And the gauge pain looks set to continue for a bit longer with increasing wholesale prices and slower cycles contributing to the ongoing high costs of fuel.

Ballarat’s average prices this week have reached more than 150c per litre for regular unleaded with the most recent Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report into fuel pricing showing Ballarat’s petrol has been trending upwards since September.

The average price in September 2017 was 122.9c per litre. It climbed to 138.2c per litre by Christmas.

Wholesale rates have risen - but not as dramatically - from 120.4c per litre on January 1 this year to a current rate of 128.4c per litre. The rate has remained relatively steady for the past 10 days. 

RACV manager of vehicle engineering Michael Case said Ballarat’s average cost of fuel was on a par with Melbourne which had reached three year highs.

“Most regional towns are observed to exhibit sticky pricing,” Mr Case said. 

“Ballarat is one of the few regional towns which exhibits cyclic behaviour that somewhat follows the Melbourne price cycle and as such the ideal price to pay varies with time.”

Mr Case said fuel price was driven by competing stations attempting to undercut each other.

“When this discounting reaches an unsustainable level where profit margins are very low or even running at a loss, the fuel price gets driven back up again by some of the retailers,” he said. 

“The majority of petrol stations will then follow this upwards trend. Wholesale pricing has little effect on the petrol price cycle. Some years ago the price cycle was as short as a week, however in recent times it has been known to last as long as three to six weeks.”

“Much like Melbourne, Ballarat is currently at a high point in its fuel price cycle and should begin trending down over the coming days.”

But there are still some bargains to be found. The Courier drove around Ballarat this week comparing prices, with United stations averaging more than 20c a litre less than its rivals.

The cheapest fuel was at the United service station in Sturt Street at 126.9c a litre. United at Wendouree West was 127.7c. 

Only the Metro Petroleum station in Howitt Street could compare, with its unleaded costing 127.9c a litre.

Interestingly, Ballarat’s most expensive unleaded fuel was at Caltex in Howitt Street, at 153.9c per litre It is just 200m from the Metro Petroleum station.

BP and Shell stations next door to each other on the Western Highway also had vastly different prices with Shell 5c a litre cheaper.

Meanwhile, a mandatory fuel price reporting scheme has been ruled out in Victoria. 

A parliamentary committee report released in February said while such schemes were operating in New South Wales, Western Australia and Northern Territory, the commitee found they failed to reduce prices in regional areas.

The committee’s chair Nazih Elasmar said there were limited measures the state government could take to improve fuel affordability in regional Victoria, but believed increased awareness of fuel price apps would assist.

“The committee supports the use of fuel price apps to improve the information available to regional Victorians when choosing when and where to purchase fuel,” Mr Elasmar said.