The manoeuvre most Australian learners lose marks on, and the one you cannot really rehearse without a supervising driver and an empty street. Practise it here instead — right-hand drive, driving on the left, kerb on your nearside — and spend your log book hours on traffic instead of on where to start the turn.
Same seat, same side of the road, same reference points.
The whole scene is mirrored for Australian roads, so nothing you learn here has to be un-learned the first time you try it in the car.
Assessors want you parallel and close without touching. Your distance is shown as you reverse, so you learn what 30 cm looks like from the driving seat rather than guessing.
Hitting or mounting the kerb is one of the most common ways to lose marks. Every touch is counted here, where it costs you nothing.
Overhead shows where the car pivots and how far the nose swings into the lane. The driving view, with three mirrors, is what you will actually have.
Three steps from cold start to parked.
The simulator drops you beside the car in front. Get level with it, about half a metre out, and stop.
Prompts tell you when to go to full left lock, when to straighten, and when to bring the nose in.
Repeat until you finish parallel and within about 30 cm of the kerb without touching it. Time and corrections are tracked.
Written for a right-hand-drive car on the left of the road.
A reversing car turns about its rear axle, not its middle and not its front wheels. That one fact explains most of what feels wrong the first few times: the back tucks in far faster than you expect, and the nose swings a long way out into the lane while it does. Spend a couple of attempts in the overhead view just watching that happen — it is worth more than any amount of reading.
Most cars you will learn in have one, and it will show you the kerb beautifully — right up until the moment something arrives from a rear corner, where the camera cannot see. Assessors want to see you look. Use the camera to judge distance, not to replace the head check.
Licensing is state-based, so the exact assessment criteria, the number of attempts you are allowed, and whether the reverse parallel park is even set differ between NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT. The geometry below is the same everywhere; the marking sheet is not.
In most states the assessor can ask for it, and several also assess reversing into a bay or a straight reverse. Requirements differ by state, so check your own — but the geometry of the manoeuvre is identical wherever you sit the test.
Parallel to the kerb and within about 30 cm of it, without touching it. Hitting or mounting the kerb is one of the most common ways to lose marks.
No. Log book hours have to be supervised driving in a real vehicle, and the rules vary by state. This is what you do between those drives so the supervised hours go on traffic and hazard awareness rather than on relearning where to start the turn.
Yes — this page defaults to left-hand traffic, so you sit on the right and reverse towards a kerb on your nearside. Every coaching prompt swaps sides to match.