When New Zealanders Barry and Anne Pearce ‘semi-retired’ five years ago, they decided to spend six months a year travelling in their home country and to also buy a motorhome in Australia in order to spend six months a year travelling on this side of the ditch. But the road regulation bureaucracy here caught them by surprise … and made for a challenging start to their dream lifestyle. Here Barry explains why.
Similar to New Zealand, what we wanted was an A-Class motorhome, of reasonable size, self-contained, with a permanently made up bed. After much studying of the various options, we ended up purchasing an American imported motorhome that had been in Australia for around eight years prior to our ownership.
We bought it through an online auction, sight unseen and unregistered. It came through a website auctioneering establishment so we were unable to communicate with the previous owners, however, with our experience and the vehicle’s history, surely it was simply a matter re-registering it and away we go.
What could go wrong?
As a comparison, our New Zealand motorhome is classed as a heavy vehicle and as such it is subject to a ‘Certificate of Fitness’ inspection every six months. Similar to the Australian ‘Roadworthy’ inspection it is to ensure the vehicle is maintained in a safe condition to drive on the road. The inspection fee for this is $75 and any faults found during inspection must be remedied before issue of the certificate is issued. Registration can then be obtained subsequent to the COF compliance. Registration can be purchased in monthly increments, so for our purposes we are able to put the registration on ‘hold’ for six months that we plan to be in Australia. There are no registration fees incurred for this hold period and rego simply be reinstated on our return home. Twelve months rego for our NZ motorhome is $350.
We were advised against registering our Australian motorhome in Canberra or New South Wales for various reasons so we required an ‘unregistered permit’ to enable us to drive the vehicle to Victoria, where our Australian lifestyle would be based. A separate permit was required for both Canberra and New South Wales and there was a great variation between states for costs of these two permits.
Once in Victoria we were required to present the vehicle for a ‘Roadworthy’ inspection which cost $450 for the inspection fee alone prior to applying for registration. With the registration fee there was a stamp duty fee to be paid on top of the registration fee of just under $1,000.
Victorian registration does not allow for hold periods when the vehicle is in storage, so we are required to pay this full fee on an annual basis.
This registration process took two full years to complete and at times proved to be frustrating and challenging. Having now spent five years in six months segments, we are in a much better position, should we have to repeat the process.
Coming from a small country with one set of rules and regulations it has been a daunting task in a much larger country with varying requirements for compliance issues including drivers’ licences, vehicle registration, gas compliance, electrical compliance, A frame towing and so on…..
But problems notwithstanding, we still feel a sense of homecoming when we cross the ditch to come here, and we have established some great friends and memories through our Aussie winters.
