American woman living in Australia shares how different petrol stations down under are: 'So confused'

Every country has its cultural practices and regulations that people eventually get accustomed to. However, these differences may be poles apart. What is normal to some in one country may be bizarre to others in a different country. American woman Tate Duane – who goes by @twaynne on TikTok – shared a video questioning the fueling practice in Australia. She moved to Australia recently and found contrasting differences between how Americans and Australians fuel their vehicles and is intrigued by the same. “Australia, I love you, but I’m so confused,” the woman said. 

Duane pointed out that she was filling fuel in her car for the first time by herself and found differences worth pointing out. At first, she mentioned that Australian petrol pumps don’t have machines with a click-button to automate the filling. “You have to literally stand here the whole time, which is a bit annoying,” Duane said. She then revealed that she found out the next difference when she went to pay for the fuel. Duane pointed out that she went to find a cashier or some mode of payment since the Australian pumps didn’t have contactless payments or tap to pay on the pumps.

“I went to pay and the woman was like, ‘What are you doing?’ I told her I wanted to pay. She said, ‘Don’t you have a number plate?’” Duane was taken aback and had no idea how to respond. She was confused as to what the pay mode was. “Also, what do you guys do when you need petrol in the middle of the night?” Duane asked. She was indicating her doubt about whether petrol pumps were open 24/7 without service personnel. “You just have things open here 24/7?” she exclaimed. “In America, you have these contactless payments, you just swipe your card, pump and drive away,” Duane said.

Several people came to Duane’s rescue and clarified her doubts in the comments section. @tiktok999995 answered all the questions, saying, “A lot are closed at night. Prepay is used only in the suburbs. Latches are dangerous, everyone saw Zoolander.” @nathantownsend06 elaborated further and explained, “The click thing was removed years ago for safety purposes. They can get stuck and not turn off and often people forget to remove it and drive away.” @cannedquokka said, “They removed the clicky thing in the late 90s. It’s a safety hazard. Also, some pumps let you enter the amount you want by cost.”

@stayoffthewestside said, “You fill the petrol and you go and pay inside. There are surveillance cameras, if you don’t pay, they report you to the police.” @anime.meee sarcastically said, “They have someone working at night otherwise you do a pump and run, but the coppers will catch you unless you don’t have a number plate.” @witchinghawk added another theory about the absence of the auto-click saying, “There is no click thing, so you hold it. Because if you get back in your car, you can get static electricity from the carpet in your car, when you touch the pump, it can spark fumes, causing a fire.”

You can follow Tate Duane (@twaynne) on TikTok for more content on Australian and American lifestyles.