How to Register a Vehicle in Victoria — The (Terrible) Process Explained

Recently, I had to register a couple of vehicles in Victoria that were unregistered. The first was a car that I bought at a government auction (here’s that process here), and the second was a motorcycle that I bought from another state and which arrived unregistered.

It turns out that while the process of registering a vehicle in Victoria is technically straightforward, it’s quite difficult to understand — even for someone like me who has registered vehicles in multiple states and countries. The process is cumbersome, expensive, time-consuming, and broken in multiple parts. So I thought I’d document it in case it helps others, as the details caught me off guard.

The quick run-down is that you need to expect it to take two to four weeks to finish. If you’re planning on getting an unregistered vehicle, make your booking to register it now!

The process is, in a nutshell

1. Get your roadworthy certificate (RWC),
2. Make an appointment with Vicroads,
3. Visit an inspection centre, and leave with the plates

More detail on all these steps below.

Step 1: Get an Unregistered Vehicle Permit

In Victoria, you need an unregistered vehicle permit to drive your car around for the purpose of inspections and registration.

But how long a permit should you get? Book your Roadworthy certificate inspection, then your VicRoads inspection centre inspection, and then buy your temporary registration.

Because those services are booked out for a few weeks, it’s safest to first make those bookings to know how long registration you’ll need.

Note that the fees are calculated linearly on top of a base processing fee. E.g. for a sedan, a 1-day permit is $46.80, and then you add on $2.20 for every day after that. So a 2-week permit is $66.60. But if you need it for one day again after that because you got your dates wrong, you have to pay $46.80 again! So get your period right.

In some other states, you can drive an unregistered vehicle just with CTP as long as you’re only driving it around for the purpose of getting it registered. In Victoria, this isn’t the case.

Step 2: Get your Roadworthy Certificate

The roadworthy certificate is the first hurdle. You have to visit a mechanic and get it done. Fees range from $200-300, and it takes up to 2 hours to complete. Usual practise is to leave a vehicle with them, go away, and come back later in the day.

The first hard part is getting an inspection appointment. Most centres are booked out for a week or two in advance.

Because most mechanics don’t have online booking portals, you have to call individual mechanics to ask for prices and availability. So, block out an hour of your day!

Secondly, you have to pay the piper.

The RWC process in Victoria is ridiculously laborious and involves taking lots of evidence photos and submitting them to the online portal. The reason it’s expensive is that it takes a long time to do, and mechanics are expensive.

That doesn’t even make it difficult. In fact, it’s such an easy cash grab that mechanics set up centres that only do registration inspections.

If you need an RWC and want to book it in a convenient location ASAP — good luck. You’ll spend an hour or two on the phone.

By the way, the roadworthy certificate process in Victoria is quite strict. Modifications or defects are noted with extreme detail. If you have a modified vehicle (RIP all my motorcycles) then you should make sure you have the original parts on hand, especially if you have a loud aftermarket exhaust.

The certificate itself is a digital one — it gets lodged with VicRoads. So if you think you can copy the image above and make a fake one, let me know how you go. Should be hilarious.

Step 3: Make an Appointment at a Testing Centre

Now, you have to make an appointment at a VicRoads inspection centre.

“Why do I need a second inspection?” Good question. They just want to make sure the carpet matches the drapes.

The unfortunate part is that

1. There are very few Vicroads inspection centres
2. It’s not clear where they are from the Vicroads site (unless you know all the suburbs and cities in Victoria off by heart)
3. They’re booked out
4. The official appointment calendar online is wrong
5. You have to call to book
6. The centres can be chaotic

The list of inspection centres is just that — a list. There’s no map. Google Maps doesn’t show them comprehensively as searching for “VicRoads inspection centre” also shows customer service centres with no inspection facilities.

So I’ve had to make my own map of inspection centres.

The rural inspection centres have short wait times of less than a week. But the ones reasonably close to the city are booked out for weeks. So make a list of the ones that are reasonably close.

Here are the VicRoads inspection centres that are closest to Melbourne, for reference

VicRoads inspection centre	Approx. Time to get there from CBD
Carlton	15 min
Broadmeadows	30 min
Hoppers Crossing	30 min
Mitcham (Ringwood)	35 min
Bundoora	40 min
Sunbury	40 min
Melton	45 min
Dandenong	45 min
Frankston	50 min
Dromana	1h 10 mins
Geelong	1h 10 mins

Of course, if you’re anywhere other than the CBD (which I just put as a reference point), the times will vary.

Now, you have to make a booking. You need to call VicRoads on 131 171.

Vicroads does provide a tool online showing estimates of availability. Here’s the link to it. Unfortunately, it’s wrong.

For example, here’s the calendar right now, for my shortlist of locations.

Note that it only shows green — no orange or yellow. That’s indicator #1 that the data is off.

I called, looking at that calendar, hoping to snag that Geelong 10th of April booking, but the earliest I could get was actually Dandenong on 11 April. So, both Geelong and Dandenong were out — Geelong much later, and Dandenong earlier (Dandenong had a few options, indicating it should have been be red).

Other dates were out too — usually, the wait time was 3-7 days longer than indicated on this chart.

Bear in mind that the appointments are generally during the day. You can’t choose your time. So you need to take a couple of hours off work just to make the appointment!

Finally, it bears repeating that you can only make the appointment over the phone. There’s no accurate calendar and no booking tool — so you have to pick up the phone.

Final step: Attend your VicRoads Inspection and get your plates

Now, attend your inspection. Welcome to the chaos of a VicRoads office! I don’t know if they’re all like this, but Dandenong was like a hospital’s emergency waiting room.

At Vicroads, the process is far from obvious. I first got there and was bamboozled by the massive queue inside. It was stressful — like a DMV in the US. It was nothing like the quiet little TMR offices in Queensland where everyone was happy and things got done quickly. Nope.

For your inspection, you need:

• The completed vehicle registration form (you can fill it out there — takes about 10 minutes, so get there early!)
• Your car (drive it there!) or motorcycle or van or whatever
• Proof of address. Take a bank statement or your rental / home ownership contract. Some things that I tried that didn’t work were a) an insurance agreement (from a big bank! but it didn’t matter) and b) a mobile phone bill.
• ID (license) + something else with your name on it (medicare card, bank card, etc.)
• A screwdriver and screws or bolts to attach your plates. They don’t give you these! (See below on important notes for these)
• Money $$$ — stamp duty + registration fees

Digital copies of all the above paperwork (not IDs of course) is fine. The only paperwork you physically need is the form you fill out.

You have to

1. Check in at the appointment desk
2. Get a number
3. Wait your turn to be served by someone at a desk
4. Go outside to have the car inspected
5. Come back in, pay the piper, and get your plates
6. Attach the plates with the screwdriver and screws you brought. (You did, right?)

The VicRoads staff deal on a daily basis with people who are disorganised, not financially well-off, and often non-English speaking. So they’re frazzled and at wit’s end. It looks like a tough job. So don’t be alarmed if they’re a little short with you (they definitely were with me).

But if your paperwork is in order, in theory, the registration process should go smoothly.

The inspection is simple. They check the car’s VIN and engine number and make sure everything is hunky dory.

Just remember — you have to attach your own plates. Bring a screwdriver and the right pieces. For most cars, you need M6 screws (20-25mm should be fine), so bring those with a screwdriver to fasten them. But every car is different. Mine needed two M6 bolts at the back, but two self-tapping screws at the front. Ridiculous!

Anyway, you now have plates, and you’re free to leave.

Aftermath

So, given this, what would I do next time? Short answer — either plan ahead, buy a car that’s registered, or just not buy a car at all.

Buying and driving a car in Australia is increasingly a low ROI endeavour. It’s almost like the government outsources responsibility of transport onto individuals. We pay for vehicles, adhere to the broken processes, pay for registration, “compulsory insurance” (plus personal insurance), fuel and fuel taxes (or electricity), toll roads, traffic fines, parking fines, and more. I wrote a rant about that here.

The best answer is to live in an area well-served by public transport, or one that’s walkable or accessible to places via bike. Unfortunately, that’s not an option for everyone.

Otherwise, the vast majority of Australians will have to still need to drive for the next 20-50 years while infrastructure catches up with population. Hopefully the above helps you!