I intend to ship my bike to Melbourne for a three months stay in Australia. Are there any insurances obligatory for the bike, may be for the rider as well? If so does anyone have a proposal for a good company?

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Gerd
Duesseldorf, Germany

Insurance is not easy to obtain for foreigners travelling with overseas registered motorcycles. But it can be done. I secured fully comprehensive cover with Swann Insurance for a very competitive premium of AU$22.55 per month, under their "Maxirider" cover scheme. [Hat Tip to Clintz for the referral]. I recommend you effect insurance cover, as if you cause any damage to third parties, then it could cost you a packet; never mind the potential costs in time and money, even if you might not too blame, of 'fighting your corner' from thousands of miles away, after you've maybe left the country.

Furthermore, 'rego' or registration, tax & other requirements vary from state to state, so check out the transport agency for where you are going. In Victoria you are obliged to effect rego. Suggest, therefore, that you pay a visit to the nearest VicRoads office in person for guidance etc. I did - and was informed that I was legally obliged to buy Victorian registration - but only allowable, under Vic rules, for the period up to the expiration of my NZ registration.

Having said that, I wasn't completely convinced that the VicRoads officers handling my inquiry understood what they were talking about! Their boss, who apparently knew the score, was out of the office that day. So some hectic phone calls to the VicRoads HQ ensued. Final verdict was that I was indeed obliged to buy rego up to the date my Kiwi registration expired.

Cheers


KEITH

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Right Way Round ...

Keith,

thanks for your quick reply. I will check the links and infos given. May be there will be still some questions afterwards so i hope i can come back to you again ?!

Regards,

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Gerd
Duesseldorf, Germany

Yes, after a few emails & many minutes on hold on the phone Vicroads eventually decided we needed to pay their TAC charge while traveling in Vic last year. You can pay this just for the time you are in Vic.

Cheers
Clint

We shipped by air to Perth in March-08, and no-one mentioned insurance (and we didnt want to bring it up, ´cos we wanted to get our bike out of the airport!)...

But it IS obligatory to have 3rd party cover in Oz (I would advice against riding uninsured, even though you probably wont get checked very often - we were never stopped whilst there), and in a couple of days I found out from somewhere, that the Department of Infrastructure & planning was the place to contact, and from there I was able to get a temporary 48-hour insurance, that allowed me to ride to a roadworthiness test. After passing this (they just check, that the vehicle has lights and other such items required by law) I got the relevant document, and then rode to the next government building, where I was issued a ´carnet-insurance´, valid all over Oz for 6 months I think... and all in all the process cost something like 200 AUD.

Not everywhere. As far as we could find out from the NSW authorities in 09 there is no requirement for a foreign vehicle travelling on a carnet to have any insurance (or any permit at all) when in NSW. As per your WA experience it is different for other states.

Cheers
Clint

Relevent Australian Government Stite. You might wanna check out this site too:


Eligibility Criteria

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Again, thanks for all your replies. In the meantime i received the following mail from VicRoads (because my bike will land in Melbourne / Victoria)

This information was send out to me on June 17, 2010. Of course i will have a carnet. So hopefully everybody down under will be happy. Next weekend i will check the rack which will be the base of my crate. And on July 10 the motorbike will be put into the crate - the 'adventure' starts....

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Gerd
Duesseldorf, Germany

I've been doing some digging about this topic and generally if one State in Australia has a system in place the other States will recognise it. NSW has thrown a spanner in the works with no Third Party Insurance and/or "overseas registered vehicle permit" required in legislation.

However Queensland has a specific regulation that recognises that if the overseas registered vehicle is recognised in another State then no action is required for travel in Queensland.

The AAA is no help - just towing the line that some States are allowed to do whatever they like.

My advice would be to land any vehicle in NSW, and make sure you have a copy of the email from NSW RTA that no action is required for overseas registered vehicles.

BTW CDPs can be extended by one year in Australia - as long as the visa is extended as well.

Its a bloody disgrace.

If all Aussies can send an email to their State and Federal MPs along the lines of "get it sorted you useless bunch of pillocks".

I am about seven weeks out from Australia and was wondering if there was any updates to this thread. Will check out a couple web sites to see if I can buy insurance but recommendations would be most helpful.

Bob

To anyone following this and needing insurance:

Following response from Swann Insurance









This looks good to me.

Bob