Driving in Australia: licences, car rental and road rules

Rental prices swing with season and how far ahead you book. School holidays, Christmas–January and the winter ski season in the Snowy Mountains and Victoria are the expensive windows; May–August outside the snow is the cheapest for a coastal or outback loop.

Decide the loop before you book the car. The trips that work are short and specific: three to four nights on the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne, a week around Tasmania, the coast from Sydney to Byron Bay, or a fly-in outback loop from Alice Springs. The trips that fail try to drive Sydney to Cairns in a fortnight.

Book online before you arrive, from an airport or city branch, and compare the total with insurance included rather than the headline day rate. At the counter you will be offered excess reduction; decide in advance whether your travel insurance already covers the excess, because buying it twice is common. Check the contract for one-way fees, a kilometre cap and, most importantly, whether unsealed roads are excluded — many standard policies void cover the moment you leave the bitumen, which rules out a lot of outback and beach access.

Collect the car with a full tank and photograph every panel, the windscreen and the roof. Ask which fuel the car takes: unleaded is standard, but some remote stations sell only diesel or premium. In cities, skip the car entirely — parking in Sydney and Melbourne is expensive and transit is good — and pick it up on the day you leave town.

On the road, keep left, give way to the right at roundabouts, and watch for hook turns in central Melbourne. Speed cameras are everywhere and fines arrive by post months later, sometimes to your rental company first. In the outback, fuel stops can be 200 km apart, so fill up whenever you can and carry water. Never drive at dusk or after dark outside towns if you can avoid it: kangaroos, wombats and cattle on the road are the most common cause of a wrecked trip.

Distances are the thing visitors underestimate. Sydney to Melbourne is 9–10 hours of driving without stops, and Perth is a four-hour flight from the east coast, so a car does not solve the map. Pick one region per trip.

Tolls exist in Sydney (mostly cashless, billed to the rental company with a fee) and Brisbane; Melbourne has none on the main routes. Parking rules are strict, with clearway and permit zones, and fines are heavy.

If you are travelling with children, child restraints are compulsory and rental companies hire them, but book ahead. For long stays or working trips, a car may be worth buying rather than renting; check the state registration and roadworthy rules first.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules, limits and licence recognition vary by state and territory, so confirm with the state road authority before you drive.