Dozens of petrol stations around Australia run out of fuel as panic-buying continues
NRMA says record-high fuel may be here to stay in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane after prices soared early in the Middle East conflict
Luca Ittimani and
Penry Buckley
Mon 16 Mar 2026 07.08 GMT
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Dozens of service stations across Australia have run out of petrol as distributors struggle to keep up with customers panic-buying as the conflict in the Middle East continues to disrupt prices.
The NRMA has warned regulators “missed” the chance to stop price hikes, as booming wholesale demand pushes fuel prices to a “permanent high” on the east coast.
The
New South Wales government said 32 out of 3,000 service stations in the state were out of at least one fuel type on Monday morning – but enough to leave single-station towns short.

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The premier, Chris Minns, said NSW had enough fuel but was struggling to distribute it to the regions as motorists stockpiled at their local stations.
“It’s harder to restock those petrol stations if they’ve got more than expected out of the bowser on any given day,” he said.
The Victorian Farmers Federation president, Brett Hosking, said entire towns had run dry, including Wedderburn and Bonnie Doon in the state’s centre, and Robinvale in the north-west.