Can anyone answer this for me please?

When you arrive in adelaide you can drive for a while on your uk driving licence

How long is it before you have to get your aussie licence????

And can you buy a car and insure it using your uk licence????

:help: :help: :help: :help:

thanks

kev :thumbs up:

Hi kev and Deb,
Yes, you can drive and buy a car using your UK licence for up to 3 months but you still need to be insured. Thereafter you have to pass a theory test and thats about it (Easy).

Barb
xxxx

Hi Kev
there's a couple of useful links, couldn't tell you offhand where but either in Links or in FAQ under Cars - www.raa.com.au has the theory test online for you to take as many times as you like till you get the answers right! And they are the ACTUAL questions you'll be asked on the test (they have a pool of questions and ask you a certain number at random).

Elaine

Here you go Kev

http://www.raa.net/page.asp?TerID=192

Practise away matey!

Sasha :)

Good link.
Thanks Sash.

The questions are easy peasy! :bouncing smiles:

I failed on a question first time I tried it :doh:

Don't really know why I'm admitting that but there we are it's all part of the therapy!

Sasha :)

If you are a temporary resident, you don't need to get an Aussie driving licence but as soon as you become a Permanent Resident you can drive on your British licence for 3 months and then you have to take your test.

Hope this helps.

:dancing dog: Good luck Kev and Deb thanks for the post valuable information that i had not thought of yet.

We will be flying out for a visit 15/8 hope all goes well for you.
Nicci

That's the glorious crazy system here....
You can come out here on a year's working holiday visa and drive so long as your uk licence remains valid.

Come out on a permanent visa and you need a test within 3 months - in fact, even if you move interstate you need to take the test in the new state, as they do have different road rules here and there :doh:

Elaine

Once you get yurselves settled, you can buy a South Australian Road Code ("Highway code") booklet with all the road rules in it, applicable to SA. Cost about $4 from newsagents, etc.
You don't need to take a test in a vehicle on the road ("practical test"), as long as you've held a British driving licence for 2 years or more. All you need to do is answer the mulitple choice test ("theory test") at a police station or Transport Dep't office and get 35 out of 40 right. If you're not confident, see me in Mount Barker, because the local police station here is "easy" . . . my 16 yr old daughter passed, so must be! Cost $21.
A South Australian has a photo. Cost $19 + about $20 per year up to a max of 10 years, hence a 10 yr licence will set you back $19+ 20x10 = 19+200 = $219
Cars here are "registered". This is the motor tax AND 3rd party BODILY insurance all in one . . . the legal miniumum you need to drive a vehicle on the roads . . . and is all inclusive every year you "register" your vehicle. Insurance is for any driver holding a current licence.
However, if you want to be insured for 3rd party PROPERTY insurance on your vehicle, for other cars, buses, etc. in case you run into them, you need to see a private insurer. My Suzuki costs me $106 through Royal Automobile Association (equivalent to AA in Britain) for the year!
If you can't afford 3rd party insurance, you can't afford to be driving on the roads is what I tell my kids! Your choice however.
Hope this makes it clear as mud!
Bob and Ginnie

Hi Bob and Ginny
Thanks for that explanation, I hadn't realised the specific difference between bodily 3rd party insurance and property. This thread will be headed for the faq in due course!

By the way, a belated welcome to the site! I saw your description of Mt Barker in the faq suburbs area and I think it sounds idyllic. Must get out there and have a look one of these days.

Elaine

Up here in QLD, you can just swap another State licence over for a QLD one, no test needed. But QLD may be different, we don't even have the Computer theory test yet, it's still pen and paper !! :)


I didn't find out about that "bodily 3rd party insurance and 3rd party property" until AFTER someone had hit my car, and I found they couldn't afford to pay my repair costs.

My Comprehensive Insurer paid for my repairs, and may have chased them for it later ?

Can you just renew after 10 years then or do you have to re-take the theory?

You choose how many years you buy a licence for - useful if you're a bit strapped for cash at the time, what with setting up house here. You just pay another fee to renew - no new theory test to do.

:D Thank you!

Howard, Elaine, Vicky and Geoff!
when you do decide to motor up the South Eastern Freeway, you're most welcome to come for a BBQ. Come for tea, if you like.
My wife and I and 2 teenage daughters (son in the Eastern States now) live 9 kms east of Mt. Barker in a mud brick home on 8 acres. . . . just 10 mins drive from the township. We can point you in the right direction to see all the new homes going up on the outskirts of town.
The main thing I like about this place is that it is just 30 mins easy drive along the Freeway to the city centre of Adelaide, and has a "country town" feel about it. No parking problems. Easy shopping. Relax at one of a number of cafes afterwards and the summer heat is bearable here, cos' we're over a thousand feet up, so when you need to get away from 40 degrees for a while, you either head for the beach or visit a mate in the Hills.
Evenings are great in summer, watching the sun go down in the west through the trees, with a cold beer in your hand lazing in the chair under the verandah. . . . God's own country, mate! And NO traffic . . . . not here!

Bridie and Malc!

no worries. It's like the UK . . . once you pass the driving test, that's it! It's for good, so you just drop in at your local Transport SA office, pull out your money and renew your licence for 1 , 2 , 5 8 , 10 years . . . whatever. Again!
I think you may have to start getting a medical check each year once you turn 75, if you have a heavy vehicle licence like me.
Obviously, you need a new mug shot every time you renew. My mug looks a whole lot different now to 25 years ago .. .

in the uk we dont have to have meds done at a certain age to make sure we can still drive safely, which means that any 95 year old ex-judge with one eye missing and the other with partial vision who needs three cushions to see over the steering wheel, is deaf in one ear, has a wooden leg, arthritis and epilepsy can drive quite safely and legitimately past our schools at 30mph .
and quite rightly so, after all this is a democractic country. :huh:

But hang on Mayten - the uk licences are only valid till you're 70 then you have to get them renewed. Are you saying there's no check whatsoever when that comes up?

Elaine

not for 95 year old ex- judges :lol:

You only have to do the written test now in Adelaide, this is fact as I have a friend that works in the REGO office where the test is done, you don`t have to do a driving test, unless of course you can`t drive at all like ME. Oh dear one of these days I might try

Sheila

:bouncing smiles:

Yep, it all changed about Nov last year, just as we arrived. Those who came before then had to do a practical as well as the theory! I'm so glad we arrived when we did!!!!! :P