Hello crabby
Welcome to Poms in Oz.
Are you aware of the Investor Retirement Visa? If not, please see here:
Investor Retirement (Subclass 405)
For those who can afford it, this seems to be a good visa. Apparently there are very attractive tax-arrangements in being a Temporary Resident in Oz, plus somebody I know who is contemplating this visa said that the yield on the Designated Investment is about 7% at the moment (gross - and the interest counts towards the annual income which has to be shown.)
Do you have any skilled children who could be persuaded to migrate to Australia? If so, a Contributory Parent visa might then become a possibility instead. Please see here:
Family - Visas & Immigration
Failing either of the above, it might not be impossible to find a willing employer-sponsor based on your skills as a plumber. In this scenario, you would really want to try for an employer in "regional Australia" (and the more regional the better, realistically, in view of your age.) Please see here:
Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (Subclass 119/857)
You would be pushing the limits on the age-waiver, so this is a long shot but I have heard that this idea could be a possibility in South Australia for instance. Please see the following link:
Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (Subclass 119/857)
If the area is really regional then it might be possible to negotiate a bit of flexibility over your age, I suspect. The other area that I know about that might be a possibility would be the NW of West Australia - Broome way. My sister lives in Perth and she says that Broome and the area around it are becoming thriving centres for tourism, pearling and so on, and that this is attracting new blood and new money to the area. However she says that one is in the cyclone belt that far north as well. I do not know anythiing about Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the more remote regions of Queensland.
Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (Subclass 119/857)
If none of the above is possible, there is no upper age limit on the subclass 457 visa but it is only a temporary visa. If you were prepared to let your house in the UK rather than sell it, go out to Oz and hope that your children will follow (paving the way for Parent migration) then you might want to consider this possibility.
Temporary Business (Long Stay) - Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457)
There is also a very obscure visa called an Established Business Visa, which is a
PR visa and there is no upper age limit on it, though one needs to be both independently wealthy plus phenomenally successful in Oz by the looks of it! Please see here:
Established Business in Australia (Subclass 845)
If absolutely nothing else is possible but you run your own business and can spare time away from it without working in Oz, long stay tourism is a possible way of at least spending some time in Australia again.
Tourist Visa (Subclass 676)
If any of the above look like goers, some of them are described in more depth in the various Information Booklets, which are here:
Information Booklets - Applications & Forms - Visas & Immigration
If you think that any of the above possibilities may be viable, please sing out and I will help you to find some proper help with the idea.
Best wishes
Gill