Your first two weeks in Australia, in order

The Tax File Number: free, online, and not optional

Your TFN is your number with the Australian tax office, and this is the step with the hardest financial incentive. The application at the ATO is free and goes online, 24 hours a day, as soon as you're in Australia and have an Australian address. The number arrives by mail within 28 days from the day the ATO receives the application.

Registration	Where	Clock
Bank account on your passport alone	any bank, at the counter	within 6 weeks of arrival
Tax File Number	ATO, online	by mail within 28 days of receipt
Medicare	Services Australia	as soon as you've landed with your PR (or PR application); until then your bridging cover applies
Exchanging your driving licence	your state's transport authority	New South Wales: within 3 months as a permanent resident

Without a TFN your employer withholds the maximum tax rate on your wages. So start the application in your first days, not only when you have a job. The difference on one payslip is bigger than all the other savings of your first month put together.

After that you also need the TFN for your bank interest and for your superannuation, the compulsory Australian employer pension for which you choose a fund at your first job. Your employer asks for your account details and your TFN when you start. Be sparing with the number: only certain organisations may legally request it.

Medicare: your right to care, but you apply for it yourself

As a permanent resident you are entitled to Medicare, the public health insurance. But that right doesn't become a card by itself. You enrol at Services Australia, and until your enrolment is done, you want your bridging insurance to demonstrably cover you.

So arrange Medicare in those same first weeks, even if everyone is in perfect health. The date of your registration also starts the clock of Lifetime Health Cover: the scheme that puts a loading on private hospital cover you take out late.

And then ordinary life

With number, account, TFN and Medicare in your pocket, the rest follows at its own pace:

• A permanent home. Renting is fast and competitive: the deposit goes via the state, and you have your rental file at the ready.
• School for the children. Public schools allocate by address, so choose your neighbourhood accordingly.
• Your driving licence. Your Dutch licence is usable temporarily, but as a permanent resident you must exchange it within your state's deadline. New South Wales gives you three months for that.

Whoever is looking for work reads what an employer wants to see from you. Whoever counts on a benefit should know that Centrelink (the Australian benefits agency) generally makes new arrivals wait up to four years.

One more thing, before you tick off this list and close the file: the deregistration in the Netherlands has a tail. For the year of your departure you file next year a return with the M form. Put that in your diary while it's still fresh, because a letter only reaches you if your address abroad is correct in the RNI, the register for people who live outside the Netherlands.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but then for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Australia.