NigelWaring

Back in the 70s an NZ$ would buy about AUD$1.08 but it didn't seem to help with the economy as far as plebs were concerned.

I got on the wrong plane and lived in NZ for four years (I even have citizenship), before coming to Australia in 74. Then everything was incredibly expensive and everyday things were in short supply, they protected local industries by import licensing and huge tariffs. Since living in Australia I've been back to New Zealand many times and then I found food and accommodation a bit cheaper than Australia, much else cost more. We both found the local fresh food to be very good, the eggs had a great taste as did many other things. In the early days I was still a carnivore and remember eating good venison at very reasonable prices. Car hire was very expensive in the early days but it gradually reached about the same rates as Australia. We've visited most areas at least twice and for us the must see places are Queenstown and Bay of Islands.

Our deep fryer is just about finished and needs to be mended with a new one. We hope to pop out to Erina Fair, Central Coast on Monday to buy a replacement. I've just been searching for what is available and found several references to Digital Air Fryers, there's a lot said about them but not really much useful information, they work with little oil and are supposed to be healthy. The cost is quite high but if they are good we don't mind that. Has anyone here got one? What are they like? Are you glad that you bought it? Should we stay with another deep fryer? It seems that they may need a bit of practice to get things right, might need some skill at selecting the best temperature/time for whatever is being cooked.

You can move your phone number to any network at no extra charge. I have a Vodaphone number which has been running on Optus for years. My supplier is Savytel, their credit never expires, I hardly use my phone so never go through more than $50 a year. You only seem to need a temporary phone, plenty of basic ones available from shopping centres and big stores like JB Hifi, Harvey Norman, etc, just like someone else said may sure they are unlocked, I've seen basic ones for around $70.

Yes, internet is now an important part of our lives and has to be considered but there are probably many other things that newcomers should look at. When we first came together we were looking to buy a unit in a major town, Hornsby, one estate agent said "why not look at Cowan, you can buy a house for the same price". The only house available went right away because few want to leave the suburb so we ended up buying a block of land and had a project home built on it, here that means something like an inexpensive Wimpey house. All that happened more than 30 years ago and we've loved living here since, we did think of moving recently to something nearer to the shops but gave up and have decided to extend to make things more comfortable. We've loved living here and hope to stay much longer but it does have some disadvantages. One of the first things that we noticed was shopping, we only have one car and my wife does not drive so when I swerved to avoid a kangaroo, braked hard on the accelerator and put the car in the panel-beaters for almost five months we had a problem. Our nearest shops were in Hornsby and public transport is not the best in this area, we found that instead of doing one big weekly shop we had to call in on the way home from work about three times a week, shopping seemed to dominate our lives for several months all because the shops were so far away. Things have improved considerably since then, the Hornsby shopping centre was redeveloped, we now have Coles, Woolworths and ALDI supermarkets along with both DJs and Meyers Department stores but these are smaller versions of the real thing and range of goods is limited, we also have both K-Mart and Target, all this competition definitely does keep some prices down. We used to visit Byron Bay a lot, my in-laws lived there and it was quite noticeable how much the only supermarket was able to ask, similarly even in the Metro area of Sydney, about five kms from Hornsby there's a suburb with just one of the big two supermarkets and the higher prices are quite noticeable especially on fresh fruit and vegetables. Our other big problem was finding tradesmen, you'd call one on the phone and he'd nominate a date and time to give us a quote, this would usually mean one of us having to take a day off work, they'd never turn up and never let you know what had happened, often they would hang up if you tried to call them again, this was not an isolated incident it happened over and over again with plumbers, electricians, carpenters and anyone connected with home maintenance in general, even when you had a quote and agreed to pay cash they would not turn up to do the work. It probably took us about 15 years to make contact with reliable tradesmen, we are now OK with them but it is something to consider if you buy in a remote area. Even now we have some difficulties, we like to travel a lot which means trips to the airport, it's on the other side of Sydney to us, a taxi costs around $180 so we end up going by train with our suitcases, it takes a while and if we have an early flight we have to stay overnight at the airport hotel, that is a luxury that we enjoy though. When we first arrived in Cowan many Metropolitan trains terminated here so we had three trains an hour, two metropolitan ones and one inter-urban, state rail then decided to terminate all Metro Trains at Berowra 5 kms away so we ended up with just one train an hour, around lunchtime it can be more than an hour and sometimes you get the announcement that "this train is cancelled for today only". Public Transport is important especially if you have children, we don't but we do see neighbours more or less running a taxi service to take their children to school, sporting and even social events, when I was growing up I walked or got a bus, my parents never had a car. The other thing people with children should consider is schools, we live in a great little hamlet of about 180 houses but I don't think we have the best of education, there is a small school but it has composite classes, that means children of different ages are in the same class, many parents send their children to schools in other suburbs, there are free buses to transport them but it makes a much longer day. The next problem is when they go to High School, there does not seem to be anything in the area so some travel as much as 25 kms to get what they need. So when moving to a new suburb a family needs to consider a few things, shopping, public transport, education and availability of tradesmen. No doubt others can add to this list.

That is what I'm complaining about. TPG and iiNet can supply at that price anywhere except the five small hamlets/villages where Telstra has a monopoly because they set up a satellite rim which is the same things as fibre to the node.

I think you'll both enjoy that part of the country, it is a very nice place to live and also a good location to set off exploring, there are many interesting and enjoyable places within driving distance. In our early days we had a wonderful time camping with a few stops at YHAs which are popular with families and out of school holiday time older people, YHAs are great places to meet other people and exchange very useful ideas and information, they also save you a lot of money. There are great beaches and also bush areas well within a day's drive.

Yes, $120 is normal at this location. There are two things holding us back from getting more speed. 1 - We are in a very safe seat and it has been for many decades. 2 - Apathy, many want more speed but they will not hit the keyboard or put pen to paper. Our Federal MP and the Dept of Communications think everyone is happy with what they've got and I'm the solitary trouble-maker. Using a pocket-wifi I can get almost double the speed but it is an expensive way of doing it.

Sorry, but our Federal MP Philip Ruddock and the Minister of Communications Malcolm Turnbull did confirm that Telstra was given the monopoly because they had invested a lot of money in bringing broadband to our suburb. I recently wrote to them both and asked if the equipment could be transferred to NBN because it is identical to what they are installing, it would then give us the choice of ISPs, I also suggested that it would be a good test of Mr Turnbull's scheme for NBN, all the equipment is already there. The reply was that they could not do that because Telstra is not an NBN supplier. Other ISPs can resell Telstra's service but that is just what you get, Telstra's service is almost double what other ISPs charge, there would be no saving to us the customer. I understood that eventually all the Telstra equipment in the street, mainly the copper wire would be sold to NBN, seems this doesn't include our fibre to the node.

The Internet can be a big issue if you live in an area where Telstra has the monopoly as they do in our hamlet, they are the only company that can supply real broadband at around 20 Mbps, all the other ISPs are limited to 8 Mbps. We have a fibre that runs from the telephone exchange in the next town to a couple of nodes in our hamlet, this is the same system than NBN will be installing all around Australia. I haven't seen it in writing but when I asked Telstra why they had a monopoly I was told that they were given it because they had carried the very high cost of installing the fibre to the node. We are supposedly in the Sydney Metropolitan Area but we do not have have the competition. Our ISP was TPG, a great firm to deal with and very reliable, they now offer Unlimited Internet plus telephone including local, national and 100 minutes of international for $66.99 per month but we have to stick with the Telstra Monopoly which costs us over $120 per month plus cost of all calls. Incidentally we are very lucky because we are around 80 metres from the node and can hit 20 Mbps sometimes, many others further away are not able to achieve this. At peak times we notice the speed slowing down. We look forward to NBN being able to provide us with some competition.

Some parts of Tugun might be a bit close to the airport flight paths but don't worry about Brisbane, you'll be far enough away for it not to cause any problems. From Tugun it should be as easy as anywhere to get to other parts of GC. Try visiting The Spit before the developers wreck it.

Welcome James. Judging by the help that many others have got I'd say this forum is probably as useful as any official help site or those people that you pay money to for advice, it may not replace them but is certainly complimentary and is based mainly on peoples' real experiences. I can't really answer your questions but someone else might be able to advise you on getting exemptions because of any existing qualifications, certainly a lot of overseas qualifications are recognised.

We hit 42C in our hamlet but I think it only went to 39C in Sydney. Stephen, I like your signature. There is a variation on that one "Work" is a dirty 4 letter word ending in K.

Sometimes I think that the US system is the most efficient in the world; that is at making a profit. Medically the Oz and US standards are about the same. The advantage for Australians is that there is some form of control on health insurance and the running of private hospitals, at the moment we seem to have it about as right as it can practically be but we need to be constantly vigilant to maintain what we have got. We certainly don't want our health systems to head down the same path as our aged care systems where huge profits are made by providers for very poor services.

I have private cover and had a rhinoplasty a few years ago, I had to wait nearly two weeks to have it done.

I've been here since 74 and have not really had any serious problems with Australian Healthcare. Mosts of the doctors, specialists, nurses and other medical people have been great. There have been the odd difficult and inconsiderate specialists who think that they have the right to keep you waiting for more than an hour with out explanation but the majority are OK. Two of the specialists that I used have been struck off but that can happen anywhere.

When I arrived in Australia, forty years ago, the vast majority of the population was vehemently opposed to Nuclear Power, the governments listened and went down another path. It is possible to build a coal power station that with modern technology including sequestration that does not produce any harmful gasses etc but this will not be done unless it is controlled by strictly enforced legislation. The cost of sequestration is far less than storing the radio-active by-products for 256,000 years. We certainly do not want the type of coal power stations that are reported as being built at the rate of one a week in China using the old technology. In about another fifty years we might be on the edge of introducing nuclear fusion, this could be considered as a useful power source because it produces very little radio active waste

I cannot understand why folk enjoy the smell of stale and rancid fat, must be the promise of what is to follow.

Lemony, you don't need any presents, you are now their rich aunty/uncle, brother/sister, cousin in Australia. My Mother once told me that, that was how they described me.

Congratulations LKC, it is so nice to read such a positive thread. Not only is Australia well & truly my home but I also support the local teams in all sporting events including the Ashes and not just when they are winning. I do visit UK often but honestly it is now a foreign country to me after 40+ years.