When Things Just Go Wrong

In a State of Flux

I reckon this little bloke is eyeing off the caravan

There’s probably no need to say that this year is different, but I will. Our caravan Priscilla is looking lonely and adorned with cobwebs. Like many Aussie Grey Nomads, we’re cooling our heels and wondering where we’ll be spending winter ’26.

In January, not long after our Xmas trip to Ararat, Woody popped out to top the car up with fuel. Sounds innocent doesn’t it. Searching for a bargain he went to a different service station, tripped over a rubber parking barrier and tore a muscle in his left shoulder. That 4 cent per litre saving on the diesel was nothing like the cost of the physio bills. We had planned to spend a few days down at Peterborough on Victoria’s west coast, but that wasn’t to be.

In February, as we all know, someone started a war somewhere reducing world fuel supplies and accelerating prices at the pump. Like everyone else we are waiting to see what happens next as it is impossible to predict. Our current Melbourne diesel price is 315.9 cents/litre. There’s been a lot of talk of service stations running out of fuel and the TV news folk seem to get joy from counting empty servos.

In March, well there wasn’t much to do other than to enjoy the last of summer and shudder at the devastation on the news. Over the last 12 months or so I have become a huge fan of Heather Cox Richardson, Harvard’s professor of American History who has a daily post on Substack. She gives us a clear and concise picture of daily events with detail rather than emotion and usually a day ahead of Australian news outlets.

Now it’s April, there’s a nip in the air and the autumn chill has arrived. Albo (Prime Minister Albanese) has nipped up to Singas (flown to Singapore) to swap our gas for more refined fuel (which was probably produced from what was once our own oil) so that the farmers can sow, maintain, harvest and get their crops to market.

We wait, we plan, we have booked, we must visit our family on the Gold Coast. It’s 1750kms to the Goldie, or 2070kms if we decide to continue on up to Yeppoon. Do we just fly to the Gold Coast? Or will those prices soar as well.

Having been brought up on the land my heart goes out to the farmers, but nowadays I’m even feeling sorry for the financial analysts, anyone for Two Up?

In the meantime, I’m getting mighty sick of housework, and watching innocent people suffer and die.

*Two Up is a traditional Aussie game of chance where punters bet on the outcome of two coins being tossed in the air.

20 thoughts on “In a State of Flux”

  1. We are still planning and intending to hop over to Victoria in a little over a weeks time and just head to a few destinations where we’ll stay put for a week at a time. After that back home via the Flinders Ranges. Anything could happen to change our minds but we don’t want to sit around and wait either.

    Happy travels to you guys.

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  3. Diesel is $3.25 or more in the ACT. No doubt it won’t be the last price rise. It is no wonder de-carbonising the transport sector was left until last. No easy fixes and now we’re stuck, people are going hungry or even worse in other countries. Perhaps you should leave now and wait it out up north?

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    1. I’d say this will speed up the uptake of electric cars but the larger vehicles are the problem. I’m just wondering why neither side of our govt. thought to build one or two modern refineries. We’ve got the crude with more coming online shortly, but we have to outsource the refining. Have a good day.

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      1. Yep. It’s a big country with a relatively small population in regional and remote areas. Hard to electrify.
        There was a time at peak globalisation when government thought that the private sector could provide goods and services more efficiently, meshing international trade would lead to greater security. Government intervention in the market system was anathema. Our two-tiered economy did benefit enormously, but as a country, we allowed ourself to be done over. Aren’t you glad you asked! I’m glad I no longer work on industry policy. History repeats every decade.

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      2. I’m glad I did ask! Living in the city but spending a lot of time ambling about the bush is a great way to learn and understand the problems we face as a whole. You may be interested to know that my uncle was an avid vintage car collector and stored them in our farm shed back in the 50’s. One of those cars from about 1910 was electric.

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  4. Yes, parts of the world are certainly in conflict! Hopefully the Iranian security forces are fully stopped after their deadly massacres against the Iranian protesters.

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  5. I did like your short commentary on the downturn of affairs, concerning your caravan Priscilla, the spider soon to adopt her, and the World drama we are all watching in horror right now, with Trump the star buffoon on his killing mission. New Zealand is feeling the pinch at the pump in much the same way as Aussies right now, but when telling how it is we don’t use so many nicknames. Just got to love our neighbours.

    ps Any day is a day I don’t like housework.

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  7. I feel your pain. We’re currently in Morocco, where fuel is relatively cheap. When we arrived, it was about 85p per litre (compared to about £1.40 in the UK.) It has now gone up 40%. Still cheap for us, but it must be terrible for the Moroccan people.

    I’m not looking forward to getting back into Europe. Slovenia has started rationing fuel, and Germany is reportedly the most expensive in the EU, at around 2.50 per litre!

    I hope the Tangerine Toddler gets over his god complex soon and starts behaving like a grownup, although I am not holding my breath.

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