Hello folks! It’s that time again! How to Survive while Driving in Australia! I’m putting together a multi-part guide to conditions and issues you need to be aware of while driving in Oz…. If anyone can explain the Melbournian J-turn in the comments section, it would be greatly appreciated. The take home message from today’s blog- READ the SIGNS!!!!!! Road Signs, Oh boy where to start.
Street Name Signs, Just because you are at an intersection, do not assume there will be street name signs to tell you what both roads are called. Occasionally there will be a street name for one of the roads, but not the other. Occasionally there will be no name signs at all. This can be a tad bit frustrating when trying to navigate and you are not sure what road you just ended up on by accident at that last round-a-bout.
No Turn Signs Just because you see a HUGE No Right Turn sign does not actually mean you can’t turn right there. You have to look underneath the Big Sign to the little sign that is printed in 12 font, while you are driving 40 km/h which qualifies what they mean. It might mean that trucks over 3 tonnes can’t turn there, or you can’t turn from 8:30 am to 10:15 am Monday through Friday, or only busses are allowed to turn there.
Clearway Signs This concept drives me CRAZY! OK- imagine if you will- a MAJOR road in your town. A Main thoroughfare. Now imagine people being allowed to park in the outside lane…randomly. You are driving along… and wham… parked car. No Warning. This concept makes people learn to swerve while driving. (Yesterday I about blew my lid when I saw a BUS swerving around a parked car! What is this world coming to?!) Again- the Australian RTA can’t figure out why there are so many wrecks…maybe because there are PARKED CARS on the Highway!!!?????? Anyway- back to the Clearway Signs. SOMETIMES it is OK to park on MAIN ARTERIAL ROADS, and sometimes it is not. These friendly little signs, and I do mean physically little, have a picture of a tow truck on them and the times (printed in 12 font) stating at which hours it is prohibited to park in an otherwise perfectly functioning lane of a road. Do yourself a favour and almost NEVER drive in the outside lane. It will either end with no warning, or there will be a random parked car. I’d LOVE to hear back from any of you who have experienced this bizarre phenomenon.
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The last couple of weeks have seen me hitting the roads of New South Wales, so I thought I’d share a couple of observations to help a few of you first timers out there. While I do enjoy a good road trip and certainly enjoy getting out to see this country, there are a few things of which you should be aware. First in a series to come.
General Road Conditions: The weather being mostly temperate, the roads of Australia are basically in pretty good shape. The paving is generally smooth and the gravel roads are generally grated to allow for decent, if not great, travel. I’ve definitely driven on worse. That said, I find them unnecessarily winding. This is the source of much debate from the passengers in my car and myself as to whether winding roads/major interstates are more fun to drive on or just plain dangerous. I will point to the fact that the government here can’t figure out why they have so many accidents, maybe it is because there is a 90 degree turn on a major interstate that is two lanes wide that trucks have to navigate at high speed????? (an exaggeration of course, the turn was only 87.5 degrees with a round-about just after….) While the road rules are basically the same, driving is FAR more challenging here than in North America and most parts of Europe.
Passing: There are very few of what would be considered major highways. I regularly get annoyed trying to get out of Sydney on what is considered the M1 as I sit at a stop light. On some of the smaller motorways, there are only two lanes. Occasionally the RTA (Highway Authority) will add a third lane on the outside of the highway for slower traffic to move into so others may pass. This third lane will generally end with little to no warning and the slower traffic has to merge back into the original lane. Keep very aware during this maneuver. Passing and no-passing zones are marked with the international broken or unbroken center line.
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They got me on this one! I got 15 right which qualifies me as…
“You’ll be apples! Well… nearly anyway. You will communicate fairly effectively with the native population, but they will still mutter “bloody yank” when you walk out of the pub”
Well if the shoe fits….
How well do you speak Aussie? Take the Quiz
Guide #1
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Guide #4
Guide #5
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January 26th strap on your Green and Gold, grab a flag, face paint, a slab of beer and head to the beach! You won’t be able to go to the bank or any other business. Why? It’s Australia Day Baby! Australia’s closest thing to a birthday, it marks the day that the first fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Sydney Cove and set up the colony of New South Wales.
BBQ’s, beach outings, fireworks, and all kinds of celebrations take place all over the …
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Well people, if you are going to any major sporting event, or important civil do…it probably doesn’t hurt to know the words to the National Anthem. A far cry from God Save the Queen, I find Advance Australia Fair a cheeky message to the English about the continuing grief the decendants of the original convicts sent to Australia feel about being banished….
Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free,
We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history’s page,
let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
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Calling all people with food issues! I had pizza and beer the other day for the first time in years. For most of you that is no big deal. But for those with Coeliac Disease, or those people who have a gluten intolerance (almost 1% of the population) This is HUGE! Coeliacs and others with food intolerance’s make up a pretty substantial sector of the population. This sector is generally tentative to travel due to their dietary needs. Take heart and fear not if you are coming Australia!
The Aussies are doing a fantastic job of catering for all kinds of dietary needs. Their labelling laws are quite strict with Allergy information required to say thing like “contains soy and wheat” as opposed to having to sift through an ingredient list. Every major grocery store has a Health Food aisle. Gluten free breads, yeast free breads, Lactose free, etc…. pretty much every group can find something in just your local Coles or Wollies. How good is that! I was in the States a couple of weeks ago and STUGGLED to find anything even at the Whole Foods type stores.
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G’day Folks! I’ve had a request for information from other cities outside of Sydney… What! Is there really life outside of Sydney!…He He just kidding. Check out some of these amazing events in Australia’s other city… Melbourne.
What’s on Melbourne. City Search
Come out and help turn your liver…err I mean the beer green! St Pats
The Wicked Food and Wine Festival. 16-30 of March sees events such as Wicked Sunday (25 March) which is promised to be the “Tiffany diamond of the festival – indulgent, decadent and a must-taste!” …
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One of the fun things of Travel is learning the local lingo. Australia has no shortage of their very own Aussieisms. They are fun and inventive, though occasionally hard to translate. I endeavor to help ease your transition into this upside down language. This is the fifth in a series to come. This one is devoted to blokes and beer. YES! What fun! Feel free to add a few of your own in the comments section.
Australian = North American Translation
Kimberley Cold = Room temperature beer
Tinny = Beer in a can
Stubby = Beer in a bottle. The bottles are shorter than the standard long neck… therefore…the birth of the Stubby!
Stubby Holder = The foam thing you put a beer into to keep it from getting Kimberly Cold I’ve been told lately that real men don’t need stubby holders. They drink their beer before it gets warm. From that on to the next category please Maestro….
Ripper = One of my favorites I have to admit. A VERY Good Thing. As in “That Horse ran a Ripper of a race.” No matter how hard I try it still makes me think of good old fashioned toilet humor. I’m not so sure that it didn’t start that way… a couple of guys out in the bush….”MAN George! That was a real ripper!”
Corker = On a related note…Another term for A VERY good thing. You figure out how they are related.
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For many Aboriginal Australians, the concept of Australia day is a tricky one. The day the British landed and basically wiped out their culture, took their land and continued to commit atrocities against them for ages, doesn’t exactly raise feelings of civic pride. Called “Invasion Day” or occasionally Survival Day, the Aboriginal Community has created a ceremony called Woggan-ma-gule
Each Australia Day in Sydney begins with the Woggan ma gule Morning Ceremony. Performed in the Royal Botanic Gardens, sacred land of the indigenous Gadigal people, the ceremony honours the past and …
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One of the fun things of Travel is learning the local lingo. Australia has many terms that are completely unique to their part of the World. This is the fourth in a series to come. It is designed to help Aussies headed overseas and travellers coming to OZ alike. Feel free to add a few of your own in the comments section.
Australian = North American Translation
Wonky = He He. I love this game. Wonky is a great word to describe anything that is a bit off. You can be wonky if you are hung over, a car can be wonky of there is something wrong with it, a throw in a game of catch can be a bit wonky if it misses it’s target.
Mo = Moustache. This one definately made me giggle. At first I thought it was a Radio-DJ-made-up-thing. Back in November they had MOvember where many men grew out moustaches for Men’s Health Awarness month. They then had friends bid to do good community deeds in order to get them to shave the Mo’s off at the end of the month. But NO! it IS actually a term the Aussies use to refer to a moustache. “Hey dude, that’s like a nice Mo!”… Mo man responds…” You Reckon?” GizMO: any gadget designed to technologically enhance a moustache’s splendour (An excerpt from the MOxford Dictionary click for more MO words….)
Reckon = Helllooooo Redneck USA! I felt like such an imposter the first 3000 times I said Reckon. It’s not a widely used term in the States, but it is VERY widely accepted in OZ. It is actually part of everyday speech. To figure, To guess, To agree, To think something to be so. Usage: “Geee Bobby that boat looks like it is going to crash into us!” Bobby Responds….”You Reckon?”
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