Motorists were stung with the costliest fuel in Batemans Bay in NSW, Weipa in Qld, Corryong in Victoria, Coober Pedy in SA and Queenstown in Tasmania.

Australian diesel users were worse off overall, charged 40 cents per litre more than regular unleaded petrol in the December 2022 quarter.

The ACCC's quarterly petrol monitoring report also revealed the fallout from the reversal of the fuel excise cut.

In late September 2022, the six-month subsidy ended and the rate of excise went from 23 cents per litre to 46 cents per litre.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said this was reflected in a 5 cents per litre increase to average petrol prices in the major cities, "despite lower international prices".

She said Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 had led to international diesel prices exceeding petrol.

"While international refined fuel prices reduced in the December quarter, the difference between the diesel and petrol benchmarks continued," she said.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The ACCC report reveals each state's top three most expensive regional towns for petrol in the December 2022 quarter.

NSW

Queensland

Victoria

Tasmania

South Australia

Northern Territory

Western Australia

NSW towns Bathurst and Coonabarabran had the most volatile petrol prices according to the ACCC report.

Both towns had an increase of about 18 cents per litre between the September and December quarters.

Broken Hill's prices went the opposite way with a drop in price of 12.6 cents per litre.

Average retail petrol prices in Australia's five largest cities increased by 5 cents per litre from the September 2022 quarter.

The most expensive capital cities to fill up, ranked: