In March this year we were sitting on the Yorke Peninsula when the fuel market lost its mind. The day before everything changed, I’d filled up at $1.69 a litre. A week later that same diesel was $2.74.
We watched it happen in real time. And we had a decision to make.
Ahead of us was four months of outback Australia. The red centre. The NT. Remote Queensland. Thousands of kilometres of dirt roads, desert highways and some of the most spectacular and isolated country on this continent.
We hitched up Sunny, pointed Ernie north and went anyway.
Here’s what we actually found.
Is There Actually a Fuel Crisis in Outback Australia? ⛽
Let’s deal with this one first because it keeps coming up. Is there fuel in outback Australia? Yes. Absolutely yes — and we have thousands of kilometres of evidence to prove it.
There is no fuel supply crisis in the Australian outback. Not on the route we travelled. Not at any servo, roadhouse or station stop along the entire way.
Think about the ground we covered — Port Augusta, Flinders Ranges, Coober Pedy, Uluru, Kings Canyon, Alice Springs, the Plenty Highway, Tobermorey Station, Boulia, Winton and Longreach. Every single stop had fuel. Unleaded and diesel, both available, no drama, no rationing, nobody turned away.
Every bowser was working. Every servo was open.
If the fear of running dry somewhere west of Alice Springs has been keeping you home, you can put that one down right now. We drove every kilometre of it to prove it.
What Does Fuel Actually Cost in Outback Australia? 💰
Yes, fuel costs more out here. It always has and it always will — that’s the reality of getting product to genuinely remote places, and it was true long before 2025.
When we planned our red centre run we budgeted $3.00 a litre for diesel — deliberately high, because we’d rather be over than under. Our research suggested outback fuel typically runs $1.00 to $1.30 more per litre than city prices, so $3.00 felt like a safe ceiling.
The reality was prices ran roughly 33% higher than our budget. Our most expensive fill was $4.04 a litre at Ayers Rock Resort — we looked at that number, took a breath and filled up anyway.
Because what was the alternative?
Here’s a real sample of what we paid at the bowser across the route:
- Ayers Rock Resort — $4.04 per litre
- Remote NT stops and Tobermorey Station — $3.90 per litre
- Boulia — $3.35 per litre
- Winton — $2.85 per litre
- Longreach — $2.75 per litre
- Mackay and beyond — $2.35 per litre
The further east we travelled, the more prices dropped back toward something resembling normal. The outback premium is real — but it’s predictable, and it’s manageable.
It’s just geography. 🗺️
The Real Numbers – What the Fuel Crisis Actually Cost Us 📊
We planned our red centre run at 6,000 kilometres. Ernie uses around 18 litres per 100km when towing Sunny and about 13 litres when we’re out exploring without her — we use 15 litres as a working average across the two. That gives us 900 litres for the red centre leg.
Here’s how the budget played out:
Red Centre – Port Augusta to Boulia
- Distance: 6,000km
- Litres used: 900L
- Budgeted at $3.00/L: $2,700
- Actual average at $4.00/L: $3,600
- Over budget: $900
Boulia to Brisbane – The Run Home
Prices drop significantly once you’re heading east. We budgeted $2.20 a litre for this leg — closer to what we’d normally expect in regional Queensland.
- Distance: 2,257km
- Litres used: 339L
- Budgeted at $2.20/L: $745
- Actual average at $2.60/L: $908
- Over budget: $163
The total extra cost of the fuel crisis across our entire four month outback trip?
$1,063.
Read that again. One thousand and sixty three dollars. Across four months. Across the entire red centre, the NT and outback Queensland. That’s it. That’s the crisis in real dollars.
How We Balanced the Budget – and Then Some 💸
When we saw where fuel costs were heading we sat down and had a simple conversation. Do we go home or do we make different choices?
We made different choices.
Here’s the honest truth — we didn’t know how bad it was going to get. Nobody did. We didn’t know if prices would keep climbing, whether we’d get stuck somewhere waiting for supply, or whether the length of the trip would blow out because of delays we couldn’t predict. There wasn’t a lot of science to it.
We just decided that a $2,000 buffer felt like enough to absorb whatever the road threw at us. Then we went looking for $2,000 worth of things we could live without.
We looked at our original budget and identified three experiences that were genuinely spectacular but not absolutely non-negotiable. We pulled them out.
- Helicopter flight over Uluru — $370 each, $740 total
- Field of Lights dinner at Uluru — $355 each, $710 total
- Helicopter flight over Kings Canyon — $240 each, $480 total
Total removed from budget: $1,930
Close enough to $2,000. Decision made.
Our total extra fuel cost across the entire four month trip? $1,063.
Do the maths. We didn’t just cover the fuel overspend. We finished our four month outback adventure $867 under our original budget.
Three simple choices. That’s all it took.
And the helicopter flights and the Field of Lights? They’ll still be there next time. Because there absolutely will be a next time. 😊
What We Didn’t Miss 🤠
Here’s the thing nobody tells you about cutting the helicopter flights.
You still go. You still stand there. You still feel the full weight of being in the presence of something ancient and extraordinary. Uluru at sunrise from the ground — with the rock turning through every shade of orange and red as the light changes — is not a lesser experience. It’s just a different one.
We walked the base. We sat and watched the colours shift. We didn’t say a single word to each other for about ten minutes — which for us is basically a record. 😄
Kings Canyon from the ground is equally spectacular. The rim walk, the Garden of Eden, the sheer scale of the walls — none of that needs a helicopter to be breathtaking.
The Field of Lights dinner was the only cut that gave us a moment’s pause. But we ate well throughout the trip — local pubs, roadhouse meals, camp cooking under outback skies. Not one meal left us feeling like we’d missed out.
We have not regretted a single one of those three decisions. Not for a second.
Our Tips for Managing Fuel Costs in the Outback 📋
These aren’t theories. They’re what we actually did across four months and thousands of outback kilometres.
Budget high on fuel — always. Add 50% to whatever you’re paying at home and use that as your planning figure. It sounds extreme until you’re staring at $4.04 a litre at Ayers Rock Resort.
Know your actual consumption figures. We know Ernie uses 18 litres per 100km towing and 13 litres exploring — based on 12 months of real tracking before this trip. Don’t guess. Track your figures before you leave and plan from real numbers.
Identify your luxury line items early. Know which experiences are non-negotiable and which are nice-to-haves. When the budget needs adjusting, cut the nice-to-haves first — not the destinations themselves.
Fill up at every stop — no exceptions. This one is non-negotiable. In the outback some stations are only open certain hours, closed on Sundays or only staffed on certain days. We pulled into one stop on a Sunday and it was shut. We had enough fuel to continue — but only because we’d filled up at the previous stop without hesitating. Never assume the next stop will be open, cheaper or even there.
Free camp where you genuinely can. There are brilliant free camps throughout the outback that cost nothing and deliver everything. Use them — they’re part of the experience, not a compromise.
Cook for yourself. The single biggest way to control costs on a long outback trip is to cook your own meals. We have a full kitchen in Sunny — there’s no reason to eat out every night. Save the pub meals and local cafés for when they’re genuinely worth it, not out of habit or convenience.
he Outback Way website has current road and fuel information for remote routes — worth bookmarking before you leave.
The Outback Needs You Right Now 🤠
The towns and communities along this route are doing it tough.
Tourist numbers are down significantly and the grey nomad community that these towns depend on has largely stayed home. The flow-on effect to local businesses, caravan parks, attractions, tour operators and families is real and serious.
Winton. Boulia. Coober Pedy. Alice Springs. Longreach. These aren’t just dots on a map — they’re towns built by extraordinary people in extraordinary places, and they need travellers to come back. Tourism and Events Queensland has a full guide to outback Queensland destinations worth exploring.”
Every tank of diesel you buy at a remote roadhouse keeps that roadhouse open. Every night in a local caravan park, every meal at a local café, every tour you book — it all matters more out here than you can imagine until you’ve seen it firsthand.
We spent seven days in Winton alone. Seven days that gave us dinosaurs, heritage rail, open air cinema, national parks, outback comedy and some of the warmest hospitality we’ve experienced anywhere in Australia. We’ve broken down exactly what those seven days — and the rest of May — cost us in our May 2026 budget post.
Was it the cheapest week of our trip? No. Was it worth every single cent? Without question. Every time.
The Bottom Line 🎯
The fuel crisis cost us $1,063 extra across a four month outback adventure.
We offset that by making three simple choices worth $1,930 — and finished the trip $867 under our original budget.
We have not missed one single experience. We have not regretted one single kilometre.
And somewhere along the way we got a call from ABC Radio Townsville asking us to talk about it — because apparently two people who refused to let a fuel price scare them off the road is a story worth telling.
🎙️ Hear the interview — ABC Radio Townsville
Ian joined ABC Radio Townsville to talk about travelling outback Australia during the fuel crisis. Have a listen.
We think it is too.
The fuel is there. The roads are open. The towns are waiting. The experiences are everything you hope they’ll be and then some.
The only thing missing out there right now is you. 🤠
Join the Conversation 💬
We’d love to hear from you. Have you been putting off an outback trip because of fuel costs? Or have you already taken the plunge and found the same thing we did? And if you’ve got a real fuel price from somewhere along the route we haven’t mentioned — drop it in the comments. Every data point helps the next traveller make their decision. Share this post with someone who needs the nudge. 👇
