I found that buying a car in Australia is significantly more complicated then I had originally assumed! The main problem is that all Australian states issue their own license plates. And if you buy a car from the wrong state in the wrong state, you can be financially truly fucked!

And the worst thing is that no one seems to be able to tell you what the regulations are! I asked the people in the hostel, two policemen and a car-dealer and everyone gave me a different answer. In the end I went to the registration-office to find out what you really have to look out for when buying a car. Turns out that the only person, who was right was the car-dealer.

Actually it’s quite simple: If you but a car from a different state then you have to have the car checked for roadworthiness in the state you are buying the car in. It’s as easy as that. The problem is that most people assume that if you have a certificate of roadworthiness from another state, then you don’t have to get a new one. But that’s simply not true. As the woman from the registration-office told me: “What you’d be driving would be an unlicensed piece of metal. The police can stop you anywhere and take your license plates away there and then. And then you’d have to be towed to the next town and have your car inspected.” That would really suck if it happened in the middle of the Nullabor, wouldn’t it? I mean, ho much does a 500 km tow cost? Probably more then the kind of car I’ll be driving.

Interestingly enough there is one exception to this rule: If you buy a car with West Australian (WA) license-plates then you can transfer ownership of it even if you are selling it in a different state and it will not have to undergo a roadworthiness-check as long as the registration is valid for. So you really should try to buy a car with WA license-plates.