Victorian town loses last LPG servo as demand for the fuel falls

When Barry Nuttal's truck runs low on fuel, he has two options: drive a 120-kilometre round trip to the nearest LPG bowser, or fill up with petrol, which is more expensive.

Mr Nuttal lives in Horsham, a town of about 20,000 people on the Western Highway in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, about 300 kilometres from Melbourne.

The last service station in town selling LPG went into receivership this week, leaving drivers with nowhere to fill up.

Mr Nuttal's dual-fuel truck runs on both LPG and petrol, but he said driving to Warracknabeal, almost 60 kilometres away, to fill up was not economical.

"By the time you go up there you're running low, and by the time you come back, you're running low," he said.

"It's a sad indictment on the town."

LPG sales in Victoria have suffered a steep decline in recent years, dropping from 1.9 billion litres in 2011 to 242 million litres in 2025.

Mr Nuttal said friends had recently paid "a couple of thousand dollars" to convert their vehicles to gas to save money, and now "they can't fill up with gas at all in Horsham".

"It was a saving, that's why it was done, now they take it away," he said.

Dale Pickering, whose car relies solely on LPG, said once he had driven to Warracknabeal and back, gas would cost him the same as petrol.

"It seems ridiculous that we have over 20,000 people in the surrounding area and plenty of cars on gas," he said.

Kylie Holliday said she had not realised there was no LPG in town.

"I've got to go out of town now and I didn't realise that and I've got quarter of a tank of gas and I don't know whether I can make it to the next town,"

she said.

"I was thinking of getting my best friend to follow me to Stawell, so I could get gas just in case I run out."

BP Australia has been contacted for comment.

Falling demand for LPG

The number of LPG vehicles in Australia has fallen from about 500,000 in 2013 to 200,000, according to ELGAS.

Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association CEO, Rowan Lee, said demand for LPG had fallen as LPG cars left the fleet, and service station owners were generally not replacing tanks when they wore out.

"What they're replacing them with is car parks and so on, which will probably return the greater profit, because people come in and buy goods from the store" he said.

Mr Lee said it was "highly unlikely" the situation would be fixed in Horsham.

"It's really unfortunate for those people who are using LPG, and generally it's elderly people running older cars,"

he said.

Wimmera mechanic David Hateley, who has been a licensed LPG fitter for more than 30 years, said low-income drivers would be hit hardest.

"There's a lot of people out there with good old cars that have still got plenty of life left in them but you're going to see them get put off the road now because there's no LPG," he said.

Mr Hateley said drivers of dedicated LPG cars would arrive expecting a town the size of Horsham to have LPG.

"And when they get here they're going to need a tow truck to get into the next town,"

he said.

Federal member for the Mallee Anne Webster said she understood Horsham residents' frustration.

She said individual service stations were entitled to make commercial decisions about the fuel they provided.

Horsham Rural City Council said the situation had not been raised with it.