Consequences of the 2026 fuel crisis

[old man emu]

Expect many lines of groceries to become scarce, especially frozen vegetables. Frozen veggies are now mostly imported, and that requires ships which require fuel.

[onetrack]

We export 100,000 tonnes of carrots (mostly from W.A.) to the rest of the world annually, and 48,000 tonnes of that goes to the Middle East.

But the blockage of the SoH has effectively blown up that market, with $2M worth of Australian carrots currently on the water, unable to reach its destination.

 

There will be serious losses for Australian carrot growers if the blockade continues, and there will be a lot of people in other parts of the world who will go without food, because of the blockade.

I'd rather be here, than in a place relying on Australian produce, right at present. And we have no need to import frozen veggies, we can grow all we need right here.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-20/middle-east-conflict-may-end-some-carrot-farmers/106474078

[Marty_d]

At least the crew won't get scurvy.

They may end up the same colour as Trump if they eat all those carrots though.

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

And we have no need to import frozen veggies, we can grow all we need right here.

We used to grow all the veggies we needed until our canneries were sold off and shut down by international corporations.

[facthunter]

What about those Wascally Wabbits? Nev

[willedoo]

Fuel prices are starting to hit tourism. Over the whole four day Easter break, the Pink Roadhouse at Oodnadatta had two tourists visit, compared to the usual 50 to 100 per day.

[onetrack]

I've noticed the level of traffic on the roads is down by at least 20%, and many people are travelling much slower. For my country trips, where I used to sit 110-120kmh, I'm now sitting on 95-100kmh.

It makes quite a difference to fuel consumption, travelling slower, and with cruise control it's easy to sit on a selected speed.

 

The downturn has its benefits. I picked up a nice 2012 PMX C-P7 camper trailer for $1200 over the weekend. The sellers started off wanting $3000 for it, about three weeks ago. It's only ever had 2 owners, and it hasn't been abused. It's got 3 near-new tyres, and a pneumatic jockey wheel tyre.

 

It hasn't got the fancy independent swing-arm coil suspension of the later ones, it's just a regular axle with shackle-style leaf springs. It's good enough for me, it's a tried and foolproof setup.

It's fully galvanised, has a stainless steel water tank and electric pump, came complete with a good 120A/H deep cycle battery, and all the canvas is in good condition.

 

It does need some wheel bearing attention, as with all Chinese campers/trailers. I grabbed one wheel and shook it, and it wobbled around pretty badly. The owner was shocked, but I think he was the type of bloke who wouldn't think to check wheel bearings like that. There's a broken wire to the water pump (easy fix), and the zipper on the top protective cover is busted. It has velcro as well as the zip.

 

But I found you can easily buy FixnZip (Australian-made, too!) to fix busted zips, without having to stitch in a whole new zipper, at great expense. So, I'm off to Whitworths tomorrow to pick one up.

 

A mate and I are going to camp out in the caravan park in the little country town where I have my block, next week - because SWMBO is heading off to the Gold Coast to see her son and DIL and 12 yr old grandson. The GC doesn't draw me any more, it's a ratrace, and the place has way too many people. You can't get parking anywhere, and it's starting to see a major increase in crime.

 

So, my mate and I will have an enjoyable time, cleaning up my yard, fixing stuff, and sitting around BS-ing - because he lives way down South in the forests now, and we don't get to catch up like we used to. I've got a sea container that needs re-organising, and it needs a new floor panel installed (28mm ply, which I've already bought), so that will keep us occupied for a couple of days at least.

 

After that, we'll probably go onto some shed frame building, and also do some more repair work on my Chamberlain tractor. I've got no end of jobs that need doing, and with two of you, things seem to get done a lot faster. On top of all that, the weather forecast looks great, between 13° - 25° and 18° - 30° all week, with no rain in sight.

 

https://fixnzip.com.au/?srsltid=AfmBOoozzxauxhN15nGx5O7QBUhc9uCxBmAQ8-_q3Bh4mMsNBeqANxJu

 

Edited 4 hours ago by onetrack