Shipped in, and shipped on
Cairns sits about 1,750 km north of Brisbane, and its fuel arrives by sea: petroleum products are one of the port's main imports. The port is also the supply point for communities on Cape York, the Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria, so a good share of the fuel landed here travels further north.
Closer to Brisbane prices than you'd expect
For all that distance, Cairns' average unleaded price has tracked Brisbane's closely since April 2026, moving with it almost day for day and averaging within a cent of it.
Woree runs cheapest
Across September 2026 the stations around Woree averaged roughly 7¢/L under the city average, the clearest cheap pocket in town, with Cairns North also below it. The northern beaches corridor through Smithfield, along with Edmonton to the south, ran above average. On a typical day about 12¢/L separated the cheaper and dearer stations.
Written and reviewed by Mark Schreuder, founder of PetrolPulse