Residents of a fast-growing Victorian town caught in a gas supply monopoly say they are bracing for bills of up to $1000 a month.
Marong, near Bendigo, has just one provider of natural gas, which is trucked to a storage unit and then piped to houses.
Marong residents (from left) Peter Bryar, Alicia Foley and Emily Edgar say a gas monopoly is driving up prices.Credit: Joe Armao
Teacher Emily Edgar moved to Marong in early 2022 with her partner, one-year-old daughter and teenage son.
She said she only learned there was one gas provider – Tas Gas – after they had paid the house deposit and signed the contracts.
Edgar said that late last year she received notification from Tas Gas that prices would rise markedly. She estimates bills will go up by 80 per cent, based on the figures the company provided.
“We’re held hostage,” she said.
Marong is among the fastest growing communities in Greater Bendigo. Credit: Joe Armao
Edgar said she had been quoted about $30,000 to switch to electric ducted heating, a cost her family budget cannot absorb.
Residents in the mortgage-belt region, many of whom rely on gas heating, fear a cold winter will leave them thousands of dollars out of pocket.
“Most of us are dual income earners. We can’t get another job to pay these bills,” Edgar said.
The Victorian government’s energy compare website estimated gas costs for a household of four with seven rooms using gas heating and instantaneous hot water at $3640 a year in Marong. In suburban Melbourne, a similar household annual bill in the south-east, for example, would be about $1600.
Edgar, whose home also has solar panels, now expects her winter bills to reach at least $1000 for June compared with just over $570 for the same month last year, even though her family was trying to consume less gas.
Fellow Marong resident Alicia Foley received a gas bill of more than $800 for May.
“It wasn’t even winter yet,” she said.
Foley, who also expects her winter gas bills to exceed $1000, said her family could not cut back on heating because her 16-month-old son is susceptible to the viral infection croup.
“I’m worried about what my bills will look like in winter,” she said. “We need our heating to make sure our son doesn’t fall ill.”
Foley said she had not seen major increases in gas bills until this year. She has negotiated a payment plan with Tas Gas to pay her bill.
A spokesman for Tas Gas said the company was raising prices for Marong households because of significant increases in wholesale gas prices and fixed operating costs.
“We understand that the price increases are very difficult to absorb,” he said.
Marong is identified as a growth area in Bendigo, and has a population of about 2000 that is forecast to hit 8000 in the coming 25 years.
Tas Gas confirmed it began operating in Marong in 2017 and had just under 200 customers there, among about 1000 across regional Victoria.
The company spokesman said regional towns the company supplied were not connected to the Victorian gas transmission network, which meant there were higher costs associated with the transport of gas by trucks.
Tas Gas will undertake its next pricing review at the end of the year. However, the spokesman said the company’s operations in regional Victoria were unsustainable unless it increased prices.
Marong residents are bracing for gas bills of up to $1000 a month over winter. Credit: Joe Armao
Although Tas Gas supplies compressed natural gas to other regional Victorian towns, including Lakes Entrance, Orbost and Maldon, it appears some have been spared the bill shock.
Lakes Entrance Action and Development Association chairperson Alison Brewer said her most recent bill came in at $156, even though she relied on gas heating.
“It’s been cold, so we’ve had the heating on all night,” she said.
A spokesman for the government said it removed the requirement for new developments to be connected to reticulated gas last year and was working to help more Victorians transition away from the fossil fuel.
“Big gas companies are only here to line their own pockets,” she said.
Smart Energy Council chief executive John Grimes said the war in Ukraine had sent global gas prices soaring and had pushed up prices in Australia.
“It does mean the big gas companies are making out like bandits,” he said.
Grimes said converting to electrical appliances may come with a high upfront cost, but there would be long-term savings if households were generating rooftop solar power.
He said people should try to replace gas hot water, cook tops and heating with electrical versions whenever they could.
“Many people aren’t in a position to do everything in one hit,” he said.
Meanwhile, Victorian power prices are set to rise by at least 25 percent after the Essential Services Commission released its default offer for households for this financial year.
City of Greater Bendigo chief executive Craig Niemann said he expected there would be a move away from gas towards renewable energy in Marong in coming years.
“Over time I think a lot of those houses won’t be connected to gas,” he said. “They’ll have their own solar systems on their roofs.”
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