Eera

Hi I'm in Mackay and I have an autistic brother, though he's always been in NSW and things may have changed significantly since he was at school. As a family we found that autism support in Australia was not good compared to the UK; over there he had support, case workers, residential special schooling and adult employment support. In Australia he was given a disability pension and basically left at home. However, in recent years Centrelink has been volunteering to give him other means of support, such as a money referral support so that anyone chasing money off him has to go through Centrelink to get approval - the idea is people can't rip him off for being naive with money - though he's tight as a duck's bum in winter so that's not really necessary. There's also the NDIS which he's been accepted for; we don't know what exactly that's going to provide long term yet, it might be a part time carer or similar. Now, specifically for Mackay; the school my boys go to has a special needs unit, and indeed a colleague with an autistic son was referred to this school because they are set up to deal with kids who need a bit more intervention. I don't know how many other schools around have a similar unit but there is support locally. Can I ask what you find too quiet where you are? If your kids like sport there's more than a hundred clubs to choose from; mine do Little Athletics but you'll find pretty much all martial arts, all forms of ball sports, everything to do with water (though not surfing, the Barrier Reef stops that, we have pretty flat sea), dressage, go-karting, drag racing. You name it. You'll likely find summer weather horrible compared to NZ. Our summer is like you'd get in Singapore - we are in the tropics after all, but winter is glorious and that's when most of the sporting season is. We don't have the brights lights of Brisbane, but Mackay is one of the largest cities outside the southern corner so we aren't exactly lacking in facilities. Rents are currently pretty cheap though there's a couple of major long-term infrastructure jobs which will probably push them up in the coming years. Crime is pretty low overall though there is an ice issue, but that's being found increasingly everywhere. It's been nearly 100 years since anyone was eaten by a crocodile locally, but stingers are an issue in summer, though the lifeguards drag the water and close the beaches if anything nasty comes in. The beaches are uncrowded, there's plenty of boat ramps and fishing facilities and good, locally grown food. Let me know specifically what you're after and I'll answer honestly, pm me if you don't want to post here.

Never had an issue with Flight Centre and they've always honoured their price match. They aren't perfect and will certainly try and flog their own insurance products to you, but they've also always taken care of me and have generally been pretty good to deal with. I wonder with the poster above the timing comes into it; to get the fare match you have to come in *on the same day* with a quote that's been taken all the way through to the payment page otherwise it's not considered valid. I've done that numerous times and they've always matched it; the advantage of doing that is that they also waive any credit card fees as the price has to match no matter what your payment method is.

Things are not so dire (at the moment) In Queensland coal; there is, at least temporarily, an upturn in the industry and several sites are recruiting greenskin (inexperienced) operators again. Saying that, they come through labour hire companies like Workpac so there's every chance that come the next blip they'll be laid off. Personally I've recently worked on the preliminaries of four new mine projects within three hours of me - we are at the stage of designing haul roads and hard infrastructure so they are pushing ahead. You tend to get the booms when construction is on the go and that's probably the time your tickets might be of use; under our legislation ( which is possibly different in WA) while a site is under construction you require civvie tickets, when it turns into a mine proper they become irrelevent and you need the RII mining ones. But again, you'd have to see if you can convert your tickets over through an RTO who may charge a motza to do so, and unless you have a visa already you may not be given the chance. Other avenues you might explore could include large international project management companies like Bechtel who seems able to get their workers on major projects anywhere in the world.

We've had success with noise prosecutions. Our ones have tended to be against corporations making nuisance noises - we once had a brothel complaining that an engineering company was doing to much night testing in the vicinity and the vibrations were upsetting the customers (!) - but talking to a consultant who specialises in it will give the OP an indication of his chances. Can't speak for everyone but we don't get involved in it if we don't think there's a valid complaint simply as it wastes our resources and the client's money.

Hi. Dunno if you've seen the fairly recent thread on Mackay, it might have been started by Paige. There are areas of Rural View and the Northern Beaches to be avoided, I spoke about them in that thread so won't repeat it now. Rentals are easy to come by presently though the market is picking up; I've just raised rents in two of my places for the first time in 4 years. $100k is easily livable at the moment. If you want to know anything specific about areas and what facilities are there drop me a pm.

We actually do monitoring for nuisance noise, the stuff we do comes under the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (or DEHP / DERP or whatever they are called this week in QLD, changes regularly). You can seek a noise abatement order, which our monitors are there to provide the info for. The landlord is then responsible otherwise they get prosecuted. You'd want to talk to an environmental consultant. It ain't the cheapest thing in the world to get the monitoring done (anywhere between 2-4K depending on how long the monitors are in use for), but if it's seriously bothersome it's probably worth the investment, especially if you can get your neighbours on board.

We don't have daylight savings in Queensland, and being low latitude there's less variation through the year. As others have said, you don't get the long twilight hours in summer, but neither it is sunset at 4pm in winter.. There's a lot of us here who have never encountered dengue fever or anything else, so don't worry about the mozzies.

Quick google says this: Queensland residents travelling interstate If you are a Queensland resident and you receive an invoice for pre-hospital medical care provided to you by another State/Territory Service, you are requested to forward the invoice, along with evidence that you were a Queensland resident at the time of the interstate treatment/transport to : Queensland Ambulance Service Governance and Management Services Unit GPO Box 1425 BRISBANE QLD 4001 The Queensland Ambulance Service will then make the necessary arrangements for the invoice to be paid on your behalf. Ambulance isn't free in Queensland, we pay it as part of our electric bill for some reason.

It wasn't and still isn't a condition of emigration that you had to renounce your British citizenship - had your mother done that she would have been granted a certificate that states she was no longer a citizen of Britain. If she was a British citizen, got on a boat and became a permanent resident of Australia, she's still a British citizen unless she's made an effort to renounce it. What's your date of birth? If it's after 1983 you'd likely be a citizen by descent. If you're unsure send an email to the UK immigration people, they are very helpful - I had to query whether I was a citizen or citizen by descent to see if my kids are eligible for a passport and they were very quick to respond.

My dad was in the same sort of boat; came out in the mid 60's, only took out citizenship a couple of years ago. No, he didn't hand in his passport when he arrived. He was a permanent resident in Australia all that time, but a British citizen.

Hey Sueandave. thanks for replying. So far it looks like I'm going to limit our time to around Tokyo as I'd prefer to see more of a single area than try and spread ourselves too thin, got a sweet apartment in the guts of Shinjuku for a week. I'm considering just doing day trips radiating out so the kids get to go on the bullet train (who am I kidding; so *I* get to go on the bullet train), we will then go skiiing for a week, which is why we are there. I'm thinking more of doing a stopover in either Singapore or Hong Kong just to break the journey up. Still waiting to see who is going to have the most convenient flights so I'll base it around that more than anything.

I live in Rural View, and I recommend parts of it. There's an awful new estate that was put in a few years back (Plantation Palms) that has tiny blocks, no offset between houses and a hideous one way system. They've also redrawn boundaries so Blacks Beach Cove is part of Rural View - AVOID! I'd probably also tend to avoid the newer estates like Richmond and Settlers Rise as they have no infrastructure there an you need a car to get everywhere. The more established areas at least have bus routes and shops. Mackay Council has one of the best publically-available GIS systems in Australia, it's called MiMaps Mackay (google it, it's got a .gov address so I can't remember it off the top of my head) You can find all the info you need such as public facility locations, bus routes, flood maps etc on it. Some areas are low-lying and flood prone. Sports facilities are pretty good. My boys both take part in Little Athletics, there's great swimming coaching and all sorts of sports; at this year's sports sign-on day there was something like 100 different clubs represented. We are also about to start construction on a proper running track and athletics facility, and 50m pool which should be completed end of next year. Right now weather is perfect; mid teens at night, mid twenties during the day. During the Wet it can be hideous; think of the sort of weather that Singapore or Bangkok gets and you won't be far wrong, we are in the tropics though so it's to be expected. You basically just get on with it during these times. We are within the Barrier Reef area and don't get any surf. There are lifesavers around and while the beaches look marvellous, we do get a lot of box jellyfish and other stingers, so only swim where the lifesavers have dragged the water and declared it safe. On the plus side it's coming up for the 100-year anniversary since anyone was eaten by a crocodile in town. People either love living here, or hate it. It's not Melbourne, but there's everything you need (assuming designer clothes and symphonic orchestras don't feature high on your list of requirements). The town is traditionally a sugar-farming town, but has been supported by coal mining for the last couple of decades. There was a huge downturn a couple of years ago, but the radio said yesterday that Mackay now has the lowest unemployment in regional Queensland, plus the mines are back up to full capacity and there are four new ones in a 3 hour radius of town, going in over the next couple of years that is promoting a huge amount of optimism. Please feel free to pm me if you want specific information about anything.

I have a hybrid suitcase; wheelie for most of the time but has built-in harness for when backpack is required. Mine is from Kathmandu and it is absolutely magic, except I strongly recommend getting one in the sales as they charge ridiculous full prices.

Look up a "statute barred debt" and see if it applies to you. Essentially, most debts cannot legally be pursued after 6 years of you not acknowledging them, with some exceptions.

Second that as above. My uni was a former poly but had the best employment in the country for my course as employers liked the more hands-on approach. I also see it with friends in med school; one uni is not a top preference one but doctors love it as you're in rounds from the first year. Others are entirely theory up until year 5, so they are very much horses for courses. Saying that, I would absolutely kill to do doctorate at ANU. Their geochemistry department is a world leader!

We had to do this recently as OH's passport had around 7 months on it, but wouldn't have had 6 months remaining when we go on our upcoming overseas trip. Basically no, we didn't get credited with the extra time. His passport expired in August, and we got it reissued in February, and the expiry dates from when it was reissued in Feb. Would have left it longer except we have a trip planned and don't take chances of being denied at the airport.

As above, except that when you leave, the agent can't advertise until the end of lease waiting for someone to take it over; after 4 or so weeks if there's no interest they have to drop the advertised rate as it's not "market value" if no-one is asking about the property. You may have to pay the difference between the new lease and your up until the end of lease. That's the way my agent run the leases anyway.

There is a circumstance where you can turn right on a red light; if there's a separate turning lane that's controlled by lights, in some of them (not all), when the opposing lane is moving and you're on a red turn arrow, the red will just go out and there won't be any illuminated arrows at all. Then you can cross when safe to do so. The Bruce Highway is an absolute joke; it's a national highway that wouldn't be classed as a B road in the UK; once you get north of the Sunshine Coast there's very few dual lane bits and if you get stuck behind a convoy of caravanners or the army on the road then you may as well pull over and have a sleep somewhere. Otherwise watch out for people on roundabouts - indicators are apparently optional extras. Roos are mainly an issue at dawn or dusk, you generally won't see too many of them during the daytime. The other big (literally) thing to watch out for are wide loads,especially in the areas near mines. Truck bodies and dragline buckets can be up to 13m wide, and when the highway is only single lane you don't have a lot of wiggle room. If you see a police car driving slowly towards you in your lane then they are indicating the width of the approaching wide load. Get off the road and stay there. You'll see a pilot vehicle pass - it says "Pilot" or "Oversize Load" in a big yellow sign, then the truck carrying a wide load will go through, followed by another pilot. I've seen a few out-of-staters have some close calls as they don't know what's going on.

I have to go there on Monday to assess the lookouts for stability. Runway is too overgrown so I have to helicopter it over. No rain, please.

Me heart goes out to you and your family. I am so sorry for your loss.

Hey all. We are intending on taking the kids to Japan for a snow holiday early next year. I want to spend around 7 days in the Tokyo / Kyoto area and am just looking for some ideas to keep a 5 year old and an 8 year old entertained. Not a fan of the Disneyland thing. Anyone been there with fairly young kids? Mine like anything that explodes and makes noise, but are not really into the more quiet pursuits. I'd love to go down to Hiroshima but in reality don't have the time to go so am more looking at seeing one or two areas and not trying to fit a huge amount into a short time. Ta

Sounds odd, but the former Soviet Block countries are really coming into their own. A few years ago I flew to Helsinki, got the ferry across to Talinn then caught the local buses through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Public transport was amazing, it was cheap and looked like Prague without the hoards of tourists. Also did it as a single female and had no issues whatsoever. Also really liked Poland, got the train from Krakow to Prague, did a detour into Slovenia (or Slovakia, one of those two), and again, didn't break the bank and no issues with the local transport at all.

How long have you got? I used to do overlands a fair bit in the backpacker buses; I loved them as they were transport between places but when you got somewhere it was up to you what you did so there wasn't a package-holiday feel about it. Went through the Middle east, Africa and Russia that way. Oasis Overland was one of the bigger companies, there were others but it's been many years since I had the freedom to do that and I don't know who's still there and where they go.

You can anticipate being able to negotiate at least 0.7% off the standard rate, more if you have a large mortgage, or more than one property. I currently get 4.00% through ANZ on a packaged variable, and 3.75% on fixed rate investor. Smaller banks and building societies you can do better through - Newcastle Permanent recently was advertising 3.60%

My company has an official name, a trading name, staff are paid under a different company name and assets are part of a separate holding company. It's not unusual at all.