To think we have to be let in??

[yummyubereats]

I am currently in Australia visiting a friend. We have travelled from Brisbane towards Sydney for the last few days. We are spending New Year’s Eve in a theme park next to the harbour bridge to watch the fireworks. We bought the tickets ages ago.

My friend and I, who have travelled together, didn’t bring our passports with us to sydney, just our drivers licenses.

We have just received an email from said theme park, saying that they ID on entry and do not accept foreign driving licenses as a valid form of ID. Only passports and Australian licenses. This was not made clear when we bought.

So now, we are panicking. We spent £120 on these event tickets and now we probably won’t even be let in.
NSW government guidance says any country license can be accepted as ID, so they’re not following this.

What can we do?? It’s tomorrow and we don’t have time to get our passports.

Fervent British Remainer here. You haven't added anything useful to this thread.

And you keep it up with your brexit bollocks, saying a British passport is like toilet paper is frankly talking utter rubbish, I'd look at most useful passport lists, it's at same level as many European countries.

Go spread your rubbish elsewhere.

@yummyubereats
when I read the title of the post, I imagined a family of vampires worried about missing some fun event if they don't get invited in.
Sorry. Weird imagination.
Hope you get sorted.

What utter rubbish on nearly all counts.

You really needed to read those passport rules a bit better, Australia is aware that people sometimes change their name. My passport was issued in 2014 and it is not in the name on my birth certificate, it is in my married name.

And your comment about British passports just makes no sense. What worth is it supposed to have exactly? With a valid visa, it grants entry into the country, that is all it needs to do.

Sorry to derail OP's thread but hopefully she's either on her way back to Brisbane or to Sydney airport but here are assessments of UK passport strength.

UK Third most powerful passport

UK passport strength (4th position)

The poster who thinks British passports are worth nothing in Australia is ignoring the fact that if OP had her British passport she'd be fine.

Pretty much everything in their OP is wrong except the bit about them personally not liking British people

I travel a lot (often solo) and always have my passport with me.

Hope it gets sorted OP.

It's always nice to watch it on telly for me. New Year's Eve midnight from around the world. (on the news).

Don't think attitudes like this help: until relatively recently they were a British colony, although don’t mention that to them as it probably won’t go down well. But I’d have thought that a British drivers licence should carry more weight than other countries.

Loving the idea that my British driving licence might get me special treatment!

What they say in theory and what they do in practice may be different things.

It does seem like a stupid rule - after all, it's only for an event, and the national/state authorities accept them for driving!

It should have been made very clear when you bought the tickets but I suppose they don't necessarily know where you live when you buy them.

Without your passport so it can be scanned, you won't be getting in. Australia expects to be the victim of a terrorist attack at any time and UK passport are worth less than toilet paper to them, especially since Brexit

Why would the Australians give a toss about Brexit? It doesn't affect them in any way (other than the British authorities sucking up to them for a trade deal).

Not sure why this thread has disintegrated into a "lets hate the British" thread. The OP doesn't actually say s/he has a British passport or a British driving licence.

Yes it is ridiculous isn't it.

It reminds me of England Athletics' stupid rules though. I am an official and coach, and if I want to renew my licence I need to renew my DBS (fine) and have a new photo every 3 years.

The UK government (and other governments) are fine with passports and driving licences being renewed every 10 years, but EA says that people can't be expected to recognise me after 3?

They really do fucking love a rule in Australia though, way way more than in the UK. I would expect to get rejected if I was in OPs position. How unquestioningly compliant and rule abiding Aussies in general are is my least favourite thing about the place

Well that's daft as well, but no dafter than the other poster's claims that a UK passport has no value or that a woman has to revert to her birth name to get an Australian passport.

This a nice little article from The Times of India celebrating the international time differences.

When is it New Year

Mumsnet is absolutely the place to get the definitive answer. You could just show the poll result at the entrance gate and they will then let you in.

It actually reminds me about 20 years ago We went to an outdoor event in America ( hadn’t bought tickets ) wouldn’t let us in with out passports . Id forgot about that untill
now .

As others have said the Australians like their rules I doubt OP will get in .

This in combination with my username will make me sound like a vampire fanatic, but I thought this too!!! AIBU to think we have to be invited round MIL's house even though she doesn't approve of our lifestyle choice?

As to the OP I can only agree - always passport on you in a foreign country. Someone said she's Australian but that doesn't make sense or her ID would also be an Australian one. Also agree that no one does rules like the Aussies, I'd not bank on them bending their rules for you.

any chance of you getting an Australian driving licence somewhere in the next few hours?!

@Backtomyoldname - that's very unusual . Never had anything like that happen in Italy. Was it an age check ?

Also, it has precisely bugger all impact on the OP’s situation whether a British passport is “valuable” or not. The fact is that, regardless of the nationality on the passport, it’s ten hours away from her!

Oh Christ.Do you also call an ambulance if you stub your toe?

OP, the view is a little better from the other side, near the harbour. View from the gardens is beautiful, if you can’t get in to Luna Park.

Lots of posts here that show how most Brits don't understand how truly disliked they are in the rest of the world...especially in Australia.

Sweeping generalisation here! I work in the travel industry, for a company that has the word British in its name and plays on its British-ness at every opportunity, and we are welcomed everywhere we go. It’s only the odd person, not entire nationalities, that dislike the British. Am guessing that @FreeRider is one of those sad individuals.

Anyway….!!! Let’s just remind ourselves here that the OP may have been a little bit silly, but they have not actually said anywhere what their nationality is, where their passport is from, or where their driving licence is from. All we know is that they do not have an Australian driving licence with them or indeed a passport of any nationality to show at the entrance to the event they want to go to. Any suggestions of Britishness of the OP are entirely assumed, and this makes it all the more silly (and frankly quite unpleasant) just how much Freerider keeps on banging on about hating ‘Brits.’

On the other side of this argument, when I worked in travel we were hugely disliked.

I worked on cruise ships and there was definitely a difference between how certain nationalities were treated in both the ports and by some of the crew and staff.

Brits were often viewed as entitled, snobby and patronising, then pissed, loud and angry. IE demanding to pay for things in "real money", expecting things to change to suit their preferences (sailing earlier than preferred from certain ports). Whereas other nationalities generally were more pleasant guests.

Other nationalities (as a general rule) were more hostile/rude to southern English folk and almost sympathetic to northerners, Scots, Welsh and Irish people.

I'm sure you meant Northern Irish, Irish people aren't "Brits"