kdyer12

IME you wont find accommodation until you get here. Accommodation in Katherine can be found, but estate agents will not take you seriously until you are physically in town. Then there is the matter of what you are looking for. A typical 3 bed house, with no frills will set you back $420 a week approx. Then you need to find the bond, about 4 weeks rent, plus a month in advance. There is a lot of competition for properties, since there are so many people looking for rentals, and the education dept have sucked up a lot of them, to house teachers. But it is not impossible, but you will have to register with all agents, Ray White, LJ Hooker and Elders and keep ringing them. Get your lightweight/summer clothing in the UK. It is pricey and expensive here, and poor quality. Get a car as soon as you can, even a short walk in the hot sun can be painful. and, do not think things happen fast in Katherine.......things all take time, post, tradies, all have long wait lists, sometimes for weeks and months, which can be a problem when the aircon goes up the tubes. That all said, it is a wonderful place to live and enjoy life!!

There are no good and bad areas in Katherine, just good and bad in all areas. If you have transport, try to get out North or South a bit. Katherine East has the most properties, we lived there for a year before buying remote. It was a bit noisy, but no damage and the people are friendly, just a different life style. Its difficult to get rental properties in Katherine, take a look on the Elders Katherine Website, they are a local estate agent also try LJ Hooker. I doubt they will list you until you get here though. Basically you take what you can get at the time, but there are some nice properties, and you will have to keep hastling. By your summer clothe in the UK. They cost a lot here and the quality is crap. Bring your own stuff if you can, but be aware that some furniture will not stand the heat and humidity. The glue melted on our dinning chairs brought from the UK. WE used a company called Britannia removals, but I don't know if they service Glasgow. Finally prepare yourself for a slow pace of life, lohg waits for postage and ordered items, but remember that there is little choice, so you won't spend any money and you will save loads if you are workingken

We don't use the term ABO here in Katherine, the traditional owners prefer to be called Aboriginal or Indigenous Australians. But you make your point, by and large they live their lives their own way, and at times this can be refreshing. Many of them share what little they have, family come first, and they don't waste valuable resources, often only killing what they need to eat. I for one have learnt from them, and in particular how little you really need to live. As in any society, there will of course be the minority who do very little, live off the state and have little respect for anyone. But by and large the majority are decent friendly people, who allow us to live on their land and are happy to be part of something that is called the NT

Google Tigers11, they are a discount 4 by 4 company, they do just about the best deal.

Depends on what you are using it for, where you are travelling in Australia and how much you want to spend. We have 3 tents that we use for different things, a Black Wolf 6 man tent that we take out if we are going to be at the same site for more than a few days. It's comfortable, roomy, built for Australian conditions and we have been in this tent when it has rained continuously for days and it never let in a single drop. Black Wolf tents cost though, about 1300 dollars, but it is made of rip stop canvas with high quality mozzie screen doors and windows. We have a roof top tent that we plonk on the fourby, for when we are off roading. Great if you are a bit worried about snakes crocs etc, and very comfortable. Again, these are rip stop and are good in very hot States. Downside is getting up and down the ladder to visit theloo in the night. Upside, you can camp almost anywhere. These cost from around 1100 dollars, and you can buy all sorts of addons. Our third tent is an umbrella tent. Called so because all the fibre glass poles are integral and you just snap it open. Great to throw in the boot for a quick night under the stars. WE only use it when the weather is guaranteed to be good, but we do have the flysheet just in case. It takes up no room and is very light, cost about 300 dollars and about 80 for thr flysheet

You will be fine. Living and working here in Katherine is dependent on your life experience, your age and maturity and your life style. we emigrated to Melbourne in 2008, and 3 years there was a time we did not enjoy. We may almost as well stayed in the UK, busy noisy, packed trains, traffic jams. The only difference being a bit warmer, and sometimes dryer. We did a 6 week 4WD tour of the NT, from Alice Springs to Darwin, and fell in love with Katherine. We loved it so much, we got jobs in Katherine and came up for a trial of six month last January. We bought a house just outside Katherine 6 weeks ago, with 20 acres of land.....our widest dream. We have occasional shopping trips to Darwin, and to visit our daughter in Melbourne, but we always love coming back. Alice feels threatening, just because of the amount paramilitary looking people, armed cars out and about after dark, but it is safe in the tourist spots. Katherine has a much gentler feel to it. We treat the local people with respect and they do the same to us, in fact the tourists from down south can be far more of a threat with their unrealistic demands on a small town. I work with 98 per cent Aboriginal people and we get on really well. It's a case of respecting their culture, and believe me, we have learnt a lot from them. As you say in previous posts, some parts of UK cities are no go areas, but we go to the golf club, the RSL and to friends houses, not the town pub! If you like beautiful scenery, have a sense of adventure, don't mind waiting for things and have a good relationship when the monsoons are here, you will love it. NT stands for....Not Today, Not Tomorrow, Not Tuesday, Not Thursday , Not hHis week, Not This month Not This year.....get the drift.....if you are not working in Katherine,....you don't want a job. Furniture can be hard to get, expensive and very little choice, if you can, have yours shipped, it will for definite be better quality. Get rid of all your heavy clothing and stock up on shorts and T shirts, they cost here too, and you may change 3 times a day. My wife still imports her undies from M&S, it's cheaper. Cars cost here too, if you can buy in Darwin, do so. Accomodation is hard to get, they want a12 month commitment if you find one. Take your time adjusting, you will enjoy it. If you want more info them PM me Ken