0 |
| Sydney | +0.1 | +0.1 |
| Adelaide | +0.1 | +0.2 |
| Darwin | +3.9 | +3.5 |
| Hobart | +4.9 | +4.7 |
Average of yearly averages, 2016 to 2025, in cents a litre, from Australian Institute of Petroleum terminal gate prices.
The five large mainland capitals are effectively one wholesale market. Darwin and Hobart are not, and they have paid about 4 to 5c a litre extra, every year, for a decade.
Why the big five match so closely
The four major wholesalers set terminal gate prices off the same thing, which is the cost of refined fuel in Singapore plus shipping and the costs of the terminal. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth all have large import terminals receiving full-sized tankers, several competing wholesalers, and enough volume to spread fixed costs thinly. The remaining differences, a few tenths of a cent, mostly reflect shipping distance and terminal costs.
Perth has had the cheapest wholesale fuel of the seven capitals over the decade, about half a cent a litre below the national price. It has the shortest voyage from Singapore of the large capitals, and its petrol has been below the national average in every year since 2017.
Darwin
Darwin is a small market, a very long way by road from any other terminal, and supplied by sea, mostly from Asia. Shipments are smaller, terminal costs are spread over far fewer litres, and there is less competition between wholesalers. Its premium has been between 3.7c and 4.7c a litre in every year since 2016, except 2022, when it narrowed to 1.7c.
In 2026 the gap has widened to 6.3c a litre for petrol. On 7 October Darwin had the dearest wholesale fuel in the country, at 246.0c for petrol and 272.0c for diesel.
Hobart
Tasmania has no refinery, so all of its fuel arrives by ship and is stored at terminals in Hobart and on the north coast. Smaller deliveries to a smaller market cost more per litre. Hobart's premium was the largest of any capital in every year from 2016 to 2024, at around 5c a litre.
It has narrowed since, to 3.6c in 2025 and 3.4c so far in 2026. Tasmania tightened fuel price reporting and stepped up compliance checks on retailers in 2026, though that applies to pump prices rather than the wholesale price we measure here.
Canberra and regional areas
The Australian Institute of Petroleum does not publish a terminal gate price for Canberra, which is supplied by road from Sydney, so it is not in our figures. Regional areas are supplied by road from the nearest terminal and pay for the freight; their pump prices usually sit above the nearest capital's.
What this means at the pump
A few cents of wholesale difference between cities is small next to the swings inside a city. In Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth the price cycle moves the pump price by 20 to 30c a litre or more; in Darwin and Hobart, without regular cycles, prices sit closer to wholesale plus a steady margin. So a Hobart driver often pays more at the pump than someone in Brisbane who buys at the bottom of the cycle, but less than someone in Brisbane who buys just after a jump.
Each city page has today's wholesale price, the fair range and how the city ranks. See Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, Hobart.
Where these figures come from
Wholesale prices are the terminal gate prices published each weekday by the Australian Institute of Petroleum, which we hold back to 2004. The national figure is AIP's own average where it has published one, and our weighted calculation in between, which matches AIP's to within 0.1c. Oil and currency prices are delayed market closes. Excise rates are the ATO's. We check every figure against that data before publishing and correct mistakes in the update log. Spotted one? Email hello@thepetrolprice.com.