Forget your fancy electric vehicles or public transport upgrades; for some, beating the petrol price pinch means getting seriously creative.
And it’s this ingenuity that’s inadvertently shining a spotlight on Australia’s housing crisis.
Meet Mali Hightower, a 30-year-old handyman from Ellenwood, Georgia.
Faced with a hefty $126 bill to fill his 1996 Mercedes-Benz convertible, Mali found a rather unique solution: a broken pink Power Wheels Barbie Dream Camper.
He’s fitted the less-than-four-foot-tall toy car with a two-gallon, one-piston engine from a power washer, complete with a lawnmower-like rip cord.
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Now, with knees at his ears and a dirt bike helmet on his head, he’s off to the supermarket, groceries piled on a custom-built rack.
Best of all, it only costs him $4 to fill up his treasured toy car, he told Reuters.
“That’s too much,” Hightower said of the high fuel cost.
“I drive this when I can.”
Mali Hightower has turned a pink Barbie toy car into his new mode of transport. Source: Detroit News
While Mali’s solution might be unusual, the soaring cost of petrol is reshaping everyday decisions and inspiring creative workarounds in households across the globe.
And Australia is no exception.
Earlier this year, a lighthearted social media post from the Charleston Hotel in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, quickly became a local legend.
The pub, sharing a throwback image of horses tethered outside in years gone by, cheekily suggested, “Don’t let the petrol prices stop you getting out this weekend – we’re still really happy for you to tether your horse up out the front!”
True to their word, two local women, with their horses Soda and Susan, arrived for a drink, creating a scene straight out of the pub’s past and proving that when fuel prices bite, Australians will find a way.
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It now only costs him $4 to fill his tank. Source: Detroit News
As of May 20, Australians are paying between $1.85 and $2.15 a litre for petrol and up to $2.40 for diesel.
While these figures are a welcome reprieve from the over $4 a litre seen earlier this year in some locations, the cost-of-living crunch remains a stark reality, with the shift in how we commute having a profound, and perhaps unexpected, impact on the property market, particularly concerning parking.
A new report from the respected policy advocacy group, the Grattan Institute, suggests that slashing carparking requirements for new apartments and introducing more restrictions and meters on street parking could be surprising ways to help alleviate Australia’s housing crisis.
The Institute estimates that Australia is currently building over $1 billion in unwanted and unused carparking alongside new homes every year.
The vehicle basically runs on a lawnmower engine. Source: Detroit News
Their research indicates that by ditching minimum parking requirements for developments in major capital cities, thousands could be cut from the cost of building a new home.
More significantly, it could free up space to build more homes, potentially eliminating over 86,000 unnecessary carparks from new developments in the next five years.
This could, in turn, free up $5.2 billion in construction resources, enough to build an additional 9000 homes.
The rationale is clear: fewer people are relying on private vehicles, especially in urban apartment living.
The Charleston Hotel in SA now offers “horse parking”. Source: Facebook
The Grattan Institute’s research noted that 2021 Census data found 40 per cent of studio and one-bedroom apartment households did not own a car, nor did 19 per cent of those living in two-bedroom units.
Even in larger three-bedroom-plus apartments, 58 per cent of residents reported owning one or fewer cars.
Aruna Sathanapally, chief executive of the Grattan Institute, highlighted the “wasteful mismatch” between the carparking that is actually needed and what is currently mandated by regulations.
It seems the humble petrol pump is inadvertently driving a quiet revolution in Australian urban planning and property development.