Motoring
Motoring in Australia is not that to dissimilar to the UK. For a start
they drive on the left and they have the usual things such as car tax, MOT and points
for your license when you have been naughty. However, there are many
differences that will throw you initally and even worse is the fact that as Australia
is a federal county, the laws governing the use of cars differs between states!
Rego
Firstly, car registration, or Rego as the Australians call it, is like the UK a
government tax which allows you to drive on the roads. When you get your
Rego you have to also get your third-party insurance (called CTP), meaning that
you are now covered to drive without any other insurance. Usually, if
the car dealership will sort all of this out for you. But this does not
cover you for any injury caused by you on another person and of course your car
will not be fixed or replaced. Further insurance is therefore a necessity
unless you want to live on the edge and it is much cheaper than in the UK. There
are numerous insurance companies in Australia that offer both CTP and fuly comprehensive
insurance such as AAMI, Allianz, RACQ,
and NRMA Car Insurance
Driving License
If you are in Australia temporarily as an overseas visitor, you are allowed to drive
with a UK license for the duration of your stay. But if you have emigrated,
you are allowed to drive in Australia on your UK license for the first 3 months,
after which you will need to get an Australian driving license. Another
thing different to the UK is that you are required to carry your driving license
with you at all times
Our page
Australian Driving License has some further details on getting your license
changed over
Road Worthiness Certificate
It seems that the only need for this certificate is when buying or selling a car. Whereas
in the UK the certificate is used to prove that your car is allowed on the road,
in Australia it seems more to do with proof of identity. Even Victoria
parliament have discussed the misleading name of the certificate here and propose an alteration of the name of this certificate
in an attempt to focus people on the real reason for having it
There is more information on our
Buying a car in Australia webpage.
U-turns
This is the opposite to the UK when telling you at a junction what is permitted
or not. In the UK you are told when you are NOT permitted to do a U-turn,
but in Australia you are told when you ARE permitted to do a U-turn. This
will catch you out initally as you'll naturally expect that you can do a U-turn
and the cops could catch you. However, the police are reported to be
rather relaxed about this and as you are new to the country you will most likely
be sent on your way