peter wrote:

I will be staying in London for 11 days later on in the year

I will be arriving Eurostar (Waterloo). Can anyone advise me how long it
takes to purchase a 7day travel card on Oyster (I assume you have to go to
the underground booking office, or can a machine issue one)?

Depends how long the queue is at the Tube station ticket office really!
Bear in mind there is an alternative Tube ticket office in the Jubilee
line entrance on the Waterloo Road side of the station which is likely
to be less hectic, not least as it's further away from the Eurostar
platforms (look to the bottom right of this map [1]). You can't buy an
Oyster card at the main line station's ticket offices. Well, not yet at
least!.

There are now some Oyster card vending machines at some major stations,
I don't know if Waterloo has one yet (if it does it'll probably be in
the other, busier Tube ticket office!). If there is one it'll be a wall
mounted blue vending machine with Oyster logos all over it - but it's
not very sophisticated, and you'll need £3 in exact change to pay for
it (the £3 is actually a refundable deposit). Once vended the Oyster
card will be empty so you need to load it up with either PAYG credit or
a weekly or longer Travelcard/bus pass.

*However* if you're buying a 7-day Travelcard (or indeed bus pass) on
Oyster you don't need to pay the £3 deposit - the hitch being that you
can't thus take advantage of the vending machine to get your 'free'
Oyster card. By the by you can also get Oyster cards from several
newsagents, but I suspect that won't be so convenient.

I suggest you bite the bullet and queue up to get the Oyster card,
perhaps at the other Tube ticket office as outlined above.


Also what
paperwork is required,

AIUI Oyster cards can only be registered to UK addresses - I'm looking
at a registration form now and there's no field to specify a different
country. Which is perhaps somewhat parochial, though I guess it
simplifies administering the system somewhat. So, if you have a friend
who lives here you could register it to their address, otherwise you'll
just get an unregistered Oyster card (which is exactly what you'll get
out of the vending machines I mentioned earlier).

and is it easy later, to add PAYG to the card (can
you just "topup" a card even thought it hasn't previously been used for
PAYG)

All Oyster cards can hold both 7-day Travelcards (or bus passes) and
PAYG credit, and can do so at the same time. Indeed you can use PAYG to
automatically pay for excess fares when you go beyond the zones covered
by your Travelcard - though you can only do this when using the
Underground or the DLR, if you're going beyond your zones on suburban
(i.e. overground) rail then you need to buy a paper extension ticket.
Likewise Oyster PAYG cannot be used on suburban rail, not yet at least.

Oyster cards must be registered in order to hold monthly and longer
Travelcards/bus passes.


It is possible to purchase PAYG oystercards in Sydney but not Travel cards
on Oyster (the TFL website for visitors will sell 7day travel cards but I
think they are issued as paper travel cards, and no amount of emailing will
get a response)

Looking at the Visitors ticketing section of the TfL website [2] it
definitely seems like your above assumptions are true - i.e. the Visit
Britain direct website [3] offers to sell you Oyster PAYG, whilst TfL's
Ticket-on-line/ Visitor tickets website certainly appears to sell
paper/printed tickets only.

There are of course advantages to getting you 7-day Travelcard on
Oyster - you can easily go beyond the zones covered by your Travelcard
when travelling on the Underground (as outlined previously) plus you've
got the card so you can use it later with PAYG, or add another 7-day
Travelcard to it.

However should you, or anyone else, just want a Travelcard on paper
they are easily obtained from suburban rail station ticket offices,
though they are now the only place you can buy a printed Travelcard.
The main line ticket offices at Waterloo will sell you one with no fuss
(no need to provide details for 7-day Travelcards, nor is there any
longer the need for a photocard). If you're only travelling on central
London then a zones 1&2 Travelcard will likely suit you fine, but
you'll pay through the nose should you wish to travel on the
Underground outside those zones.


Thanks in advance for any advice

Err, I've probably muddied the waters rather than adding clarity but if
you need any further clarification/confusion then just ask!


-----
[1] Waterloo station map - but not orientated North! (PDF)
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documen...apWaterloo.pdf

[2] http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick....asp#where-buy

[3] http://www.visitbritaindirect.com/en-AU/default.aspx

[4] http://www.ticket-on-line.com/