How to get an Australian driver licence

You apply at the state road authority, prove your identity — usually to a 100-point standard — and pass a knowledge test on road rules and road safety. Most states offer free online practice tests, and using them is the difference between passing first time and paying for a resit.

You will also need an eyesight test, which is done at the counter.

Once you hold the permit you can drive only with a supervising driver who holds a full licence, must display L plates, and are subject to a lower speed limit in some states and a zero alcohol limit everywhere.

Then you log supervised hours in a logbook, most states requiring a substantial number — commonly around 100 to 120 for drivers under 25, including a specified minimum at night. Several states allow a structured lesson with an accredited instructor to count for more than its actual duration, which is the single most efficient way to accumulate hours.

Book the practical test well in advance — waiting times in metropolitan areas frequently run to weeks or months, and this is the most common cause of delay in the whole process.

Some states require a hazard perception test before or after the driving test, taken on a computer. Others fold hazard perception into the knowledge test.

The practical test assesses observation, speed management, gap selection, lane discipline and specific manoeuvres. Immediate failures are usually for a safety-critical error rather than an accumulation of small ones: failing to give way, a dangerous manoeuvre, or requiring the examiner to intervene.

Passing gives you a provisional licence, displayed as P plates. Restrictions typically include a zero alcohol limit, a complete ban on mobile phone use including hands-free, lower demerit point thresholds, restrictions on high-powered vehicles, and in some states passenger restrictions for young drivers at night.

Several states split this into P1 and P2 stages with the tighter restrictions lifting between them.

After the required time on provisional licences — generally two to three years in total — you become eligible for a full licence, sometimes automatically on application and sometimes after a further test.

Demerit points then matter differently. Full licence holders have a higher threshold before suspension than provisional drivers, who lose their licence after a much smaller number of points. Demerit points are recorded against the driver, not the vehicle, and are transferred between states.

Speeding, mobile phone use, seatbelt offences and running red lights are all detected automatically, and camera technology has expanded substantially — including cameras that detect phone use and seatbelt non-compliance from overhead.

Licences expire and must be renewed, generally every five or ten years, with an eyesight test at renewal in most states and additional medical assessment requirements from a certain age.

If you move interstate, you must transfer your licence to the new state, usually within three months of becoming a resident there.

The direct costs are the licence application fee, the knowledge test fee, the practical test fee, the licence issue fee, and any resit fees. Together these usually run to a few hundred dollars across the whole process, varying by state.

The larger cost is lessons. Professional lessons typically cost A$70–100 an hour depending on the city, and while supervised practice with a parent is free, most learners take at least a handful of lessons, and more where a state grants bonus logbook hours for them.

Concessions exist in several states for holders of health care and pensioner concession cards, and some states run subsidised or free programs for young people in out-of-home care, for whom the absence of a supervising driver is a structural barrier.

Insurance is a separate and substantial cost. Young and provisional drivers pay materially higher premiums, and being listed on a parent's policy rather than holding your own is common — but the policy must accurately reflect who actually drives the car, or a claim can be declined.