Australian music legend Daryl Braithwaite has uncovered an old receipt from Brisbane Airport dating back to March 2005, after a gig, showing just how inexpensive filling up used to be. The receipt was for one of the Tarago vans used on the road, with 52.8 litres of unleaded purchased at 94.7 cents a litre.
“Remember the good old days,” Braithwaite wrote.
He said, “I found a receipt March 2005 from Brisbane airport after gigs filling up the Taragos at 94.7 cents a litre,” he said. “Full tank $50.”
That same 52.8 litres would now cost almost $111 at 209.9 cents a litre, more than double the $50 paid in 2005.
The receipt has resurfaced at a particularly grim time for motorists. Petrol is already more than twice the price Braithwaite paid back then, and experts have warned it could rise even further in the coming weeks.
According to fresh ACCC data, average petrol prices across Australia’s five largest capital cities climbed by 39 cents a litre between February 20 and September 9. Diesel prices rose even more sharply, jumping 77.1 cents over the same period.
CBA Head of Commodities and Sustainable Economics Vivek Dhar previously told Yahoo News Australia that petrol and diesel could increase by another 20 to 30 cents a litre, as higher international benchmark prices are passed on at Australian bowsers.
A 30-cent increase would add another $18 to the cost of filling a typical 60-litre tank.
The RACQ has also warned that prices are likely to keep climbing, with its latest forecast indicating regular unleaded could reach about $2.30 a litre, depending on developments in the Middle East.
Against that backdrop, the 94.7-cent-a-litre figure on Braithwaite’s faded receipt feels like a relic from another world.
