LIKE most of the population, mum-to-be Belinda Jones is confused and frustrated about the ever-spiralling price of petrol.

With the average price for unleaded ahead of the Queen’s Birthday long weekend yesterday hitting a record 144.7c a litre in Sydney, more than 36c higher than in June last year, Ms Jones said her weekly budget had been thrown into turmoil.

The 25-year-old said visiting relatives and taking weekend trips away with her husband had to be considered through the prism of the bowser price.

“Petrol prices are something that is getting everybody angry and nobody feels anything is being done to make it better,” she said after spending $80 to fill thetank of her Commodore wagon at the Chatswood BP, in Sydney’s north. “In the past you could never conceive of paying $2 a litre, but now that seems feasible; and how are people going to afford that?”

There is hope for short-term relief at the petrol bowser, with the international price of crude oil dropping below $US70 a barrel following the killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zaqawi. Analysts said his death could help make Middle East oil supplies more secure.

Around the country, the cost of petrol rose ahead of the long weekend, except in Perth, where Monday is not a public holiday.

Australian Automobile Association executive director Lauchlan McIntosh said oil companies needed to justify the latest price hike. “Is it just coincidence that Perth, the only capital not to have a long weekend coming up, is also the only capital where prices have not jumped today?” he said.

The average petrol price per litre yesterday was 142.6c in Melbourne, 135.4c in Brisbane, 144.9c in Adelaide, 134.6c in Perth, 146.3c in Hobart, 146.6c in Darwin, and 145.1c in Canberra.