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Driving in OZ
Driving in Australia is certainly different than driving in the UK, I used to drive at least 100miles a day midweek in England but I definitely lost my nerve a bit coming
here, I'm alright now but it's took 4 months to get used to driving in Brisbane!
here, I'm alright now but it's took 4 months to get used to driving in Brisbane!
For details regarding HGV licenses
please see our jobs page.
please see our jobs page.
Driving here is an adventure, for example buses have right of way, that's fine you have to be courteous to buses in the UK, but seriously they use the privilege. You can
be overtaking a parked bus and it will pull out, you have to be really careful with them.
Then there's the road layouts, this took a while to learn, you can be driving down a road when suddenly the lane you're in stops or is now a left turn lane, with no
warnings! Also they are a great fan of merging lanes, and you think no one lets you in in the UK, try it here, it's every man for himself.
The one thing I didn't realise about the UK is that drivers are extremely courteous, flashing to let you in, acknowledging thanks by indicators when you let them in or raising
a hand if you've been let in. I've seen a hand raised a couple of times but that's it, and seeing as we've driven over 10 thousand Kilometers since we got here we
experienced it a lot.
There are some big cars and wagon's here, we have a Rav4 which I love and ours is quite small compared to a lot of them.
Traffic lights go from red directly to green with no 'red amber' preparation period, for a relaxed place this is a bit of a frantic manoeuvre.
There are lots of wild life in the road which are surprising and you have to keep cool to prevent from crashing, such as large lizards and snakes, both of which we've seen
but in the hills.
Petrol is a fantastic price, when we left the UK I think it was around 98p per litre, here on 11th October at our local garage it was 99.9c per litre, which is around 40p!!!
Bargain! However you do have to watch the petrol prices, they fluctuate dramatically and sometimes in one day, they also have had a tendency in the past to go up
towards the weekend, interesting?!
be overtaking a parked bus and it will pull out, you have to be really careful with them.
Then there's the road layouts, this took a while to learn, you can be driving down a road when suddenly the lane you're in stops or is now a left turn lane, with no
warnings! Also they are a great fan of merging lanes, and you think no one lets you in in the UK, try it here, it's every man for himself.
The one thing I didn't realise about the UK is that drivers are extremely courteous, flashing to let you in, acknowledging thanks by indicators when you let them in or raising
a hand if you've been let in. I've seen a hand raised a couple of times but that's it, and seeing as we've driven over 10 thousand Kilometers since we got here we
experienced it a lot.
There are some big cars and wagon's here, we have a Rav4 which I love and ours is quite small compared to a lot of them.
Traffic lights go from red directly to green with no 'red amber' preparation period, for a relaxed place this is a bit of a frantic manoeuvre.
There are lots of wild life in the road which are surprising and you have to keep cool to prevent from crashing, such as large lizards and snakes, both of which we've seen
but in the hills.
Petrol is a fantastic price, when we left the UK I think it was around 98p per litre, here on 11th October at our local garage it was 99.9c per litre, which is around 40p!!!
Bargain! However you do have to watch the petrol prices, they fluctuate dramatically and sometimes in one day, they also have had a tendency in the past to go up
towards the weekend, interesting?!
Janine and expat living in Brisbane's south side has pointed out that you also have to
deal with:
deal with:
- Entering a motorway on a fast line on some occasions.
- Roundabouts, they are still fathoming them out.
- They overtake on both sides.
When we decided to buy a car we were advised to go to 'Marooka Mile' which is on the Southside of Brisbane and contains lots of car sales rooms, we did this but we also
went all over Brisbane looking for them and found that there's garages all over, so a trip to Marooka isn't essential. We bought our car form Sci Fleet Toyota garage on the '3'
(Gympie road). On car's you can haggle like in the UK, but please be aware there are charges of taxes and 3rd party insurance cover that they add on to your offer, roughly an
additional $600. We found the best approach for this dilemma was to offer a price and say " such an amount to drive away", this then meant that your offer included all
additional charges and costs. To give you an idea of costs we bought a 2001 Rav4 Edge in Silver with CD player, air con (essential!), power steering etc. for $21'500.00 and
since then we bought a Hyundai Excel, again with air con and a CD player but no power steering, in excellent condition in a private sale for $6'500, however you then have to
go and register the car at the transport authority and they charge you the extras there as would have happened if you'd have bought the car from a garage.
went all over Brisbane looking for them and found that there's garages all over, so a trip to Marooka isn't essential. We bought our car form Sci Fleet Toyota garage on the '3'
(Gympie road). On car's you can haggle like in the UK, but please be aware there are charges of taxes and 3rd party insurance cover that they add on to your offer, roughly an
additional $600. We found the best approach for this dilemma was to offer a price and say " such an amount to drive away", this then meant that your offer included all
additional charges and costs. To give you an idea of costs we bought a 2001 Rav4 Edge in Silver with CD player, air con (essential!), power steering etc. for $21'500.00 and
since then we bought a Hyundai Excel, again with air con and a CD player but no power steering, in excellent condition in a private sale for $6'500, however you then have to
go and register the car at the transport authority and they charge you the extras there as would have happened if you'd have bought the car from a garage.
Before arriving in Brisbane we booked our car hire on line with Avis, when completing the form online you will see it is much cheaper to hire a car if you are an Australian
Resident, remember if you have got this visa you are entitle to that price. This may seem an obvious fact but because we had not lived there before I felt a bit of a fraud,
but we checked and the cheaper price was right!
We booked a car with a child seat and to be collected from the airport, it was really easy to do once we were there, although they do start offering some extra insurances
to be prepared for that (we took it out as better safe than sorry) and the car came with a street mat which was an essential item in our beginners guide to Brisbane.
Resident, remember if you have got this visa you are entitle to that price. This may seem an obvious fact but because we had not lived there before I felt a bit of a fraud,
but we checked and the cheaper price was right!
We booked a car with a child seat and to be collected from the airport, it was really easy to do once we were there, although they do start offering some extra insurances
to be prepared for that (we took it out as better safe than sorry) and the car came with a street mat which was an essential item in our beginners guide to Brisbane.
| Average prices of petrol per litre in 2006 Unleaded:
Diesel:
(Prices taken from Mobil garage at Bracken Ridge). |
Copyright 2006 Karen Atkinson
Cath from the UK has sent a letter to me which she received from the Queensland Transport department stating that if you hold a UK drivers license
you no longer need to take a theory test!!!
I can't believe I had to take it three times and now it's been stopped....gutted! (But very pleased for all of you coming over, it wasn't as easy as it appeared to be!!!)
you no longer need to take a theory test!!!
I can't believe I had to take it three times and now it's been stopped....gutted! (But very pleased for all of you coming over, it wasn't as easy as it appeared to be!!!)
NEWS: 18.01.07 - You used to have to take a theory test to transfer your license from UK to Australian, however this has now changed and it
is now automatic when you attend a driving centre with your relevant documents. Today in the post we received cheques refunding the
money we had paid to transfer our driving licenses to QLD ones, It had taken David 2 relevant number of attemps. They come through
automatically (we knew nothing about the refunds) and are sent straight to your home address for anybody who paid for the transfer after
1st March 2006.
is now automatic when you attend a driving centre with your relevant documents. Today in the post we received cheques refunding the
money we had paid to transfer our driving licenses to QLD ones, It had taken David 2 relevant number of attemps. They come through
automatically (we knew nothing about the refunds) and are sent straight to your home address for anybody who paid for the transfer after
1st March 2006.
| Average prices of petrol per litre in 2009 Unleaded:
(Prices taken from Mobil garage at Bracken Ridge). |
