From when we first went to Oz in 2006 and our last visit in November last year, prices have noticeably gone up. I couldn't tell you the price of bread or wages and yes, petrol is cheaper than here (but that is the same just about anywhere in the world!),but you certainly don't need to remortgage your house! Restaurants, for example, come in all price ranges from reasonable to ridiculous - you just need to be sensible. When we went in 2006 we were away for 7 weeks and we spent in the region of £4,000, but that included stopovers in Hong Kong, Hawaii & San Francisco. That figure will include amongst other things, petrol as we hired a car for 2 weeks, all tours (we did lots), souvenirs (lots!!), 3 meals most days (breakfast was included in Hong Kong) drinks, etc., etc. It does add up, but we had been saving up for ages and knew our limit.

Hi
The cost of fuel is $1-25 to $1-40 per litre in the the centre of Aus it will dearer
The cost of meals we have hotel meals they cost $20-00 to$ 30-00 for steak and veg meal restaurants will be dearer or as dear as you want to pay
The accommodation costs hotel and motels are about $ 80-00 to $ 170-00 Per night or in big citys as high as you want to go
The minimin wage is about $18-00 per hour cost of bread is about $ 2-00 to $3-00 per loaf

We spent 7 weeks down under in Dec/Jan and found eating out slightly cheaper than the UK on like for like meals. We covered 2600 miles and thought petrol was a bargain at around £3.50 a gallon. Probably explains why every other car is a V8. We also thought property was cheap compared to S.E. England. The reason everything in the shops seems expensive is because of the lousy exchange rate. This was our 2nd holiday in Oz and its worth every penny, its a great place.