Newcastle Carpentry

HI

Myself, my partner and our 2yr old daughter arrived in Newcastle on September 1st on 190 visa and after spending first two weeks sorting accomodation, cars, furniture etc. and having a lovely time looking around our new home, its time to get back to work!

I spent the last six years in the UK working as a Carpenter building bespoke, modular garden offices/granny annexes and have a level III Carpentry qualification.

I have applied for several positions and have contacted similar local businesses enquiring about potential employment but as yet have only managed to get a few replies and couple days casual work.

Most of the carpentry jobs seem to be, on paper at least, out of my skill/experience range.

So i'm putting the feelers out there on the chance someone out there would give me a start....

Would consider training/assistant roles to get foot in door.

Have detailed resume and references, white card, clean licence and basic tools for now.

Any advice for a hard working brit would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Kevin

Hey kevin welcome to newcastle! Can be real hard getting your foot in the door over here. Luckily i managed to secure employment real quick when arriving (plumber).

Get yourself out there and knock on their doors. Ring them up. They take a bit of pushing to get a few days work and go from there. Recruitment agencys are always a good place to check. Trojan is a good recruitment agent. See a lot of guys on site through them.

Dont give up. Newcastle is a great place to raise a family. I myself have two young children. Closer to christmas people are more likely to employ.

Hey swallow, thanks! We love it here, bit rainy today but didn't stop us exploring Blackbutt Reserve!

I have been chasing up leads and even wrangled a good interview for a potential great job just by rocking up to the place.

Haven't heard of Trojan till now so will give them a look. Im thinking i really need a position that has a little training involved as my previous experience was very specific to the business.

Its very laid back here and thats taking some getting used too!

Yeah very very laid back. You need to put the hours in also. Show that your worth keeping. Industry is up and down a lot. I know a lot of plumbers who have lost their jobs in the last 6 months. Lots of building work happening around town at the moment. Lots of apartments. Try central coast as well. Only an hours drive. Gotta think big now in oz. An hours commute is not out of the norm.

If you want any good ideas where to take the family let me know. Some crackers you wont find out about unless someone tells you.

I don't mind graft mate, was working 7/7 back home for petty much last year! Got White Card as soon as we got here.

I sold off all my tools before coming out, easier to carry money than wait for shipping! I've already bought a bunch of basic starter gear for the casual work. These past two weeks are the longest I've spent without work in a long time and I'm itching to get out!

Anything good for a very inquisitive two year old?? We have some english friends here already and going boating next week!

Boating sounds fun. To list just a few. Glenrock is good. Caves beach is fun to wonder around. Spears point park. New lambton park is also good. Trip down to nelson bay is nice. And tons of other things too many to list. Good to have friends already here to show you around. Where in the uk are you from?

Yes, has helped us settle in nicely. We were living in Kettering, Northants before we left

Hi Kev,

Hope you don't mind me jumping on your post. We are in similar situation to you still in UK submitted our EOI on Monday my husband is a joiner, looking at a 190 to NSW. How long roughly did NSW take to send you invitation to apply? How are you finding Newcastle husband been offered a job in Sydney we was unsure what to do or head Newcastle as heard nice and more affordable for a young family, we have 2 children also. We have a company called Hays recuirting experts worldwide a lady called Lucy (pm if you like her email) She is originally from sydeny and deals with tradies work in NSW.

How are you and your wife finding it all?? We been in the Visa process a year now lots of up and downs with it all!! But glad we got our EOI submitted now..!

Hi Laura

We are loving it here and are very happy with our choice of Newcastle.

Ok, sooo....We were originally trying to get into Perth, WA but after two years of exams, assessments, waiting, moving goalposts and more waiting, we were informed WA had once again reduced their intake and processing times!! Our super agent then suggested we try a different state. After much research we settled on NSW and in particular, Newcastle.

At the end of January 2016 we lodged EOI for NSW and TWO WEEKS later received our invitation to apply for state sponsorship, which we did. THREE WEEKS later we received our invitation to apply for the visa. We completed our medicals, police checks and dreaded Form 80 then submitted. Then on MAY 20th we received our visas!! We gave ourselves a couple of months to get ready then arrived September 1st. Its probably different for everyone but once we changed state, everything went smooth and fast!

We chose Newcastle area as we didn't want to be big city types and it looked awesome. Newcastle is undergoing major regeneration in several areas so plenty of work for trades. I've finally managed to get full time work after three weeks, its very laid back here!

Stay strong, save up and research.

Sounds really positive! Timeframe sounds great from when you submitted your EOI! Hoping ours runs as smoothly I have seen a lot of 457job for carpenter/ joiners. That is great news I wasn't sure how was in Newcastle for tradies as we had few offers Sydney way but again like you we don't want to go to a big city type!! We have friends in Perth also we talk to regularly, they love oz and have never looked back, I'm not sure about job sito there right now but NSW looks great and plenty work..Were are u from in UK were down south, we have keep in touch let u know when we head out for us be next year ;-)