Driving though Australia?????

enda50

so, thinking about doing a year or so in Australia, going working and usual stuff, but i would love to road trip with a couple of the lads! we were looking at routes up and over Australia and looks cool.

cars seem pretty cheep to buy between a few judgin by ebay anyway. looking at toyota surfs for like 4g aud which is good

so my questions are.....

would a 4x4 be better than a convertible or a faster 2 door which might be better if its hot :rolleyes:

do u think an ebay car could do the distance?:o

any ideas for a good car that will do the distance and be cheep?:pac:

any ideas for things to do and see?

and ideas about hidden costs?

any one have already done it and wanna share there experiences?:cool:

Xavi6

Ok firstly, wait til you get here to buy a car. If you start somewhere like Cairns you will find people selling their cars at a reduced rate as they are heading to New Zealand etc and need the cash.

Secondly, a 4x4 won't make much difference if you're driving the east coast as it's all freeways and main roads. If however you go inland to the desert areas it will be of benefit.

Definitely don't leave Western Australia out of your trip. You can drive the Eyre Highway from Adelaide to Albany which is about 4 hours south of Perth. It's 1700kms or so long and will take you across the Nullaboor. I plan on doing it from Perth to Adelaide in a year or so.

Meathlass

Yeah wait till you get there. We bought a station wagan over there for about $800 Aus, I'd say it had been around Oz several times! No problems with it though. In Sydney in Kings Cross there are always hundreds of cars for sale and you can really bargain people down as they're leaving soon and need the cash.

Spud83

Ok wait until you get there to buy.

Secondly make sure you inspect the car thoroughly. Especially as some states require the car to pass a road safety test, I know we had to get one in Melbourne before we could transfer ownership.

Thirdly I think the bigger the better. As if you are driving around I would recommend camping as you save allot of money this way, and there are plenty of nice camp sites around. Camping gear takes up space though but it’s well worth it, especially in smaller places were the sampsites are nicer then the hostel and also bigger so you have more chance of getting a spot. Also if you arrive late into town you might not get a hostel open campsites never close. There offices might but the grounds are always open (free nights FTW:)). You should find cars for sale in every city. The best thing to do, and this goes for most things in Australia, is get to know people. The more people you know the more chances they will already know what you are looking for. This goes for accommodation and jobs too.

Fourthly don’t drive through everything. It can be tempting to just get from city to city but you should stop off in the small towns along the way. Certainly true for the west coast and south coast. I drove from Melbourne -> Adelaide -> Perth -> Broome -> Darwin -> Cairns -> Brisbane -> Sydney. We obviously stopped off in many places along the way. Check out my blog if you want and if you have any questions get back to me. www.bugbitten.com/alanmurphy

Lastly a warning. Obey the rules at all times in Australia. I know when you seem like you are in the middle of no where you might think sure we won’t get checked here. You will. We got stopped a couple of times in the most remote places, sometimes for breath testing, sometimes for a van search (crossing borders). This isn't to scare you as the police are very nice, they even gave us an option to hand over anything and they would deal with on the side of the road (fine), or if they had to search the van and found anything then we would have been arrested. We didn't have anything, had dumped it a few miles back.:)

enda50

great guys brill insight!

think we gonna go the camping route!

another question for any one who might know (i.e. Australians), how easy is it to get a driving license down there?

keep the comments coming on the rest as-well thanks alot

Xavi6

Have you already got a full Irish one? If so then you can just swap it for Aussie one.

If not you need to pass a theory test, do a short practical test then do 25 hours supervised driving before you get your 'P' plates which you have for two years. The 'P' plates are the same as a full licence just you can't drink as much etc etc. The whole process to get your P's can be done in a couple of weeks if you can get someone to help with the 25 hours supervised driving. There are ways around it too!

enda50

dose the supervised driving need to be from an instructor or just someone wit a full license!
is the practical hard to pass? like as hard as it is here?

Xavi6

No it can be anyone with a full licence, even if they're Irish. They just need to fill out a log book and sign it for you.

The practical is a peace of piss, even easier than the Irish one, if that's even possible.

paddylonglegs

Will be looking for a camper or estate car in Perth,only using it for our 6 weeks stay in Oz, and head up to Broome.

Have been doing a bit of info on how much cars cost and alot of them say it a has a rego or doesn't have one.My question is, how much does it cost to register a car, and will it take long?Do i need an address for it?

neildcu

Try www.travellers-autobarn.com they have offices all over Oz little bit more expensive than buying privatly but they provide year long NRMA (oz equivilant of AA) cover so if you break down your sorted they also offer guaranteed 40% buy back on all the cars they sell if you can't or couldnt be bothered selling it yourself so no worry of getting stuck with car. They do rentals too.

hussey

Xavi6 wrote: »

Have you already got a full Irish one? If so then you can just swap it for Aussie one.

If not you need to pass a theory test, do a short practical test then do 25 hours supervised driving before you get your 'P' plates which you have for two years. The 'P' plates are the same as a full licence just you can't drink as much etc etc. The whole process to get your P's can be done in a couple of weeks if you can get someone to help with the 25 hours supervised driving. There are ways around it too!

In NSW you need your full license 3 years before they will give you a (full) Oz one, otherwise stuck on P plates.

On some P plates however you cannot even have one drink

LadyMayBelle

firstly, Plus one for buying your car over there. Secondly, do not leave Western Australia out of your trip. Check out perth to albany for sure which is beautiful but def do the perth-broome-darwin route. That's a trip of a lifetime,seriously.

youcancallmeal

I'm heading over in a few months and my Irish provisional expires shortly before I leave. So would I still be able to pick up a 'P' license there if one of the lads I'm with who has full Irish driving license accompanies me whenever I'm driving? Sounds a bit too good to be true?

hussey

youcancallme>al wrote: »

I'm heading over in a few months and my Irish provisional expires shortly before I leave. So would I still be able to pick up a 'P' license there if one of the lads I'm with who has full Irish driving license accompanies me whenever I'm driving? Sounds a bit too good to be true?

If it expires then you cannot use it .... you may be able to apply for a P license (as a complete newbie, rather than experienced) but there are different rules as to who you drive with and when, and what times etc , I don't think it will count if he has an irish license unless he swaps it for a full Oz one ....

this isn't fact ... P plates can be confusing

Xavi6

If you have any sort of non full Irish licence it counts for nothing and you'll have to go through the whole process in whatever state you're in.