I submit this short tale as an ex-copper UK. I was on holiday in Oz a few years back. Still a copper then. Flew from Melbourne to S.A. picked up a hire car with QLD plate. Drove back into Vic...some old dear decided to use me as target practice...outside a police station. Sgt and Senior Con arrived. Gave the sarge my UK licence which he unfurled and checked all over. Said he'd never seen a clean licence before. Said to his mate, "This blokes on holiday from QLD." "No I'm not, I'm on holiday from the UK" "Is that a pommy licence? Big isn't it."

I would not advise using your UK license over the 3 months as the police can & will check! Besides, it's not that hard to change, so why risk it?

To the OP, as you are starting work very soon after arrival, I would advise that you really prioritise what you need to sort out. TFN, as others have said, is important but you can do this online.
Make sure you get some rest & adjust to timezone before starting work. Stuff like Medicare can wait.

Actually I made Medicare one of the first things I got sorted, even though I was still covered by travel insurance at the time (an aussie policy), together with joining Ambulance Victoria. Medicare office was just up the road so was dead easy for me even in my jetlagged state. Call it a little bit of peace of mind!

[QUOTE=Iando;8937384]1) Make sure you get a driving licence - you use it everywhere as id


You dont need a driving licence for ID at all - i dont drive (medical condition prevents it) and have been here 4 years with no need to provide a driving licence as proof of ID. Passport suffices just as well.

Medicare card I would definitely get sorted though - you dont seem to exist without one over here!

The Police did check and said it was fine.

Well I would say you were lucky. I was stopped for a breath test after we had been here 6 weeks & they told me very politely but firmly to make sure I got my QLD licence within 3 months. They even called through to the station to check how long I could use my UK one for.
As I said before, why take the risk?

[QUOTE=scotdownunder;8948533] Agree you dont need it as id but I have found it great for acceptance everywhere and it is convenient to carry v a passport.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I am in a similar situation and thought it would be best to continue along on this one rather than start a new one.

I am arriving in Sydney on 13th evening at 8 PM with wifey (no kids) and then going straight to holiday rental. Start work on 16th morning which gives me exactly two days to complete must do formalities. So reading this and other post, I have made a list. Any suggestions are most appreciated!

Day1 (Sunday)
1. Buy PAYG prepaid sims - split between Virgin prepaid and Crazy John's. Need something with cheap international calls and mobile internet.
2. Buy prepaid mobile dongle - Haven't decided on which one
3. Buy groceries, drinks and essentials
4. Relax and soak in the new place
5. Oh yes- apply for TFN

Day2 (Monday)
1. Activate my bank account
2. Collect my credit cards from bank (if they approve it before I get there)
3. Go to medicare office and register ourselves.
4. Shop around for a new car - was looking at Honda Jazz or Hyundai i30 though not sure if the dealers will offer finance on job offer letter without salary slips. This can wait but it would help rather than spending on rentals for long time. Any suggestions on buying a car?

Day3 - Work

Day5 - Identify suburbs where I want to stay and which fall in my rental budget

Day6, 7, 8- Search and visit rentals, hopefully find something and get accepted. Trying to prepare a document pack for applications.

Day 14,15 move in to rental, shop for furniture and white goods

Day 16 hopefully I should be done

Day 21, 22 - exchange my US license for a NSW one

Now only if I can get it done

Wow!! From day 5 to day 16 sounds extremely tightly packed: find a suburb you like, find an apartment in that suburb, have an application accepted, shop for furniture and move in .. all in 11 days, while you're working full time?

Although if your wife is not working, then maybe she can help with your timelines. But for me when I moved over and started work within a few days, even though I had done a HUGE amount of research, it took a lot longer than that to get settled.

It was more like first w/end visit several suburbs, sussing out transport and facilities etc in the areas that I had researched.

2nd weekend (and evenings during week 2/3) apartment hunting

3rd weekend (and evenings during week 4) furniture/appliance shopping

4th weekend - move in with the minimum needed mattress/fridge/washing machine and basic stuff while I waited on shipment to arrive

weekends 5 - 8: lots of shoppng/assembling, and unpacking shipment

So I would say it took closed to 2 months to get somewhat settled... but then if I had a wife to do all the shopping etc for me, well it would have been a lot easier !! Yup, it's a man's world

Good luck