Driving Lessons Ferntree Gully

Mitcham VicRoads, at 93A Heatherdale Road, Ringwood. It is about 13.3 kilometres north west of Ferntree Gully and it is the office your driving lessons are built around, so the testing routes are familiar well before test day.

It is a naming quirk rather than a mistake, and it is worth knowing before test day. The office VicRoads calls Mitcham is at 93A Heatherdale Road, Ringwood. If you set your navigation to Mitcham the suburb you will end up in the wrong place, so use the road and the number instead.

About 13.3 kilometres, or roughly 20 minutes in ordinary traffic heading north west. Ferntree Gully is a large suburb, so where you start shifts that figure more than it would somewhere smaller.

Yes, for ordinary driving lessons. Home, work or Ferntree Gully station all work. For drive test preparation we would suggest meeting at Mitcham VicRoads instead, or booking a 90 minute driving lesson, because at 20 minutes each way the travel takes most of a 60 minute booking.

They ask more of you, and only in one direction. The flatter western side of Ferntree Gully is ordinary suburban driving. Head east and the roads start to climb and bend at the same time, which needs steadier speed control and earlier steering. We keep first driving lessons off those roads and build up to them, so nothing arrives all at once.

The residential streets off the main roads on the flatter western side of the suburb. Quiet, with generous blocks and room to work, which is what the first few driving lessons need before hills or arterials are added.

It is the busiest driving in the suburb and the most useful. Burwood Highway and Ferntree Gully Road meet there, both multi-lane, so it asks for lane discipline, gap selection and turns planned well ahead. Those are exactly the skills the drive test is assessing, so it is worth proper time rather than one pass.

They do, and it is one of the few genuinely local things we teach here. Roads under heavy tree cover stay damp long after the rain stops, and leaf litter on a bend adds to it. Once you know to leave more room and carry less speed into a corner it stops being an issue, but it is better learned with a driving instructor than discovered on your own.

On the flatter residential streets first, so the manoeuvre is solid before any slope is involved. Parking on a grade is worth practising deliberately around here rather than meeting it for the first time on the day, and there is no shortage of places to do it.

Automatic. Driving lessons in Ferntree Gully are in a small dual-control automatic, and that is also the car you would sit the Mitcham VicRoads drive test in if your package includes it. An automatic licence covers you for automatic cars, which is what most people in Melbourne drive now. If you specifically need manual, tell us when you book and we will give you an honest answer on whether we can cover it.

The same as everywhere else we teach. A 60 minute driving lesson booked as a package of three works out at $225, and packages that include the Mitcham VicRoads drive test start at $224. The full list is further down this page. The price does not change for weekends, public holidays, early mornings or evenings, which is worth checking when you compare quotes.

Most overseas drivers need 3 to 5 driving lessons. If you already drive regularly in Melbourne, 2 to 3 is usually enough, and if you are still adjusting to Melbourne conditions, plan on 5 to 10 or more. Those are recommended ranges, not fixed minimums. The gap is rarely car control. It is Victorian road rules, and around here it is roads that bend and rise at the same time. All of it is covered on the way to the Mitcham VicRoads drive test.