muckypup

hi nice to meet you guys ,i been reading the forum for the last few days as im lining up a job in melbourne however being a big useless numpty i never got round to learning to drive ,is it easy to learn over there / pass easier than uk ?
sounds like this palce is gigantic and i usaully use a pushbike
you need a licenise for a moped there??

Petals

If you are working in the central business district and live in the suburbs around the city you could bike to work a lot of people do these days. Scooters are also becoming popular.

Public transport you would have to look at the Metlink site http://www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/ and find a suburb on a train, or tram route to commute by public transport, we do have bus services too everywhere but they can go round the world to get where you want to go so a lot of research needs to be done.

Me I drive, oh drive, daughter, drive, son drive. For convenience you really need to drive to get around Melbourne as its such a huge place and going by public transport takes a lot of time

Getting a licence long time since anyone got one in our family and they have changed it you have to do 200 hours of driving with a supervised driver first.

Have a look at http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/Home/Licensing/ which will give you all the info about driving licences.

muckypup

thanks for the links and informative reply !

Kooky.

Just answered another of your posts so, being nosey, looked to see what this one was.

I don't drive here. I can drive, but I left the UK in 2002 and haven't driven since. We do have a car 'cos my husband works out of town and it's also handy for weekends, but TBH we struggle to do the mileage the taxman requires (leased car) so obviously don't use it as much as we thought we would.

I work in Sydney CBD and take the train from the lower north shore. I also walk a lot more than I ever did in the UK (and about the same as I did in Singapore, where we didn't own a car). Hardly any of my colleagues drive but then I work for an environmental organisation; we have a bike rack in reception

I don't know Melbourne very well so will have to bow to Petals's knowledge on that one but I would say, if at all possible, stay green.

knockoff nige

I have a car lease and live in Sydney too. Making up the mileage is quite hard. In fact, I'm lending my car to friends this weekend so they can take it to Canberra and back. It all helps lol.

But public transport in Sydney is pretty good in my opinion. No idea about Melbourne.

johnnyx0

I'm in Melbourne, and thinking of selling my car as I just don't use it.
Depending on where you live and where you work you can get away with not driving. Trains are ok, and trams are pretty good in inner Melbourne.

Beachband

When I get to WA one of my first things is to get is a car, I suppose if you are used to driving everyday in your own car, I think it would be hard not to have one, would like to get used to public transport, but as soon as you get a car and you like to drive, its hard going back to when you had none.

Taking a drive, listening to whatever music you like, stopping when you like.
The price of petrol in Oz is way cheaper too.

slipshot

Public transport pretty good in Melbourne - trams although never keep to times but are very frequent so a good way to get around and decent prices as well.

Only issue is Melbourne's ridiculously small airport (a disgrace for a city this save) and the fact the only way of getting there is taxi or bus - and a bus is a major PITA and only goes from city centre so you have to get there first - or find somewhere local and then go round the houses.

Why has no-one built a train line to the airport yet!!!!!

Kooky.

Beachband, we went from two cars (used daily, working 200 miles apart) to no cars when we moved to Asia, and we didn't have one for six years. You do get used to it.

It helps if public transport is efficient and cheap, of course, but I actually like not having to sit in traffic and arrive at work stressed. Oh and being able to trot off to the pub after work without worrying about the car. And parking fees in Sydney CBD - forget it!

We just went to the cinema and got the ferry home.

PamE

Am 35 & will be starting to learn to drive in NSW in 2010 so you are not alone in this category of 'useless numpty' (also I bet you're younger than me )

I've been checking out what needs to be done to learn in Australia, and found this site which I assume is Oz-wide not just NSW so might be of use to you: http://www.geared.com.au/
It's clearly aimed at kids learning to drive but the licence info is all there including the handbook for learning the theory. Seems pretty different to UK, in NSW at least you have to drive accompanied for 12 months on L-plates before you get anywhere near even your P plates.

Ref moped - think you need a drivers licence for a car before you can drive one of them but not sure.

Re: needing a car or not in Melbourne - I lived there 5 months about 4 or 5 years ago, in St Kilda, and commuted to the CBD and did all social type stuff by tram, it was fine.

Good luck if you do decide to learn to drive too

ozzieeagle

If you lived around Docklands, which is right next to Spencer st.... or even North Melbourne, you could definitely get by without a car in Melbourne. The main problem is if you live a little bit out and need to travel across the city rather than into and out of.

It's one of my ambitions actually.

The price of tickets on country trains is incredibly cheap in Victoria..... it's something like 40 dollars return to Echuca (on the NSW border) from Spencer st... and that includes two all day met card (for trains and trams) across Melbourne. So what you save on rent/buying a inner city place you could save on fares.... Especially if its one person your paying for.