With the conflict in the Middle East war entering a new unpredictable phase with no immediate end in sight, the ripple effect on fuel prices – and availability – is having a massive effect on grey nomads and their travel plans.
There are numerous reports of diesel being in short supply in some regional areas giving grey nomads planning long trips the jitters, and that is before the budget-blowing consequences of prices per litre sometimes approaching and even going past the $3 mark.
Some voices are even warning that a prolonged war could mean fuel rationing at some stage.
And that left many long-term travellers facing an almost impossible quandary. The subject has lit up discussions on Grey Nomads social media channels.
Many grey nomads travelling in remote areas are concerned about fuel availability. PIC: Dozza
“We are just north of Perth heading north and are carrying on,” said one correspondent. “We can’t go home as that’s 4,000 kilometres away on the east coast … we’ll take it day by day and if it gets crazy we are prepared to sit it out along the west coast somewhere.”
Others are hitting the pause button now.
“We are delaying our trip around Oz for one month and will reassess then,” said another poster. “We might have to look at travelling to local areas instead.”
Plenty of grey nomads are feeling the pain at the bowser. PIC: Cizza
One correspondent said they had been due to leave on their planned six-month lap tomorrow.
“It’s postponed at the moment until diesel availability is stable, especially in WA,” they said.
Another person was sitting at a caravan park at Darkan in the WA wheatbelt.
“It is not about the cost so much, but availability,” they said. “Plus, it is more important to get the diesel to farmers … we can sit and wait.”
Others said they were just being a lot more careful with their fuel consumption.
“We are already thousands of kilometres from home so the plan is to keep going,” said one. “Instead of doing lots of day trips that we would normally do we are just enjoying the area around where we are currently camped until we need to move on to the next booking we have … not panicking yet just not wasting what we have.”
While industry experts say there have not yet been widespread cancellations for caravan parks and campsites over Easter, there is growing concern about the potential economic damage that a large-scale decline in traveller numbers could cause some rural communities.
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I have had a tough time with my health from 4 years ago when at 63 I was diagnosed with high risk prostate cancer, meaning it’s incurable but following surgery initially removing the prostate & 13 lymph nodes then hormone treatment along with 33 daily radiation sessions. 8 months later I cycled the Gibb River Road to raise awareness about mens health & prostate cancer. We raised almost $8k for the foundation supporting men with prostate cancer & I delivered a number of talks about my experience.
The following winter was spent at a remote NT river fishing & I was almost packed to go last May when we discovered that a skin cancer had spread to the parotid saliva gland requiring immediate & complex surgery then another 32 sessions of radiation….so the trip I had planned was a non event. I have planned it to go ahead this year but definitely am concerned about fuel availability.
I’ve almost ticked all the boxes with specialists so it’s the waiting till end of April when I’m planning to head north from home an hour north of Perth. Like many others I’m more concerned with the availability of diesel to get there. Having had a banking career where I spent time with farmers in the WA Wheatbelt during tough times of drought, I really feel for our farmers who are struggling with the price of fertiliser & now the rocketing price & availability of diesel as seeding approaches.
Wishing each & every farmer a successful crop despite the obstacles!
Same here we were planning to leave in May from Glenrowan to Leonora then up to the Kimberly but now we are not so sure and might end up in Queensland instead .
Being full time on the road had plans on going to Jarvis Bay for our granddaughters naval officer passing out, we’re now in a free camp in Vic and not moving till we get an idea what’s happening with the war for the cost/supply of fuel has already hit $3.00 here and up to 50l/100 fuel use for the bus it has stopped us in out tracks
hopefully it will settle down supply wise by June otherwise truck stop fuel stations will become our home till we can get the bus refilled of rations start happening
I remember the last time rations were introduced in Victoria will take us a week to fill the tanks on the alternate number plate and litre limits
I don’t mean to rude but it’s Jervis Bay, HMAS Creswell, I spent 3years there training said Officers
We left home before the war and are now 2000 kms from home. It’s very hard to know what to do, but I think we will keep going, albeit slowly.
At least being in Queensland we’re in warmer weather than Victoria
We’re sitting it out in a showgrounds, diesel is needed by hospital’s emergency services,truckies farmers and people needing to get to work generally.we’re grey nomads 9 years fulltime travelling around Australia.
We are Tasmanians with a Spirit Booking in May. Hard to know what to do. Spirit Bookings are hard to come buy In winter out of Tasmania. Also can’t change to next May to far out. Can only change booking to March 2027 if going next year in May. This means changing booking again. Costs money every time you change your booking. Also will need to change return booking. Looking very much like we will be spending time east instead of West. Providing there is still diesel available and some what affordable. Otherwise we will be adding to the TT line coffers again multiple times.
I’m due to travel to Tasmania too with two dogs but can’t afford to get stranded in a diesel fulled Renault Kangoo. I will have to decide by early next week but getting fearful of going on my own with the dogs and getting stranded.
We have finished up our jobs to hit the road for a year or more on Easter Sunday. Have the house ready to rent but not yet listed it, all in limbo now. Its flooded directly North and its looking like we can only go East so we are waiting to see how things go with weather and fuel supply. The increased cost is one thing but taking diesel from farmers who need to fill their tractors and businesses that rely on generators is no way to travel. We love supporting regional towns so lets hope their is a resolution of some sort very soon.
We were about to depart from Perth to Canberra on Monday to see our kids and grand kids that we haven’t seen for 18 months.
With the supply uncertainty we have had to cancel and look at rescheduling for later in the year if this crisis has abated somewhat.
Really not happy at that moron running the USA at the moment.
But our circumstances, whilst not happy, are a drop in the bucket compared the the farmers, truckies and others whose livelihoods are threatened by all of this.
This year the next trip would be out to see the wildflowers.. Just recovering from having both knees replaced and looking forward to a bit of bush time. I was wondering in which direction to head out… Now I am reconsidering as the availability of fuel may be an issue.. Food supplies into the country regions may also be effected. As people are not travelling and using showgrounds and freecamps for longer than usual resulting in less areas available to rest.. Caravan parks may be the only source of water.. There are problems now with finding a caravan park where you can stay overnight without booking six months ago.. So much for just taking your time and seeing where you end up at the end of the day… The FARMERS need the fuel more than me this year…
Started out from Melbourne for a clockwise full lap two weeks back. Currently Eyre Peninsula and not sure whether to head for Nullarbor or not at this stage. Will slow down and spend a couple of weeks travelling Peninsula before deciding. We have bookings in Kimberley mid/late May so still keen to get there to support small businesses.
We were heading North from Adelaide to the Northern Flinders Ranges and paid $2.60 for diesel nth of Adelaide and when we got to Hawker approximately 300ks the price there was $3.20 so it has gone up dramatically within a short distance there was no shortage there but the fellow there said it might be going higher in price.
We will wait and see the week before we head off.
we won’t book till we see that every thing is back to normal, and we are doing the East coast this time, so we are watching the flooding location as well.
We are pondering canceling our 4 month WA trip as fuel supply and costs are now excessive. From what the media says and fuel depos running out already its looking dier for our trip, this will also be a ripple effect on the already paid for accomidation park bookings and the general regional areas we were planning on visiting along with of the beaten track agenda in plan.
We have pretty much decided to stay home.
We were planning on going North, Darwin, kimberly, wa back to Ballarat, with everything booked as some places you have to book 12 months in advance.
We think this war will go on for awhile yet and will take many months for things to return to normal.
Do some small trips in Vic.
We are in the wait and see category. Whilst we want to go outback and support those small towns and enjoy the adventure, we feel farmers and those who must use their own vehicles for work must be prioritised. We feel outback areas won’t be prioritised for fuel deliveries.
Such a hard time to make decisions on travelling. We are about to upgrade our caravan to a small motorhome to leave our jobs and go travelling, unsure whether we should do it. We don’t want to be stuck with a caravan we can’t sell and have both sitting in the driveway waiting to see what happens.