The Land That Time Forgot

In certain ways Australia is ahead of the world.  For instance...

- it is mandatory for 9% of salaries to go to a Superannuation fund, or as it's known back home, a RSP;
- the transportation system is state of the art;
- their policies on water conservation and recycling are very progressive;
- etc.

However, in many other ways Australia, or at least Western Australia, is way behind the curve.  Yesterday, we went to get our Australian drivers licences.  We are allowed to drive on our Alberta licences for 3 months.  Fortunately, we also got International Drivers Licenses which we can use for a year.  Unfortunately, you have to be 18 years old to get an International Drivers License.

We brought with us the documents required based on the list the moving company printed from the government website and provided to us.  We had our passports, Australian ATM cards, tenancy agreement & Canadian drivers licences.  When we stepped into the department of transportation it was like stepping back in time.  Imagine something close to the "Simpson" DMV where Patty and Selma work.  If you're one of those freaks that don't watch the Simpsons then let me describe it by saying it was a dozen zombies/employees sitting at their wickets calling numbers out, staring straight ahead with a blank stare and dead eyes and doing as little as possible to actually resolve anything. 

In any case, once our number was called we presented all of the documents to the living dead lady sitting at wicket 11.  She told us that the document requirements had changed in August.  Of course, why would the professional relocation company be aware of any sort of change 3 months ago?  So, we were still missing a couple of documents to get our WA drivers licences:

1) A Visa label in our passports:  The Federal Dept. of Immigration recently decided that they were going to go paperless and all immigration/visa data would be kept electronically.  However, at the same time the Federal Dept. of Transportation decided that one of their new requirements was a paper copy of the Visa in our passports.  So, in order to get this we just have to go to the one office in Greater Perth between the hours of 9am-4pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.  So, I will likely have to take time off work to get a copy of a piece of paper that already exists in the federal governments electronic, paper-free database;

2) A Proof of Age Card:  In order to get a Proof of Age card all you need is a passport, an ATM card and about $30 each.  So, in order to get our licences we need a passport, ATM, Visa label (from #1 above) and Proof of Age card.  But to get a Proof of Age card we need to get two of the documents we needed for the passport.  They may need to rename the Dept. of Transportation to the "Redundant Department of Redundancy".  We tried to explain this to the walking corpse at wicket 11 but she just had a blank stare, as expected.  The whole experience left me feeling a little bit like Marty McFly after my Delorean landed in 1957 (Back to the Future reference).

Then we tried to confirm that Zaren and Cyrus could legally drive in Australia.  The minimum driving age in 'The Land That Time Forgot' is 17 years old.  However, the boys already got their Canadian licences and are 16.  Before we left Canada, we called the Dept. of Transportation and spoke to Zombie Bob.  He informed us that since the boys have a Canadian licence that they are able to get a license to drive in Australia.  However, 'The Undead at Wicket 11' informed us that they must be 17 years old to drive legally in Australia despite the fact they have a license from one of the 'recognized' countries on their list.  Don't get me wrong, we are in no hurry for the boys to drive here, however, we do want them to start practicing.  In any case, we explained the conversation we had with Zombie Bob of her very department.  She then asked us to have a seat while she conferred with some of her moaning, swaying, flesh-rotting colleagues.  After a short 10 minute interlude where they discussed our situation and possibly consumed the soul of the guy over at wicket 8, she called us over and confirmed that yes, indeed, the boys could drive on their Canadian licences for 3 months only and then when they are 17 in August they can go through the same soul-sucking exercise and get a Western Australian drivers licence.  The impromptu caucus of the 'Committee on Crushing Canadians and Consuming Carcusses' had spoken.  So, as of February Zaren and Cyrus can not legally drive in Australia.   At that point we ran out of the building before they decided to check Clause 8, Section 4, Sub-section 17, Paragragh 2, Bullet 12 and discovered some other piece of paper that was required.

Lastly, we finally tried the new snorkel gear that Santa brought us for Christmanuka.  We went to 'our' beach where on both sides of the sandy, swimming area there are rocky outcrops.  As soon as I stuck my face in the water I could see literally thousands of fish, and they weren't concerned about us and often would swim right beside us or below us, within arms reach.  The further out we went the more fish and more types of fish we saw.  We even saw some sting rays before we even put our masks in the water.  They swam right by us as we were getting our equipment on and then we went to find them. The deepest we went was about 5 feet of water.  Keva, in particular, really enjoyed snorkelling.  It's really remarkable that we can walk to our beach, go snorkelling, go play in the waves, have a swim and walk home and the whole thing takes us an hour.  I've always loved snorkelling despite my discomfort with water in general.  There is something about floating effortlessly on top of a different world and experiencing a unique, colourful, vibrant, serene world below you. It's like visiting the land that time forgot, minus the soul crushing beaurocrats.