Houses seem to be around $300 to around $400 for someting reasonable. Prices this week are running from $270 to $650. Mid you, $650 is mostly out at the mines which won;t worry you.
Flats are going from $170 to $300ish and oddly some of the cheaper ones are still 2 bedroom.
Suburbs closest to the MBH are South Mackay, East Mackay and West Mackay as well as Mackay itself. You could walk to work from some of these.
Beach suburbs include East Mackay, Eimeo, Bucasia, Shoal Point, Slade Point, Dolphin Heads etc. with all except East Mackay being on the North side and nost being a 15 minute drive.
Fuel prices this week are around $1.35/litre for petrol, $0.78 for LPG and $1.40 for Diesel.
Click the yellow graphics at the top for houses and flats.
Click the yellow graphic at bottom left for a mud map for an idea of locations.
MBH is right on the river above the words "West Mackay".
Read carefully though. Some of the cheap ones are for ownership in holiday units at resorts.
If nothing else they will give you a feel for the current market.
Cheers,
RossD
p.s.
I'll get some prices for thigs like milk and bread and fruit and veggies over the next few days. Prices I put up will be 'off the shelf' on given days when I buy them - not 'specials'.
I had visitors from Wales a few years ago who came shopping with me and insisted on buying the meat for the Barbeque - just so they could tell their mates back home they bought prime rib fillet for under $10.00/kilo. Unfortunately due to droughts etc that same meat is now around $30.00 :-(
Thanks for this info it is great, we are going to have a very good idea of the cost of living when we arrive and hopefully no nasty shocks on prices.
Sorry I forgot to say earlier that I hope you have made a full recovery from your accident and I hope they caught the culprits (I can think of other words to describe them but I am been polite!)
Unfortunately I haven't made a full recovery. I lost a $100/hr job and am basically unemployed and unemployable for now. That's why you'll often see words like thigns instead of things in my posts. I had 99% accuracy at around 60wpm which was pretty good for a bloke. Now I have to constantly go back over every sentence and correct it - and sometimes I miss things.
I'm more or less over the 'why me?', but still depressed. I cope by helping others going through similar stuff, and I suppose doing silly stuff like this is helping people in a small way too.
There are thing you will have to get used to to live here, but all in all it is a pretty good place to be. We have very little in the way of racial problems compared to other places in Queensland. There's a certain amount of crime around, but I think the only thing I eve had stolen in 27 years here, was a pushbike from the back yard in broad daylight - a weird thing to happen.
Cas at the base is pretty busy. The emergency department handles all sorts of cases and the hospital is a bit understaffed, like all Aussie hospitals. That means you will be busy, as well as being very welcome.
Social life in Mackay is ok. Plenty of nice restaurants and some reasonable coffee places as well as the usual fish and chip shops etc. MacDonalds, Hungry Jacks (Burger King in the USA), Pizza places. Most things are catered for. In the last couple of weeks I have eaten out at an Indian restaurant with a water view, and at an Italian restaurant. We have a couple of very nice Thai restaurant, some good old steak houses and a couple of Chinese restaurants. There are also pubs where you can have a meal from around $5.00.
I'm on my way out, but I'll do the cost of living thing again before I go, just for fun. This is from the take away menu at the Italian restaurant. Dish prices are for 'large' although some are also available small.
King prawns fried in garlic, shallots & cream OR fried in chilli and Napoli. Served with herbed rice - $16.30
Oysters topped with a combination of bacon, garlic, parmesan, mozzarella, parsley & egg, grilled to perfection - $19.90
Caesar salad (you probably already know what's in it) $7.90
Greek salad - $7.50
Veal strips fried with garlic, basil, sweet chilli, onion, mustard with a dash of cream, all tossed through linguini topped with parmesan cheese - $14.90
Steak with garlic prawn sauce (what I had the other night) $21.90
(Most of their mains are around $21.00)
Risottos - $15.00 +/-
Desserts mostly around $4.50
That's just one place, but it will give you an idea of the cost of a night out. Three of us ate there for under $80 including some wine, but we only had a main meal each.
On the other hand you can get take away pizza from around $5.00. The Italian reastaurant I got the prices from also does pizza, at $7.00 for Marguerta up to 14.50 for a seafood delight. Average is around $10.50 and they beat the pizza chain ones by a mile. It is nice to taste fresh basil in a pizza.
Ok, enough of my rant for now. At least you know you can eat out occasionally somewhere nice.
Oh, there are two cinemas and various other entertainment venues and a heap of pubs and clubs.
Another future mackay resident here. Well, for a while anyway. I'm a doc from ireland going out tot he childrens hospital in brissie. But as part of my rotation I spend 3 months at mackay base hospital from mid april to mid july.
I'll be doing paeds. anybody know anything about the department?
Thanks for the info It is useful as it gives us an idea of the cost of living, it sounds very much on a par with prices over here, and there seems to be plenty to do.
Safc#1,
Hello there, Ive no idea about the hospital only what I have looked up and info from Ross, but it seems Ok but I suppose we will find out when we get there I`ll be on adult medicine (registered nurse) hopefully about May but as you say getting a visa is a nightmare, everything seems to take so long.
I am a bit worried, I have just read an article in Mackays Daily Mercury (online) about the state of Mackay Base Hospital.
i knew it was in need of some updating but There has been a petition and there is to be a forum about the ".. underfunded and inadequate" state of the hospital in Mackay, Does anybody know anything about this. I am trying to get away from the underfunded and sometimes inadeque NHS. I dont want to be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak.
All I can really tell you about the hospital itself is from a patient's point of view plus a little from knowing some staff there.
It is fairly old and has had new additions added. In fact in the last 20 years the buildings have probably doubled in area. I think the thing visitors don't realise is the sheer size of Australia and our individual states. You look at a map in an atlas and it looks more or less lerge, but look on a map of the entire world and look how many times you can fit the entire U.K. into one of our smaller states ad you will get what I mean.
For example, yesterday I drove up to Shute Harbour to check my yacht and pump out a mate's yacht after all the rain and floods we've had lately. Being summer here, it has rained heavily for a few weeks and huge areas of the state have been seriously flooded. We did around 370 kilometres yesterday afternoon for the round trip. For us it is just a normal drive to the next reasonable sized town and back, but in Europe we would have traversed several states.
The Mackay Base Hospital services that radius and more around the city. Because of the amount of traffic there is quite a lot of road trauma from MVAs. As I think I mentioned earlier I suffered more than a dozen fractures plus other injuries in one accident.
While I may have an issue with the attitude of one or two orthopods (you know the ones - "I didn't have the intelligence to pass the cabbie's exam nor the dexterity to lay bricks, so I became a surgeon") that were at the hospital at that time, I have always previously found the levels of care at the hospital to be excellent.
I can't tell you a lot about the internal politics (without revealing my sources) but I can say there are a lot of people working there from outside Australia and that probably gives you a bit of a social advantage.
I have had no experience in recent years of the paediatric area - my son it 27 now. I currently have a friend she suffers Crohn's disease and is having a hard time with the pregnancy. She is receiving excellent care, although I am aware that there is a deficiency of staff and training levels there through one incident the other day when a filter was left off a line. It was noticed and rectified and the nurse reminded how important these things are pretty quickly, without the nurse being made to look like an idiot.
As I write this it is 26 degrees in what used to be my office. It will be a humid day after the rain we've had for the last few days.
When you do arrive, one thing you might consider early is buying a clothes dryer. If we get a normal wet season like this the air is a bit damp for a while after. Can make drying a little difficult. Generally though, the temp in a 'normal' year should be around 25 degrees Cels. most days. In an abnormal year the temps this time of year will be higher. While you will get used to the daytime heat fairly quickly you should make sure your accommodation has air conditioned bedrooms.
Coming off a shift at the hospital you are going to want to sleep, so aircon running on low in the bedroom will help you settle into a sleep in daytime of night time. Many houses and flats here have ceiling fans which keep the air moving.
ANY tropical area takes time to get used to, but it is worth it. I grew up in Victoria. Similar climate to the U.K. I came here for a holiday in the 70's, lived in various places around the country and returned here. My ex wife lives upstairs here and is a Scot who spent most of her life in Wales. She heads over there for visits but would never go back to live. We have her rellies visiting again from Wales this year. They are hooked on the place.
As far as places to go are concerned, there are some lovely spots within a pleasant drive. I am still putting together an online album. Because I spend so much time out of town I have few photos of the place itself, so a current project is to take a heap of pics of in and around Mackay itself for you guys. Hopefully whet your appetite a little.
hi ross my name is joanne my husband james! we are on the move to makay in the nxt couple of mnths you threads are great ,very interesting just wondering if i too could see the photos you are going to send erma? thanks jo
Hi Joanne, I'm a nurse from Stoke on Trent looking to move to Oz very soon, I have had some interest in my cv from Mackay Base and was hoping we could share our experiences etc, Cheers Fiona
