Driving Licence

Well after arriving here, one is given 3 months to convert to a NSW driving licence. What does one need to do?

First thing, is get it translated at the Community Relations Commission which costs A$107 if done within 24 hours but less over 1 or 3 weeks.

Then go to the RTA to get the documents vetted and entered into the system to sit for a computer based Drivers Knowledge Test. Obviously one's got to prepare for this online test which if is done prior to the test can help in getting a perfect score. One must always aim for a perfect score as some sections only allow ONE error and beyond this one error will result in a failure immedately and A$37 for a resit.

Once you pass the Knowledge Test, you should register for a practical on the road test which again requires some preparation with a driving instructor. It costs me A$55/hr for one lesson and one's got to discard out some old habit from driving all these years in order to pass the test which has a passing threshold of 90% score.

Well, my test is in 2 weeks time, and I'll update what happens then.

What's Next?

After your permanent home address, then you can get a real life.

First its medicare registration, then school for the kids, ATO, bank account and get a car. Despite moving from possibly one of the most expensive places to BUY a car (not own a car), I found Aust to be relatively expensive place to buy a car and also own a car. Relative means in comparison with UK or USA is what I mean.

A Honda City for example would set one back for A$22-25K which is not much different from M'sia and maintenance is generally higher. Other cars though do not have this issue but Honda are relatively expensive in Australia in comparison with other makes.

Once you have settled down with a house, then there is the whole works of upfitting the house. Remember when we arrived, we only had suitcases totalling 110kg.

We started with HarveyNorman for whitegoods and Ikea for furniture but ended up with various other places, Forty Winks for beds/mattress, 2nds World for Whitegoods, No96 for Sofas, Myers for Sofas/DiningSets which were on sale then and a place in Hurstsville for Chinese cookingwares.

More to follow...

First Things First

After our 1 1/2 mths here, we are now nearly settled. So what does one need first before one can get started with life in Australia?

The most important thing is a permanent address with a proof of one. The best thing unless you've got cash to buy a permanent home, is a tenancy agreement. Without one, you can't get a phone, internet, open a bank, get a credit card, register for medicare, buy a car, register for school, register with ATO etc...

It's the single most important thing to get before anything else. We found out this when we arrived here on the first week! And amazingly we rented a house within a week of our arrival despite the shortage situation where we live.

More to follow...

Telecom Services

Finally we rescinded one mobile internet after making official complain to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman TIO. Hence we have got a land line and now a land internet too...so more postings in time about what happened during our move to Sydney and the phone-line experiences.

Internet Contract Rescinded

We filed our first major complain in Aust to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman to terminate our mobile internet services on the grounds of "no coverage". Managed to terminate the contract and now applied for a land-line internet and phone line.

There is some argument going around why many prefer not to have mobile coverage in their areas i.e. objections over the "cell towers" construction and its impact on health. This is possibly why no one in our neighbourhood bothered to complain over no mobile phone coverage.

Will post more once our landline internet is up and running next week.