Terry; Just how do you rate a "dam time consuming process in Bangkok"?
I was out at the Dept of Land Transport across from Suk Soi 62 with three people the other week. All of them got their temporary one year licenses in about 2 hours..
IF you have a valid Oz license you need;
- b/s health certificate from ANY clinic
- Stat Dec form from your embassy stating your address
- current d/l
- passport..
The above, some common sense (as in showing up right when they open so you get into one of the first group of test takers) and you're done..
There's NO driving part, no written test just those 4 reaction/perception tests. Sometimes they don't even make foreigners sit thru the good driver/bad driver movie 45 minute movie, even though they should.
It is hardly by any wild stretch of the imagination a time consuming process.
Christ you wasted more time than that on this forum asking every question known to man about how to get a yearly extension of stay based on retirement inside the country, only to go and get a year long Non-0A in Oz.