Petals

The plant at Carrum is not a water works its a sewerage plant and my late husband worked there for 30 years. It does pong when the wind gets up at times and depends where you live around there. Its a huge plant and takes all the sewerage for most of Melbourne below the Yarra River. I found on the freeway sometimes the Gathercoles slaughter house smelt too of chlorine type smell. I live on the Mornington Peninsula and that was fine for us as only a short run for my husband to get to work. Patterson Lakes can be very windy before we moved to the Peninsula we lived in Edithvale and we found that it was quite windy as its very flat around there.

Getting accommodation with animals can be a little harder, they have laws that allow you to have pets but its the landlord who makes the final decision. Also dogs are not as free here as they are in the UK, they are not allowed in pubs or shops or on transport unless they are guide dogs. In the summer they can go to the beach before 9am and after dark in the evening but on a lead unless the beach is leash free. There are dog parks around though where people take their dogs to exercise etc. Houses are more expensive to rent than apartments. Have a look on realestate.com.au for rental in areas such as Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Prahran, St Kilda Elwood these areas are handy for Port Melbourne. Also look at the public transport site for Melbourne and follow the Frankston line out as it runs along the beach if you want beach.

Come live in Victoria we do not have all these trading restrictions and never have had .

Seems this is something we have to put up with. Anywhere with tourist potential has these properties. On the Mornington Peninsula here in Victoria there are many disgruntled retirees who complain to the paper and the council etc. Also blocks of units, it might look nice to downsize into the city into a nice unit, only to find that most of the units are air bnbs these days. Its a modern problem and what is the answer. Move to acreage at least they are not right next door, of course that is not possible for most people. Its just a shame that these days people do not respect other people and have no consideration.

I am pleased this has happened. I am sorry for those of my compatriots who want to use this visa but its not good for Australia. Its not good for a lot of people who have this visa. I see weeping, moaning etc in the news about how we cannot survive without this visa and then I think on. My daughter two degrees on low pay, why because she got ill and had to take 2 years out of work. So hard to get back into a job. We used tor train people in Australia, take then from uni or TAFE and give them a go, but with this visa it stopped. Everyone wants experience. So you are a migrant you come here you bring up your family and then you find that even if they are educated its hard for them to get a job, experience, well where do the people get the experience who come here on these visas. In their own country that still trains people. Getting a degree, diploma shows that you are able to have stickability. However people only start to learn when someone give them a go despite the weight of education behind it. So good lets train those many many graduates and young people wanting a trade.

Its not a bad wage a lot of people earn a lot less but being Australians they can manage on less as they have family etc. Probably both have to work, rents are expensive for good property unless you go to the fringe of the city. Then you have the added burden of commuting and paying to get to work. Melbourne is a huge place with four million people so you can live a long way away from where you work. Not like UK in distances at all. We think nothing of driving for an hour to get somewhere in Melbourne. As the wage includes super then you will have less than 85000. Have a look on realestate.com.au at property rentals this should give you some idea. A lot of Brits are moving to the western areas of Melbourne as the housing is new and more affordable. Point Cook, Tarneit etc. Cranbourne in the south East is also cheaper. All fringe areas.

I lived in Sydney for a few years and then moved to Melbourne. Melbourne is not as scenic and the centre can be described as bricks and mortar dull. However there is no comparison to the lifestyle. I was single then and when my friends and i moved to Melbourne it was so much easier to get somewhere to live. The places we had lived in Sydney at the time, Neutral Bay, McMahons Point had been furnished apartments. Much more choice in Melbourne. Still here after all this time and still think its the best place to live out of the larger cities. I will probably move at some stage but it will be up to the Murray or somewhere like that, somewhere where I can get back to Melbourne.

Sign of the times, its not just nurses, its teachers, it specialists, lawyers, business degrees, etc. There is an over supply as more and more young people go to university. A degree is now requested to do anything. The real winners are the young who have been able to get a trade apprenticeship. Unfortunately where once it was very easy to get a trade apprenticeship, this is no longer the case due to the changes in work place management. Businesses no longer want to take on expense of training people and expect everyone to have experience. When the government was in charge of the electricity, gas, water, trains and other public entities, many young people were taken on as apprentices. This all stopped with the selling up and shake up and down sizing of government and putting into the hands of the private world. Now we have 17% youth unemployment where I live. Graduates are finding that its difficult to get a job without experience and no business wants to give them the opportunity to get it. Teachers all on contracts, nurses in banks, employed to be on the ward you stay on, no moving around for experience these days. Doom and gloom yes it is, the only way it will change is if they stop this stupid idea that trickle down works. It works flowing upwards but there is no downhill with money. To the OP you have a degree but now you need to add to it, a masters a phd, or some diploma that is what is happening now to get the edge. Also the debt that students owe will never be repaid. My daughter has two degrees and through no fault of her own she became ill and had to take 2 years out of work to recover and she has never made it up. She owes a lot of money in hecs and looking like it will never get repaid. All this came about from people who had free education.

Its ok wanting to get skilled workers,however we have a glut of graduates and under employed people here in Australia desperately wanting to get experience and a job. Any measure that will assist Australians to get work is good. Maybe its not good for people on here at present, however if you come and get permanent residence, bring up your family here, educate your family here, do you not want them to be able to get experience and a job. With all the skill importation its driving ordinary young Australians out of the work force. 17% unemployment here on the Mornington Peninsula. Also so many people under employed and they are not mentioned in figures.

I have lived in Sydney and Melbourne and much prefer Melbourne. Its the lifestyle that is so good, there is something for everyone and every interest and sport. All are catered for. I have lived in Balaclava, Elwood, Caulfield, Edithvale and the Mornington Peninsula and I love all the places I have lived. 30 years in this house and, yep its got busier but that is because there are 2 million more people here than there were in the 80's. People in Australia move to Melbourne for the lifestyle.

They are wanting to stop the visa leading to permanent residence. It will be well accepted by many Australians looking for work.

We paid the higher levy it was still cheaper that way. Check on that because they have or are changing it now so that people would stop taking out junk health care and using the public system.

However if you do not use your health insurance count up the cash you spend over the years, its a lot more than waiting until you actually need the private system i e older and needing joints etc. We dropped ours for along time and we did not take up the lifetime system when it came in, why because we felt as though a gun was over our head and we did not like the way it was done. Anyway I took out health insurance when I needed my knee replaced and I have it now and I have to pay the loading but goodness me its a drop in the ocean to what we would have paid, paying in case. If you are hurt at work or in a car you are covered anyway, if you have an emergency, they do not take you to a private hospital they take you to a public one. Private likes us oldies, not much trouble. If we have a really serious problem in a private hospital they move us to the public. They did that to my Dad, one day in private had an op and they said we cannot look after you here, you have to in the public hospital. He did and my mum got bills for gap fees for months from the public hospital.

Pensioners and low income people have a health care card and they are entitled to a free gov type hearing aids every three years. Also they get their attendances paid for by medicare. Most ancillary medical is in private hands these days. The gov does handle at hospitals etc and your daughter may be referred by a doctor to a hearing clinic, depending on the condition. People take out health insurance extras but personally I think you pay more than you get in the long run. The health system is very good with children with any sort of condition. I can only speak for myself as my daughter became a type 1 diabetic at 11 and was looked after in the health care system very well. In fact she was in an adolescent clinic until she turned 25. Prescriptions are not free here and average about 32 dollars per scrip per month unless pensioner or health care card holder. Not all our doctors bulk bill, some do, at my clinic the present rate for an appointment is $70.00 and we get $36.00 approx back from medicare. There are a lot of bulk billing doctors around though, then you do not have to pay. If her specialists think it may rectify itself, why not wait until the time comes. Do not fear the medical system, I actually prefer it as we have a choice of doctor, we can go to who we like. Choice of specialist usually by your local GP and no zoned hospital type system.

Have you been to Cranbourne shopping centre lately Starlight. Its much different to how it was a while back. Its very nice actually, my friend and I often pop over there. Also there are many other shopping centres in Cranbourne these days. I have friends who live in Cranbourne West, hence my 5 loos post and they like it a lot. So central to everything. Get on the freeways Monash and Eastlink easy, Dandenong for the Market, Beaches not far away. Very different these days.

and when there is five loos in the house its a lot of flushing ha ha

Also consider 80,000 is not a high salary, living in Melbourne is extremely expensive. You will need two incomes with that salary. Depends how much rent you want to pay how near you will be able to live to the central business district. Flats are cheaper than houses but still expensive. My daughter pays $500.00 a week for a tiny workers cottage and cannot swing a cat in it. Anything that is newish with heating and cooling at a price of say 400 is a long way out on the fringe of the city. House prices in 10 km radius are all over a million. My friend's son just paid 1.8 million for a house on a 300 sq metre block and it needs knocking down. They will need to spend big on extending and fixing it up. Have a look at realestate.com.au, also have your oh look at Seek to see what jobs are available. Also look yourself to see if you are going to be paid enough. Remember you have to stay with this visa and its a long time if you are struggling on the pay. Yes by all means take the plunge but its not easy being a migrant. English people cop abuse especially in the health system and its not much different to UK in that regard.

Yep, but what about the infrastructure, they never role it out at the same time. So you move to the knew suburb and when your children leave school we get infrastructure in the suburb. We got a primary school and a high school where I live after my children had left school.

Who knows what will happen with this Visa, its not popular with Australians as they see these visas as taking away locals jobs. So when elections come around things can change. There are posts about working as a social worker on this site, a lot have come a lot have not liked the system. Its very different evidently from the UK system. Permanent visa is the best way to go. Government jobs are no longer safe, they are putting people all on contract these days so that they can drop them when they want to and not have to pay them out. I know this because my daughter works for one of the ombudsmen and they all use contracts now. No jobs for life anymore, its all short term, teaching, everywhere.

Herd immunity is already being eroded. We have more measles now than for a long long time. The anti vaxers think that natural immunity is best, some will have natural immunity, I have it to Rubella, Measles, Chicken Pox, Mumps and TB but I was a lucky child I did not get particularly ill with any of these diseases. Many children and adults are not so lucky and we do not here about them in the papers. Measles can lead to rheumatic heart condition. My father was severely affected by measles as a child and very very ill, fortunately he survived and was not left with long term problems. I worry for my daughter as they is my child and even though grown I do not want her to have survived this long with brain cancer to be taken by a preventable disease.

Libs are in with the supposed good times, then labour gets voted in to try and fix the mess that has been made. Impossible of course and then people think, oh libs were better which is not true.

Its all about me, that is the problem. What the non vaxers do not realise is that people with compromised immune systems catch these diseases and spread them. My daughter who was vaccinated against measles got infected late last year in Melbourne. I knew it was measles because I have had it, however because she had been vaccinated the doctors did not think it was measles. So she went on around the place and then went back to the doc and they finally agreed to test her and yes she had measles. She has also had whooping cough despite being vaccinated. This is because her immune system is compromised by her type 1 diabetes and the chemo she had for brain cancer. Another person has contracted measles just this weekend in Melbourne. So the genie is out out the bottle now and we reap what we sow.

As I am not Asian its hard to answer this one. I do know that there are people who are racist and rude, my daughter worked in an Asian restaurant whilst at university and people were often rude to her employers. So cannot say that there is no prejudice by some people. I also have a friend who is half Thai and she lives in Brisbane and very educated lady and she does get discrimination as well sometimes. However this happens all over the world, not just here. I think as people lose their jobs and things become more expensive in all western countries there are those that blame the new comers. However as has been said if you get a job speak English, attend anything you are invited to when you first come here then things fall into place. People are not against individuals its usually a group thing that makes them hit out. Poms get a blasting just the same as any other race, and more than some.

I am a a widow not on a pension and I run two cars, have a large property and two large dogs and four cats and I do what I like and I guess I spend around the average for comfortable which Skani put up. Petrol is cheaper here, you can spend a lot on food by going to the local supermarket or shop around at farmers markets etc. Brisbane particularly has lots of cheap fruit and veg places where you can stop and buy. Being a warmer climate more options for eating out cheaply as well. Once people turn 60 they are entitled to a seniors card and this gives reductions in lots of shops etc, pictures and other places. We all have cut our coat according to the cloth.

I had my knee replaced in 2012 privately and I was heavy at the time. After having the operation I decided that I did not want to have to have another replacement so I had a gastric sleeve and lost the weight. I now feel confident that my knee will see me out and my other knee which needs replacing may also see me out before time for an op. So weight reduction is the answer in the long run, your friend will get a better outcome if he/she lost weight with new knees.