worried about bricklaying in oz!!!

[bricky luke]

Please could someone help?

Recently I've been reading threads about how terriable jobs are for bricklayers in oz. The foremen aren't very helpfull either.

Please could someone shine some info on the situations?

Thanks Luke and Lynsey

[billy braveheart]

Hi Luke

Well in Perth my hubby is a brickie & is loving it. The guys couldnt be more helpful in adapting british ways to Oz ways, they speak to him he has been out drinking with them etc. Please dont let ONE persons post put you off. Ive you need any help pm us.

Janette

[bricky luke]

Thanks a lot Janette,

I was just worried because some brickies threads seem to be working in awful conditions, I'm in strong believer in enjoying the job e.g. working in the sun shine, singing along to the music, listening to the sound of the trowels clinging. Bricklayers are well known for their on-site banter (at least uk brickies are ha ha).

I think we'll just have to suck it and see!

Thanks again

Luke and Lynsey.

[billy braveheart]

Hi Luke & Lynsey

Billy here. ive had no probs settling into the oz way of working,not to say that others wont.
i get along with all the guys and the banter is here mate let me tell u.plus the cold drink on a friday rounds of the weekl.you seem to be coming with the right attitude so i dont see u having too much probs
billy

[Jo&Rich]

Hi, my hubby a brickie too, on the Gold Coast. Obviously there's the climate to get used to, and he starts earlier than in UK (works 7-3). He is working in a small gang though, travels around the area, building individual houses, not on a site; it doesn't pay as well probably, but not as bad working conditions as others have written about. A bloke he works with, another pom, has had some really crappy jobs, all working on sites. Like Janette's hubby, he has been out drinking with them, and they've helped him adapt too. Take the p**s out of him for being a pom, but in good humour, and he can give back as good as he gets. Prefers it to laying brick in England in winter, no contest!

Joanne x

[Gollywobbler]

HI Janette, Luke

Janette, just to fill you in in case you didn't see the threads, first Aldo started a thread complaining about his briicklaying job on the Sunshine Coast - though he may just have been having a bad day that day. Then on Sunday, I think it was, whilst you were at the Perth Meet, a second brickie asked aboiut jobs in QLD. I found some threads about that on BE and posted the links for the guy.

Reading some of the various threads, the consensus seems to be that British brickies are not immpressed by construction methods in NSW (timber framed houses, apparently.) The ones in QLD are not impressed by the wages there, especially not on the Sunshine Coast.

However, they all seemed to think that brickies in the Perth area are properly paid and are treated well by their gaffers. The feeliing seems to be that brickies in Perth are in a commanding position and that the gaffers have to treat them well because there is an alternative development just down the road which is equally desperate for brickies.

Oe lady in Perth chipped in to one of the threads complaining that she had found it impossible to find a brickie wiling to build her a 6' high garden wall Apparently this wall would only need 1,000 bricks but the contractor who came to look said the cost wuld be $8,000. She felt that he did not want the job.

(Luke - I think you ought to bear in mind that the grumbles from the East Coast brickies do seem to be pretty location-specific. The brickies working in the suburbs close to Brisbane do not seem to be complaining. The ones further North, on the Sunshibene Coast, are moaning but maybe there is less work up there and therefore less room to move to another gaffer. Maybe the work-ethic is different as well.

Also (says she volunteering poor Billy!) if you were to start off in Perth, I feel sure that Billy could and would guide you and you never know - he might even be able to help to get you a job. He probably does earn more than you could because he is quite a bit older than you with 30 years' experience in this field, but you and your girlfriend only have yourselves to think abut. You would not have the same level of domestic overheads as Billy is carrying, so it would probably all work out pretty comfortably for you.

Also, to get you any sort of really reliable indicator, we would need to ask Billy to talk with Aldo and compare notes with him properly because each would understand where the other is really coming from - which Janette & I wouldn't.

Don't read too much into these threads because although Aldo was having a rant, he was also pretty tongue in cheek about it. When Cal told him to think himself lucky to be laying bricks in the sunshine, he replied, "no-one cares " I chuckled & thought, "Nowt too much wrong with Aldo, evidently!"

Cheers

Gill

[Bobcat]

Originally Posted by bricky luke

Please could someone help?

Recently I've been reading threads about how terriable jobs are for bricklayers in oz. The foremen aren't very helpfull either.

Please could someone shine some info on the situations?

Thanks Luke and Lynsey

I've got a belting job for some brickies................... they quoted me $28 grand to extend my patio base for which the measure up says I need roughly 10,000 bricks.

They are pretty flat out at the moment but the guy who did the quote reckons they can slot me in within two weeks and the job will take a couple of weeks to complete........ so hopefully the brickwork part of it will be done by Christmas............ just have to get someone in to pour a new concrete floor after that............. and get a sparky to run some new power points and external lighting.

I don't envy them doing manual work in this heat.......... it used to knock the stuffing out of me when I was on the tools............... but we will look after them as long as the work is up to standard.

They'll have a never emptying fridge full of cold drinks and they can help themselves to the beer at the end of the day once work is complete for that day......... plus in addition........... Mrs Bobcat usually sees to it that contractors doing jobs for us get well fed.

You'll be right once you get over here.............. conditions are good for which you have to thank the unions whether you are a fan of them ........ or not?

Building trade workers have a lot to be thankful for over here............. some of the sites are something akin to Butlins Holiday Camps................. the amenities provided are out of this world.

[fatpom]

OK! Speaking generally not just construction industry (because my experience with the construction industry is limited :)).

There is a different work ethic here in Aus compared to UK (unless things have changed). People who work for employers particularly office workers are very likely to find a lot of pressure to do long hours usually without OT payment. This is just the way it is.
I wasn't the sort of person in the UK to rush out at finishing time but I never felt the same kind of pressure to work late often just for the sake of it. My kind of work, running big dollar projects takes me around a bit so I've seen it across several companies and locations. My OH finds it largely to be the same also. During the height of the project I'm working a six day week (10 hour days) for several months but then as it (the project) tapers off I can eventually get everything done in a regular five day week working eventually an eight hour day. This is when I start to feel the cold wind of disapproval. :) You're just expected to be there (crazy!).
Its a national disease (well at least in NSW/Qld). Now you might reasonably presume its just me sounding off... and you'd be partly correct but you'll also find a lot of news clips on this very subject where some social commentators are concerned that families are suffering from this problem. Comments like "young children never seeing their fathers during the week" etc. Poor little mites.

Is this a reason to put you off emigrating?... of course not!!!

[THE JONEZYS]

Can only speak from oh's experience's here in Melbourne...............He reckons he works harder because some of the methods are a little backward BUT he is much more relaxed. He has a good craic with the blokes, his boss looks after him and as said before he is getting the Ausies to adapt their ways to UK ways to make everyones life easier!!
At least with your job, if your not happy where you are, you can just move on as there is soooo much work out there!!
Good luck and try not to worry too much and DONOT believe everything you read on expats!!
Lesley

[billy braveheart]

Hi Lesley

I certain agree about expats site gees some of the posts on there would put you off emigrating for good . From what I have heard from other bricklayers they expect to come over here & make a fortune which maybe the case for some but not all. Gill I have also heard the horror stories about they way brickies are treated in Perth so much so that Billy got a couple of guys into work with him they were being treated really badly but sadly they only lasted 2 weeks & let Billy down & left for more money. Good luck to them but I have a feeling they will never be happy with their lot. I guess as Billy is on a 457 visa he is stuck with his employer or would have to find another one but thankfully they are a good company to work with so he's happy thank god

Janette