Driving & licences
in Australia
Your licence, your deadline and your insurance are all set by the state you land in, and the deadline is the one that catches people out.
The deadline nobody mentions until it has passed
You can almost certainly drive on your overseas licence when you arrive. What varies is how long for, and when the clock starts.
Like tenancy law, and unlike income tax, driver licensing in Australia is state and territory business. Eight jurisdictions, eight road authorities, eight sets of conversion rules and eight different grace periods. There is no national driving licence and no federal answer to “how long can I use mine”.
The trap is subtler than a different number, though. In several states the clock is tied not to your arrival date but to when you become a permanent resident, so a clinician on a temporary work visa may drive on an overseas licence for years quite legally, then have a short window after their permanent residency is granted, at exactly the moment they are least likely to be reading road authority websites.
Driving on a licence that has quietly stopped being valid is not a technicality. It can void your insurance cover in an accident, which turns an ordinary bad day into a financial catastrophe. This is the one thing on this page worth checking in your first week rather than your first year.
Find your state’s road authority in the table below, read its page on overseas licence holders, and write your own deadline in your calendar with a reminder a month before.
If your visa status changes later, and for most clinicians it eventually does, check the rule again on the day it changes. That single reminder is the whole of the advice.
Your state’s road authority
These are the authoritative answers on your deadline, your conversion route and how CTP works where you live.
| State or territory | Road authority | How CTP insurance works here |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | Transport for NSWService NSW handles licence transactions | You choose a CTP insurer separately — the “green slip” — before you can register a vehicle. |
| Victoria | VicRoadsLicensing and registration | Included in your registration, administered through the state injury insurer. Nothing separate to arrange. |
| Queensland | Department of Transport and Main RoadsLicences, registration, CTP | Bundled with registration, but you nominate which licensed insurer provides it. |
| Western Australia | Department of Transport WADriver and vehicle services | Included in your registration through the state insurer. Nothing separate to arrange. |
| South Australia | Service SALicensing and registration | Bundled with registration, with a choice of approved insurer. |
| Tasmania | Transport TasmaniaRegistration and licensing | Included in registration through the state motor accidents scheme. |
| Australian Capital Territory | Access CanberraRoad transport services | Bundled with registration; you select from the licensed insurers. |
| Northern Territory | NT Motor Vehicle RegistryLicences and registration | Included in registration through the territory scheme. |
Authorities occasionally reorganise and rename. If a link here does not resolve, search the authority name plus “overseas licence” and tell us, and we will correct the page.
Converting your licence
For most of the clinicians we place this is paperwork rather than a test. It depends on where your licence was issued.
Australia treats a list of countries as having comparable licensing standards. If you hold a full licence from one of those, you can generally convert by application, identity, evidence of your licence, an eyesight check, a fee, without sitting a practical driving test. The United Kingdom, Ireland and a number of others sit on those lists.
If your licence is from a country not on your state’s list, expect to sit some combination of a knowledge test, a hazard perception test and a practical driving test. That is a normal and passable process, not a rejection, but it takes time and needs booking, which is the other reason to find out early rather than late.
Because the lists are maintained state by state, a country recognised in one jurisdiction is not automatically recognised in another. Check the list held by your road authority, not a general one.
Check your state’s recognised-country list
This single answer determines whether the rest is paperwork or an exam. Do it first.
Gather your evidence
Your overseas licence, an official English translation if it is not in English, your passport and visa, and proof of your Australian address. A licence that has expired complicates things considerably, so convert before yours lapses.
Book, or just attend
Some authorities take walk-ins, most now prefer an appointment. Appointments in the larger cities can be weeks out, which is a very common reason people miss a deadline they knew about.
Expect to surrender your overseas licence
Many states keep it when they issue yours. If you want it as a keepsake or for driving in a third country later, ask what the policy is before you hand it over.
Keep your driving history
Ask your home authority for a letter confirming your licence history and any claims record before you leave. It is what lets an Australian insurer treat you as an experienced driver rather than a beginner, and it is much harder to obtain once you have gone.
The document people wish they had brought is a letter about their driving history
Your Australian licence will say you passed a check. It says nothing about the fifteen years you drove without a claim, and insurers price on exactly that.
A one-page letter from your home licensing authority or your current insurer, obtained before you fly, routinely saves more on premiums in the first two years than the whole conversion costs. Almost nobody thinks of it.
Compulsory third party insurance
If you are arriving from New Zealand or the UK, this is unfamiliar, and getting it wrong means driving illegally rather than merely uninsured.
What CTP is
- It covers injury to people in a motor accident, other drivers, passengers, pedestrians. Not vehicles, not property.
- It is compulsory everywhere. You cannot legally register or drive a vehicle in Australia without it. This is not the optional-but-sensible category.
- It attaches to the vehicle, not to you as a driver, which is why it is tied to registration rather than sold as a personal policy.
- How you buy it varies by state. In some it arrives inside your registration bill; in others you must choose an insurer yourself before you can register at all. The table above says which applies where you are.
Why New Zealand arrivals find this odd
- New Zealand has no CTP because ACC covers accidental injury on a no-fault basis for everyone, funded partly through levies including one on petrol and registration.
- Australia has no ACC. Injury cover comes through this compulsory motor insurance instead, and it works on a fault-based model in most states.
- The practical consequence: in New Zealand car insurance is not legally compulsory at all. In Australia part of it is. Advice carried across the Tasman is wrong in both directions.
- And it is only part. CTP leaves your own car, and everyone else’s, entirely uncovered, which is what the next section is about.
The other car insurances, and which you need
CTP is the floor. Above it sit three tiers, and which to buy depends on what your car is worth.
Third party property. Covers damage you do to other people’s vehicles and property, and nothing of your own. This is the minimum most drivers should hold above CTP, because the risk it covers is unlimited: a modest older car can write off something expensive, and you would be liable for the whole of it.
Third party fire and theft. The middle tier. Other people’s property, plus your own car if it is stolen or burns. Worth considering for a car with some value but not enough to comprehensively insure.
Comprehensive. Covers your own vehicle as well, whoever was at fault. Sensible for anything newer or financed, and the default for most households.
The reasonable approach for an arriving clinician: hold third party property from the day you own a car, and choose between the higher tiers based on what the car is worth and how much you could absorb losing it. Nothing about your visa status changes what is available to you.
Home contents cover is a separate matter and sits with renting in Australia. Life, disability and income protection are usually held inside your super fund, which is covered in money, tax and banking.
Buying a car
Before you hand over money
- Run a written-off vehicle and finance check. Every state provides or points to a register showing whether a car has been written off, stolen, or still has money owing on it. A car with finance owing can be repossessed from you even after you have paid the seller.
- Get an independent inspection. The state motoring clubs offer pre-purchase inspections and they are worth every cent on a private sale.
- Check the roadworthy requirement. Several states require a roadworthy or safety certificate for a private transfer, and whose job it is differs.
- Confirm the registration transfers properly. Registration is state-based, and a car registered interstate needs re-registering where you live, sometimes with an inspection.
Worth knowing
- Dealer or private is a real trade-off. Dealers cost more and carry statutory warranty obligations; private sales are cheaper and sold as-is.
- Stamp duty applies on transfer, set by each state, on top of the purchase price. Budget for it rather than discovering it.
- Interstate moves need re-registration, so if you expect to move states within a year, factor that in.
- Buying with no Australian credit history is fine for cash but harder for finance, the same blank-slate problem as renting. Paying cash for a modest first car avoids the issue entirely.
- Utes and large SUVs dominate the market and hold value well. Small cars are cheaper to buy and run, and perfectly adequate for city work.
Should you ship your own car?
Almost certainly not.
Australia has strict vehicle import rules, and a personally imported car generally needs an import approval before it is shipped and compliance work after it arrives. Add sea freight, quarantine cleaning, duty and taxes, any modifications required to meet Australian design rules, and the delay while all of that happens, and the total commonly exceeds what the same car is worth on the local market.
There are narrow exceptions, a rare or classic vehicle, or a personal import concession that fits your circumstances exactly. If you think you are in one of those, get proper advice from a customs broker rather than a shipping company’s sales team, because their interests differ from yours.
The clinicians who ship a car regret it. The ones who sell up and buy on arrival do not.
It is an emotional decision more than a financial one, and we understand why. A car is one of the few large familiar objects you could theoretically bring. But it arrives weeks after you do, needs work before it can be driven, and by then you have already had to solve the problem another way.
Sell at home while you are there to manage it, and buy something modest and second-hand in your first month. Upgrade once you know your commute.
Driving here
Australians drive on the left. Beyond that, a few things are different and one of them is dangerous.
Speed limits are enforced, properly
Fixed cameras, mobile cameras, average-speed enforcement and low tolerances. Australian enforcement is stricter than many arrivals expect, penalties are real, and demerit points accumulate against your new licence quickly. Assume the limit is the limit.
Distance is not what it looks like on a map
The single most underestimated risk. Journeys between regional towns are longer, emptier and more tiring than the distance suggests, phone coverage disappears, and fuel stops can be hundreds of kilometres apart. Plan long drives properly, carry water, and tell someone your route.
Dawn and dusk are the risk
Kangaroos and livestock on regional roads are a serious hazard, worst at first and last light. Many locals avoid driving country roads at those hours, and that is sound advice rather than folklore.
Random breath testing is routine
Police stop drivers at random as a matter of course, not on suspicion. The limit is low, the enforcement is constant, and for a registered health practitioner a drink-driving conviction is a professional problem as well as a legal one.
Tolls, and the parking arithmetic
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have extensive toll networks needing an electronic tag or a pass; Perth and Adelaide have none. Inner-city parking is expensive and hospital staff parking is often limited and waitlisted. Worth asking about before you assume you will drive to work.
Heat, glare and flooding
Summer heat is hard on older cars and on tyres. Low sun at either end of the day is worse than in higher latitudes. And in the north, a road that is fine in June may be cut in February. Never drive into floodwater, which is advice locals repeat every single wet season for good reason.
Do you need a car?
A car is one of the largest costs of the first year, and for some people it is optional.
In the inner suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, plenty of households manage without one: public transport is decent, parking is expensive, and car-share and ride-hailing fill the gaps. If you will live centrally and work at a well-connected site, try the first two months without buying and see.
Almost everywhere else the answer is yes, and in outer-suburban and regional Australia a household often needs two, which is a cost that a salary comparison will not show you.
The deciding factor is usually your roster, not your suburb. Public transport that works perfectly for a nine-to-five does not help at the end of a late shift when services have stopped, and a taxi home several nights a week is worse than owning something modest. If you work nights, weekends or on-call, assume you need a car.
Which is the argument for deciding after you arrive rather than before. Give it a month, learn the actual commute, then buy, the same logic as not signing a lease from photographs. What a car costs to run in a specific city, and whether a second one is affordable there, is covered in the cost chapter of each destination guide.
- Your state or territory road authority, from the table above, the only authoritative source on your deadline, your conversion route and CTP.
- Department of Infrastructure and Transport. Federal vehicle import rules, if you are still considering shipping.
- The motoring club in your state, pre-purchase inspections, roadside assistance and written-off vehicle checks.
The things people ask us first
Can I drive on my overseas licence?
Usually yes at first, but the period is set by each state and in several it starts when you become a permanent resident rather than when you land. That is the trap. Check your own road authority in your first week and put your deadline in your calendar with a reminder a month before. Driving on a lapsed licence can void your insurance.
Will I have to sit a driving test?
Only if your licence is from a country not on your state’s recognised list. Holders of a full licence from a recognised country generally convert by application, with no practical test. The lists are maintained state by state, so check the one held by your own authority rather than a general list.
What is CTP and is it compulsory?
Compulsory third party insurance covers injury to people in a motor accident, and yes, you cannot legally drive without it anywhere in Australia. In some states it arrives inside your registration; in others you must choose an insurer before you can register. It does not cover damage to any vehicle, which is why most drivers also hold third party property or comprehensive cover.
Is car insurance compulsory like in New Zealand?
The comparison runs the other way. New Zealand has no compulsory motor insurance at all, because ACC covers accidental injury on a no-fault basis. Australia has no ACC, so injury cover comes through compulsory CTP instead. If you are moving between the two countries, do not carry either assumption across.
Should I ship my car?
Almost never. Import approval, compliance work, freight, duty and any modifications commonly add up to more than the same car costs locally, and it arrives weeks after you do. Sell at home while you are there to manage it and buy something modest second-hand in your first month.
Do I need a car at all?
In the inner suburbs of the biggest cities, often not. Almost everywhere else yes, and frequently two per household in regional areas. Your roster decides it more than your suburb: if you finish late shifts after the buses stop, a car stops being optional. Decide after a month here rather than before you arrive.
What should I bring from home?
A letter from your licensing authority or current insurer confirming your driving history and claims record. Your Australian licence will not carry your fifteen claim-free years, and insurers price on exactly that. It is easy to get before you leave and awkward afterwards.
Helpful alongside this guide
Not sure what applies where you are going?
Tell us which state you are heading to and what your visa situation is, and we will point you at the right authority and the right deadline. It takes us two minutes and it is the sort of thing that is much easier to ask than to research.
Ethicare Resourcing · your guide to a life and career in Australia.