Ozzie Obzervations
Driving in Australia and Other Aussie Experiences
By BARBARA GIESBRECHT
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Barbara and Dennis Giesbrecht live near Vancouver, BC, in Canada. They arrived in Australia in January 2002 to participate in a teacher exchange program for the 2002 school year. They returned to Canada in mid-December 2002. Ozzie Obzervations provide a humorous glimpse of everyday life in Australia as seen through the eyes of these two Canucks.
If you have a propensity for getting lost, you may want to steer clear of driving in Australia. If driving cannot be avoided, heed the following notes and driving tips.
The first thing that you will notice when you step into the car is that there is no steering wheel on the normal driver's side. Australians drive on the left-hand side of the road and as such the steering wheel is located on the right hand-side of the car. It is rather unnerving to have a car come head-on in the opposite lane with no apparent driver.
You will also notice that windscreen wipers and the turn signals are reversed. You may find that for the first few days your windscreen will stay very clean if you do a lot of turning.
Entering the traffic stream
To ensure safety on entering the stream of traffic, check in the opposite direction to which you normally look. This saves the need for approaching drivers to brake, honk or make appropriate hand gestures at you.
The first obstacle you may encounter is a roundabout. Roundabouts are a good idea in principle but confusing in reality. To make a right hand turn from the inside lane you must in fact turn left into the circle (except in the Melbourne CBD where you not only have to turn left to go right but you must negotiate the turn only on a red light).
Although roundabouts are a bit confusing, you will find that they are incredibly handy for making continually needed U-turns. People have been trapped in roundabout for hours on end while they try to figure out what exit to take, so best to carry your mobile for help if required.
Navigational problems
Once out of a roundabout, navigational problems can rear their ugly heads. First &mdsh; the sun here in Oz appears in the northern sky rather than in the southern. If using the sun to navigate, we Canadians can drive for hours thinking that we are heading north when in fact we are heading south. Thankfully west and east are still in the same direction as back home.
Second — for some reason most streets in Queensland are not allowed to keep the same name for more than a couple of blocks. The name of a street may change as many as four times within a kilometre in a single suburb (see Brisbane 45th Edition UBD Map 159 starting point B18 to B20 — Toowong).
Third — to make things even more confusing many of the 300 Brisbane suburbs have at least one road with the same name. An address on "Jacaranda" might be located in any of 22 suburb locations.
Next page: U-Turns and Highways
- Driving in Australia and Other Aussie Experiences
- U-Turns and Highways
- Billy Tea, Beet Root, Bacon, Beer
- Spyders, Sausage Rolls
- Does the Water Go Counter-clockwise?
- Big Things in the Big Country
- Clubs and Culture
- Birds, Fish and Crawly Things
- Lizards, Leeches and Cane Toads
From our Forum: "Very funny! If it's any consolation, it's just as hard for us when we go to a country that drives on the right." — Mark
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