Shire Drivers Burn More Fuel Trying to Save Fuel in Great Petrol Price Pilgrimage

Brock Ledger | Economics Correspondent | Sutherland Shire Gazette

5 May 2025

Sutherland Shire residents are taking extreme measures to secure the lowest fuel prices - often burning more petrol in the process than they actually save.

With wild price variations between servos (sometimes 40 cents per litre within a few blocks), locals are engaging in what experts are calling The Great Petrol Price Pilgrimage - a delicate balance of mathematical calculations, strategic detours, and sheer blind optimism.

“I refuse to be ripped off,” declared local Greg Morrison, who proudly drove from Kareela to Blakehurst to save 5 cents per litre. “Sure, I burned a quarter of a tank in peak hour getting there, but it’s about sending a message.”

Some Shire drivers have even developed elaborate scouting strategies, with family members positioned across different suburbs, texting live price updates as they unfold.

“I’ve got Mum in Oyster Bay, my cousin in Sylvania, and my mate who works out in the Western Hemisphere near Costco,” explained Engadine resident Sarah Kent. “It’s like the stock market but for unleaded 91.”

Meanwhile, a secret society of smug Padstow Metro Petroleum members continues to fill up at mythical prices — provided they survive the 30-minute queue, the savage U-turn traffic, and the existential realisation that they’ve joined a cult.

Despite the madness, most agree there’s one moment of pure, unfiltered regret: when your fuel light comes on near the Shell Reddy Express on Carvers Road Jannali.

“You think you’ll make it to the Jannali Metro and save 20 cents a litre,” said one defeated motorist. “You never do. And that’s how they get you.”