Why Shell Unleaded Costs 239.4 in Blackburn but 230.0 in Ferntree Gully
Shell Reddy Express is selling unleaded at 239.4 in Blackburn this morning and at 230.0 in Ferntree Gully. So why would one brand charge two different prices for the same litre on one side of Melbourne? Let me explain.
Prices here are those lodged with Victoria's official fuel price scheme up to the evening of Thursday 22nd Oct 2026, read at 8:10am AEDT on Friday 23rd Oct.
One brand, three price tiers
Our data has 29 Shell Reddy Express servos across Melbourne's east, from Balwyn out to Lilydale. Their unleaded petrol prices fall into neat groups:
- Ten sites, including Blackburn, Ringwood and Mooroolbark, are on 239.4.
- Fourteen sites, including Nunawading, Croydon and Lilydale, are on 237.9.
- A handful sit on their own prices: Chadstone 236.9, Doncaster and Doncaster East 237.0, Bulleen 234.4 and Ferntree Gully 230.0.
The groups move in lockstep. The top tier has stepped down from 245.0 on 12th Oct to 239.4, mostly a tenth of a cent each night, with larger cuts of about 2c on 14th and 16th Oct. The middle tier followed the same rhythm from 239.4. Then every site in it lifted 2c on the evening of 21st Oct while the top tier kept easing.
Shell Reddy Express Blackburn and Shell Reddy Express Nunawading are both on Whitehorse Road, 3.1 km apart. On 13th Oct the Blackburn site was 5.5c dearer. Today the gap is 1.5c.
Think of it this way. A cinema chain often charges more at its city multiplex than at its suburban one for the same film, because the rivals nearby are different. Economists call this zone pricing. It's a form of price discrimination where a retailer sets a price for each local market instead of one price everywhere.
What happened in Ferntree Gully
The clearest example is on the Burwood Highway at Ferntree Gully.
On the evening of Tuesday 20th Oct, Liberty Ferntree Gully at 908 Burwood Highway cut unleaded from 235.5 to 229.5. Pacific Fuel Solutions at 962 Burwood Highway went to 229.7 the same night.
On 21st Oct, Shell Reddy Express Ferntree Gully at 1140 Burwood Highway moved with its tier, up 2c to 237.8. That left it 8.3c above Liberty, which is 1.7 km away.
On the evening of 22nd Oct it broke away from its sister sites. Every other site in its tier went to 237.9, but Shell Ferntree Gully cut 7.8c to 230.0, half a cent above Liberty. EG Ampol and BP in Ferntree Gully have held at 234.9 since 20th Oct.
The same move in Bulleen
Bulleen went through this a week earlier. On 14th Oct, United Bulleen on Bulleen Road eased to 238.9, and that night Shell Reddy Express Bulleen on Manningham Road, under a kilometre away, left the top tier with a 9.1c cut to 235.8. United kept going and reached 228.9 by 19th Oct. Shell Bulleen is now on 234.4, 5c under its top tier sister site in nearby Balwyn.
Why not charge 230.0 everywhere?
It comes down to how easily drivers can switch. Every cent cut is a cent less margin on every litre sold, and most motorists fill up near home or work without shopping around. Where a cheaper independent is a short drive away, more customers will switch, so demand at that site is very sensitive to price and a cut protects sales. Where the nearest cheap rival is several kilometres away, fewer people bother, and a higher price can hold.
That also means the brand on the sign tells you little about the price. Shell stations in our sample span 9.4c on the same morning, about $5.64 on a 60 litre tank.
What this means for your next fill
For context, the median across 135 servos in Melbourne's east fell from 242.9 on 12th Oct to 235.9 from 19th Oct, so the top Shell tier now sits 3.5c above the typical servo.
The same logo can carry several prices in one suburb, so check the price at the servo you actually plan to use. Servos close to an independent such as Liberty or United tend to be sharper, because that is where switching is easiest. Victorian prices are lodged in the evening, so a quick look before you leave home shows what you will pay.
Once you know how zone pricing works, the cheaper litres are easier to find, and our price trends page shows how the wider market is moving.