Driving in Australia: international permit, XXL distances and kangaroos — what to know before you rent

A French driving licence alone is rarely enough in Australia: local law lets you drive on a valid foreign licence for the length of your stay, but requires a supporting document as soon as that licence isn't written in English — which is the case for a French one. The exact document differs by state: Queensland explicitly asks for a NAATI-certified translation (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters) per the official guidance on qld.gov.au, while Western Australia requires an English translation certified by a consulate or diplomatic mission according to transport.wa.gov.au — the international driving permit (IDP) isn't always listed there as sufficient on its own.

The safest approach is to travel with the IDP AND, if your itinerary crosses Queensland or Western Australia, a NAATI translation as backup (roughly €35, obtained in 24-48 hours from an accredited translator, before departure or from within Australia). Since 3 March 2026, applying for an IDP from France is done exclusively online on the ANTS portal via FranceConnect, costs €7.25, and takes two to four weeks — it's valid for 3 years, but only outside French territory and always alongside a valid national licence. Best to apply six weeks before departure, and check the official page for each state on your route, since these rules do change.

4,000 km separate Sydney from Perth — roughly the distance from Paris to Moscow and back. On the ground, "just next door" often means three hours of driving, and a full day behind the wheel sometimes only links two stops on the same itinerary. The classic mistake on a first Australian road trip is trying to string together several faces of the country — the east coast, the red Centre, the west — in a single two- or three-week trip: better to pick one region and give it all the time you have.

The Great Ocean Road and Tasmania are best from November to March, the red Centre and the tropical north from May to September during the dry season, Ningaloo from March to July for whale sharks. The XXL distances make driving fatigue a risk factor in its own right: Australian authorities recommend a break every two hours on long stretches, a habit that matters even more given how the outback's straight, flat scenery dulls attention faster than a winding road.

The cliché of a kangaroo bounding in front of the van hides a reality documented by research: a study by Tamalee Wilson, Hyerin Park, Simon Parys and Sudhakar Rao, published in 2022 in the journal Injury, looking at 366 patients admitted to an Australian trauma centre between 2000 and 2020 for kangaroo-related crashes, found that the most severe injuries occurred proportionally more often at night — and, notably, that swerving off the road to avoid the animal, an instinctive reflex in 59% of drivers involved, was itself associated with a higher risk of rollover (study available via Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Characteristics+of+kangaroo-related+motor+vehicle+crashes+Wilson+Park+Parys+Rao).

The rule that follows is counterintuitive but well documented: if an animal appears on the road, braking in a straight line is safer than swerving, however hard that instinct is to override. Kangaroos, wallabies and emus are most active at dawn and dusk: the vast majority of collisions recorded in studies of Australian rural roads happen at night, which is why rental companies and local authorities unanimously advise against driving after sunset outside built-up areas — rental vans, unlike farmers' vehicles, almost never carry roo bars.

The outback's main routes carry road trains — trucks that can stretch up to 53 metres, several trailers linked together. Overtaking one takes a clear straight stretch of several hundred metres, anticipation of the dust and air blast at the pass, and extra caution on unsealed roads where they throw up clouds of gravel.

Those same unsealed roads are the classic blind spot in rental contracts: most standard van rental companies explicitly exclude "unsealed roads" from their insurance cover, excess or not. Driving on an unsurfaced track with a van that isn't rated for it can void any cover in the event of damage — a clause worth checking line by line before signing, especially if your itinerary includes parks like Karijini or the red Centre's tracks.

Budget €70-130/day for a standard campervan (€130-200 for an equipped 4x4), fuel around €1.15-1.35/L in town but up to €1.80 in the outback, and campsites at €15-35 a pitch — on top of the many free or near-free rest areas. Beyond the coast, roadhouses (isolated fuel stops) can be 150-200 km apart, sometimes more in the red Centre or the west: the local habit, followed religiously by residents, is to top up the tank at every roadhouse you pass rather than wait for the gauge to run low.

Our "Australia self-drive" guide devotes a full chapter to the van, 4x4 or motorhome choice, region-by-region itineraries (east coast, red Centre, wild west) and a detailed line-by-line budget, to help you pick between the country's three faces instead of spreading yourself thin. Beyond the paperwork, the best protection on Australian roads is still caution: no night driving outside built-up areas, a break every two hours on long stretches, and the reflex to brake in a straight line rather than swerve if an animal appears.