Hi there,

I'm leaving Oz in a few weeks. Must I renew my rego when I left Oz? As my bike is WA registered it would be possible over the phone, but that would be another expense. And the biggest part of it is for insurance only valid in Oz...

How did you handle this?

Cheers,

Frank

This relates to a NSW registered 4x4

We renewed our rego just before we left (can only do it about 60 days, can't remember exact days, or so before existing one expires). We again renewed it while on the road. had to get a roadworthy done in the country where we were in and sent it to a friend who renewed it there. One of the carnet conditions from NRMA/NSW is for the car to be registered at all times otherwise carnet not valid - it doesn't say anything on the carnet itself though, just on a separate letter that came with it. Not sure what will happen if the car is not registered.
RTA in NSW will not issue renew rego without compulsory insurance, even though the car is not there.

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Good point, what countries are you visiting? The Carnet is the thing, if you are going to the Americas, then a Carnet is not needed, so you could get away with expired rego, but they do want copies of the paperwork, so if it is not current, they may knock you back, and they want original stuff too

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I also renewed my NSW rego just before leaving because of the carnet thing.

Shipped the troopie to Cape Town and heading north to UK, we've got as far as Kenya now without being asked for proof of rego once.

Got the COMESA yellow card insurance in Zim even without proof of rego.

Maybe it's a different story getting green card insurance for Europe though?

If anyone has any info on this I'd appreciate it, as my rego will run out before I get to Europe, and I'd rather not spend another however many hundred dollars on a piece of paper I don't need.

Pumbaa, did you have a particular contact person at the RTA to tee things up with in advance? I imagine it would be hard work walking in to an office and getting them to accept an overseas pink slip.

There's also this thread from last year with some info on this issue

Cheers,

Paul

If your bike is registered in Victoria the bonus is that you don't need a roadworthy for renewing your rego. Yes it's a pain that the majority of it is third party insurance for Aus, but you can't have everything.

The main thing to remember is that as long as your bike is registered in the country of origin, it is accepted in any other country, if not then you may have/ or they can give you trouble, same as at home.

Chris

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Just to add to this, I met a guy in Colombia who had recreational registration (only available in Victoria) and had traveled the world for 5 years with it. Rec reg costs only $50 per year! A really good way to save money.

You can pre-purchase european insurance online( through email) from Arrisa. Check the green card insurance thread for details. You need to send car rego docs etc. You specify when you want it to start and they send a scanned copy back to you. They may pick up that the insurance will be for after the rego has expired, but then again they may not. It's a chance you'll have to take. Id they do pick it up then you can just say...oops, didn't see that, BUT you might get problems in Europe if you get stopped and the vehicle does not have valid registration (again, your choice if this is a chance you want to take)

We didn't have a particular contact at RTA, no. We got a roadworthy done from the goverment testing stations in Zambia in Lusaka(read, paid the roadworthy fee and they issued the certificate) and arranged to fax it to the office where my friend was going to renew for us. He took the renewal slip and they got the roadworthy on fax (I paid the insurance online) and issued the new papers with a comment on it 'Inspection needed'. Alternatively, if you know someone who can 'do' a roadworthy for your car/bike while it's not there and submit electronically (the way they do it now) then all will be sorted, because everything happens online. You just then need someone to go a collect your new rego.

Hope this helps...

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Thanks for that Pumbaa...looks like the RTA are a bit more flexible than I thought.

I travelled for 2 years out of Oz on my bike. First year I had Vic rego and an RACV issued carnet.

After I arrived in Europe I sent the carnet back to Oz to get my bond refunded and then took out a second carnet (for Africa) from the AA in the UK. The beauty of this is that there are insurers in the UK who are happy to take the risk, whereas in Oz there aren't - I'd much rather pay a guaranteed amount of 10% of vehicle value than a lottery that I could lose 150% of the vehicle value if I lost my carnet docs.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I didn't bother renewing the Vic rego and only ever had one border post (Nigeria/Cameroon) ask questions. I got away with arguing that the expiry date on my rego was actually the beginning of the registration period and was allowed to enter Cameroon.

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