Has anyone driven in Australia?

Australia take it further most bays are angled and the bay will have a sign to tell you to pull in nose first, or to reverse into the bay, so all cars are stacked correctly, at an angle and more are fitted in along the length of a street not taking up as much width as straight spaces.

On multilane roads you MUST pull in in front of the car you overtake immediately. Hog outside lane and they slap you hard with a fine.
 
Jesus you guys make it sound like a nightmare!

Don't do more than 10% over the limit or you'll get booked for speeding. At school times the speed limit is reduced around schools and enforced, the signs tell you the times and speed (40kmh) usually.

There are lots of random breath tests and loads of people still drink drive and get busted for it.

Park as the signs tell you, they will say something in green like 2P nose to kerb 45 degrees, the 2P is the time in hours. If in doubt copy everyone else. In the city you'll have to pay to park, in the country it will be free everywhere.

When turning at lights you have to give way to pedestrians crossing and at zebras too. Make sure you don't run someone over when turning left!

In the country you will get sleepy kangaroos at dusk and dawn, chances are you won't hit one, luck of the draw. On a busy road it's unlikely to see one, on very quiet back road it's quite possible.

Turning right is different in Victoria in some areas, you have to pull to the left then wait for the green to turn right across traffic which is very strange.

In 3 years I've probably done 60-80k km for work and pleasure, hit two roos while at work and a wombat. Done loads of random breath tests (RBT) and had no speeding tickets.
 
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Hikari Kisugi said:
On multilane roads you MUST pull in in front of the car you overtake immediately. Hog outside lane and they slap you hard with a fine.
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Never seen anything like that enforced up here to be honest, people (stupidly) sit in the right hand lane because they might be turning right 10km up the road. Though they have fined a guy for eating a hot pie while driving!
 
[TW]Fox;26671621 said:
I did about 5000 miles over the space of 8 weeks this time 5 years ago.

It's totally easy and absolutely fine, with two main exceptions:

a) They absolutely HATE speeding. Don't do it. I got pulled over for doing 7mph over the (low) speed limit on a straight road in the middle of absolutely nowhere by an unmarked cop car driving the other way.

b) Outside of cities it's advised not to drive after dark becuase of the risk of hitting animals etc. We saw a LOT of smashed 'roo's by the side of the road.

Other than that its absolutely fine, if you are renting a car there are very high excesses on car hire - up to $4000 in some cases. Buy insurance here from somewhere like insurance4carhire before you go and then decline the expensive excess waiver insurance they'll offer you.
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This really.

We did 3000 miles in April. Driving at night not advised but if you have to make sure you go slow... It's not the 'roos we were worried about on the west coast, it was the 1 tonne cows on the road!

Also if you're planning on going to more remote areas like the west coast or outpack proper try and get a fuel can and keep it full. Fuel stations are few and far between, even on the main roads they can be 250km apart, so miss one and you may well run out. We met a couple of cars that run out of fuel on the way up, and most private vehicles have spare fuel.

Depending on where you go consider getting a 4x4. Many of the best natural wonders (and least crowded) are at the end of long bumpy roads, a few 4x4 only. If you're going for a while and hiring then maybe hiring one for a week or two for certain bits would be the best bet.

With regards to the excess, you may find that the hire company will force you to pay a bond if you don't take out the excess reduction with them. I did the same as Fox and went with a third party which was cheaper, the hire company then took $5k off my credit card and put it back on when we gave the car back.
 
Wrt remoter areas and 4x4. I wouldn't bother renting one. I'd just rent a sedan, I just pick Camry on the Avis site and each time I've been upgraded to a Commodore or Falcon, had a Falcon Executive up in Cairns for a week.

All the tourist stuff can be seen with a 2wd and 95% of it will be sealed road. If it's dry you'll be fine with 2wd just go slow as the corrugations vibrate the heck out of the car.

If it rains hard the the dirt roads can be closed for days in some areas depending on how they are constructed.
 
Berger said:
Wrt remoter areas and 4x4. I wouldn't bother renting one. I'd just rent a sedan, I just pick Camry on the Avis site and each time I've been upgraded to a Commodore or Falcon, had a Falcon Executive up in Cairns for a week.

All the tourist stuff can be seen with a 2wd and 95% of it will be sealed road. If it's dry you'll be fine with 2wd just go slow as the corrugations vibrate the heck out of the car.

If it rains hard the the dirt roads can be closed for days in some areas depending on how they are constructed.
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Yeah, just be aware that if you do leave the bitumen in a hire car that you may not be insured at all. I hired a Falcon down in Alice and the T&Cs stated i couldn't drive it between sunset and sunrise and no dirt roads.
 
I llrecently migrated to sydney and commute 60km south into the illawara. Here are my day to day observations:

Speeding is rife, people generally drive 10kph over the speed limit. Though if caught 10kph over the limit nets you a $250 fine.

I'll usually see the police or mobile speed cameras once, and often 2-3 times on the journey to work. Mobile speed cameras appear as white utes and will have a little yellow sign 20 metres or so before you get to the camera to let you know youre being snapped.

Traffic police cars are only ever in white, red or blue and usually holden commodores...theyre quite distinctive in that they have umpteen aerials.. Will often park on a grass merge in the middle of the motorway and dont often have lights on so just watch out.

Fixed speed cameras are signposted when entering the area but the cameras themselves arent highlighted..just a bland shade if grey.

Lane etiquette does not exist, undertaking is illegal but prevalent.

Indicators are an optional extra for australians, usually cars will freely overtake/undertake if there's a gap between you and the car in front, but also expect that if youre in the faster moving lane someone will cut you up regardless.

Traffic lights will see last minute lane changes...particularly if one lane has 2 less cars in than their current lane.

Many roads around town are 60/70kph but during school times (8-9:30am and 2:30-4pm) are 40kph...amazingly most of the crazy australian drivers obey the school speed limit.

Gps/sat nav is dirt cheap here, we bought a nav man for $70 which hands down beats our in-built quashqai gps. dont get ripped off with one at the hire car place for gps - jbhifi has deals on all the time.

Park in the direction of traffic, expect that people parking on a main road will stop in the main road and reverse in...whether theres a queue of traffic or no. Also expect people to pull out of a parking space and pull a u-turn in front of you.

Parking lots have lights above the space, red if occupied, green if space is free...handy to find a spot.

If youve read this far, congratulations youve just missed out on a week of anger, frustration and bewilderment. Good luck.

J
 
Traffic cars come in any colour, not just red white and blue, we have lots of black and silver here but have also had yellow.

Are either fully marked, only on the sides or completely unmarked.

Usually high performance V8 commodores or falcons, but can be other brands. One of my wife's friends husbands is traffic police so I've had a nosey at them.

Agree on the satnav front, very cheap in the shops. You won't need one if you have a smart phone, navigating is quite easy but the signage is poor compared I England.
 
Berger said:
Traffic cars come in any colour, not just red white and blue, we have lots of black and silver here but have also had yellow.

Are either fully marked, only on the sides or completely unmarked.

Usually high performance V8 commodores or falcons, but can be other brands. One of my wife's friends husbands is traffic police so I've had a nosey at them.

Agree on the satnav front, very cheap in the shops. You won't need one if you have a smart phone, navigating is quite easy but the signage is poor compared I England.
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Appologies...should have said 'only ever' more like only ever on my way to work heh.

Tbh i found the nav man handy because it gives a nice pictorial of which lane to be in..handy when there are often 3 or more lanes
 
jdad84 said:
Lane etiquette does not exist, undertaking is illegal but prevalent.


J
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Just and FYI for you, a snippet from the Autralian Road Rules
141—No overtaking etc to the left of a vehicle

(1) A driver (except the rider of a bicycle) must not overtake a vehicle to the left of the vehicle unless:

(a) the driver is driving on a multi-lane road and the vehicle can be safely overtaken in a marked lane to the left of the vehicle; or

(b) the vehicle is turning right, or making a U-turn from the centre of the road, and is giving a right change of direction signal and it is safe to overtake to the left of the vehicle; or

(c) the vehicle is stationary and it is safe to overtake to the left of the vehicle.

Overtaking on the left side of a vehicle is legal.
I agree with you on the lack of use of indicators. People are less likely to let you out at junctions also. The standard of driving here is much worse than the UK. On the plus side, i don't as aggressively here as i did in the cities in the UK. I think that is mainly because here in Darwin, bad traffic is when you dont make it through the traffic lights the first time they go green.
 
Back now. Driving there was extremely simple in both the outback and in the cities. If you've driven in the UK then you'll be fine in Australia.
 
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