Driving Down Under

I have learned to drive twice in my life. Once in my twenties and the second about a month ago. They both have had their challenges.

Of course every body knows that in Australia they drive on the left side of the road. The idea behind this dates back to the times when knights on horseback used their swords with their right hands and controlled the reins of the horse with their left. To partake of a really good sword fight you passed each other on your right sides (your sword side).

The vehicle we are driving while we are here is a Nissan Patrol. It's probably not any bigger than our van but it feels like a bus when you are getting used to it. It has an optional third row of seating which has worked out well with the kids. It's also a manual (standard). Yikes! Our old car was a manual but neither of us has driven one for a couple of years. It's one thing to drive on the opposite side of the road but another altogether to shift with your wrong hand! It's like your brain has to do a complete flip. And because our brains have flipped we also keep putting the wipers on instead of the turn signal. You may laugh but I dare any of you to try!


When we first were venturing out on the roads ourselves, Steve did all the driving. I stayed home all day while he was at work, just to avoid hurting myself or anybody else on the road. Finally I decided that I had to leave the safety of the house and get some fresh air. In order to be prepared I drove around the block about 4 or 5 times to get the feel of the vehicle. I ended up stalling the truck a few times and drove on the wrong side at least once. Thank goodness that there was nobody around!

When driving you have to contend with roundabouts. The trick is to always yield to the vehicle on the right. You don't have to stop and look, it's sort of like a glance, and if you see someone coming you stop and give them the right of way. There are arrows marked on the roads to indicate which lane you want to be in to turn left, right or go "straight across". A good way to think of it is this - if you pull your car up to the 6 on a clock and you want to turn right you have to go all the way around the clock (moving clockwise) past the 9 and the 12 and then get off at the 3. It's actually a lot easier than it sounds and traffic moves very smoothly. There are intersections with traffic lights as well but I'm becoming partial to the roundabouts. One of the things that we couldn't believe was that U-turns are completely legal, encouraged and lanes provided for them! We were surprised at that one.

To get where we want to go we have used Google maps which has been great. There is also the Melway. The Melway is a huge map book the size of a Vancouver phone book with maps of Melbourne and every suburb and street around it. It puts our little map books to shame. The signs are fabulous too. We head out the direction we think we want to go and just follow the signs. They're huge, green and white, and easy to read at 100km/hr. Even in the city there are signs directing you to schools, churches and shopping areas.

One of the biggest factors we have noticed about driving here is the lack of road rage. Nobody yells, gestures or honks their horns at you when you do something silly. It's quite amazing and it took us a few days and a few bad turns on the roundabouts to figure that out.

Each week that goes by we are becoming more comfortable with the driving concepts around here. I am starting to feel better about venturing into unknown territory and we are getting to know the lay of the land. I got lost a week or so ago but in doing so found a short cut to the shopping centre. There's a bright side to everything!