IT’S A sleepy farming town half-an-hour north-west of Griffith – and it may well be selling the cheapest fuel in the state.
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In another reminder of the wild petrol price disparity across NSW, a roadhouse in Goolgowi is selling unleaded for 125.9c a litre this week, almost 20 cents cheaper than Griffith and more than 10 cents cheaper than Wagga.
It comes as fuel prices are again set to rise from today, courtesy of the federal government’s controversial petrol indexation.
Navi Singh, who runs the Goolgowi Roadhouse, said his lower prices were a way of attracting motorists to the town.
The NRMA’s Petrol Watch figures this week showed Tweed Heads – on the doorstep of the typically cheaper Queensland market – was offering the cheapest prices in the state, with unleaded selling for an average of 126.2, slightly higher than the Goolgowi Roadhouse.
Petrol retailers have come under increased scrutiny from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over the pricing of regional fuel, which remained well above cheaper metropolitan prices.
Earlier this year Caltex Australia communications adviser Sam Collyer told Fairfax Media oil retailers do not hold back savings to regional consumers – instead pointing to the impact of lower volumes of fuel and convenience products being sold, slower turnover of inventory, the lower number of customers and service stations and the higher transport and storage costs outside metropolitan areas.
However the cheap prices on offer at Goolgowi Roadhouse, some 16.5¢ per litre cheaper than Griffith, tell a different story. NRMA research showed independent sellers created competition in the market, and that was what brought about cheaper petrol prices.
Regardless, motorists were increasingly pulling into the roadhouse for the cheap fuel. The “price cycle” was largely ignored by the roadhouse. The cycle, which sees different days of the week attract higher or lower prices in a regular pattern, can force pump prices to fluctuate as much as 20 cents a litre – sometimes driving the pump price below the wholesale price, sometimes forcing it well above. The reason as to why there was a pricing cycle was something that even the ACCC hadn't been able to answer.
