Cerberus1

It wouldn't have killed me but I didn't appreciate the snake dropping out of the tree and landing on my foot a couple of days ago..

Sunset tonight over the dam just down the road.

Was at 5% when you visited @Bobj, now at 17%. A little bit more precipitation required.

Not if you can't meet the specified work in a regional area rtequirement

To apply for a second Working Holiday visa, you must have already completed three months of specified work in regional Australia. This specified work must have been completed while on your first Working Holiday visa.

Specified work is any type of work described in the list below:

• plant and animal cultivation
  • the harvesting and/or packing of fruit and vegetable crops
  • pruning and trimming vines and trees
    Note: This must be the applicants primary employment task and directly associated with the cultivation and commercial sale of plant produce, such as fruit and nut crops (commercial horticultural activities). General garden maintenance is not eligible.
  • general maintenance crop work
  • cultivating or propagating plants, fungi or their products or parts
  • immediate processing of plant products
  • maintaining animals for the purpose of selling them or their bodily produce, including natural increase 
    Note: Maintaining animals for tourism or recreational purposes is not eligible.
  • immediate processing of animal products including shearing, butchery, packing and tanning
    Note: Secondary processing of animal products, such as small goods processing and retail butchery is not eligible.
  • manufacturing dairy produce from raw material.
• fishing and pearling
  • conducting operations relating directly to taking or catching fish and other aquatic species
  • conducting operations relating directly to taking or culturing pearls or pearl shell.
• tree farming and felling
  • planting or tending trees in a plantation or forest that are intended to be felled
  • felling trees in a plantation or forest
  • transporting trees or parts of trees that were felled in a plantation or forest to the place where they are first to be milled or processed or from which they are to be transported to the place where they are to be milled or processed.
• mining
  • coal mining
  • oil and gas extraction
  • metal ore mining
  • construction material mining
  • non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying exploration
  • mining support services.
• construction

• residential building construction
• non-residential building construction
• heavy and civil engineering construction
• land development and site preparation services
• building structure services
• building installation services
• building completion services
• other construction services.

Regional areas

To get Newstart Allowance you must:

• be at least 22 and not at age pension age (65 to 67)
• meet residence rules
• be unemployed, with income or assets below a certain amount
• prove you're looking for work
• not be on strike

Residence Rules

You must be an Australian resident and be in Australia for 104 weeks before you can get Newstart Allowance.

You are an Australian resident if you live in Australia and are either:

an Australian citizen
a permanent residence visa holder, or
a protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder

You may be exempt from serving the 104 week period if you:

are an Australian citizen
arrived in Australia as a refugee
hold a specific visa subclass, or
became a single parent during the most recent period of time you have spent living in Australia

1 hour ago, samwise said:

Can I transfer my Dubai DL to SA? Or I have to do the theory and practical driving tests, and Driving classes? Any idea how much does it cost?

If you're on a temporary visa, then you don't have to -  people working in South Australia on temporary visas can drive with an overseas licence as long as that licence has not expired.

If you're a permanent resident (with a current license) & you're aged over 20, then you'll have to first pass these three tests: theory test, hazard perception test, practical driving test.

If you had a UK license (for example) you wouldn't have had to do the 3 tests, however for a UAE license, you have to do the tests.

According to the govt website, theory test is $34, hazard perception test is $30, driving license is $43 plus $17 admin.

Just have a read through https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/driving-and-transport/drivers-and-licences/drivers-licence/drivers-licence-transfer

I just picked an address there (Nepean Ave in Kingscote) & Teltra says ADSL is available at that address.

I believe that as margins are so tight for shipping companies, insurance is an important factor for them when it comes to profitability. Generally speaking, I'd imagine a high percentage of customers must take out the shipping companies own insurance due to the persuasive upselling by the rep, the idea of having everything taken care of by the same company or simply not being aware of the fact that you can take out your own insurance.

Just for info for anyone who will be shipping, the 2 major players in the UK are http://www.lettonpercival.co.uk/ & 'Insure Your Move' I believe they will both insure for people moving in both directions - From & To Australia.

Hi desreb

Thank's for sharing, useful info for some of our returning members.

Hi alisongw

Have a look at http://www.homesdownunder.com.au/  it's run by one of our forum members - @Tamara

Also, stayz.com.au is a big site

It's the various levels of insurance cover that bump it up to nearly double the cost of the car on its own. I know various credit cards are supposed to cover you, but I've always been reluctant to rely just on the cards insurance.

Having said that, when we had taken out full coverage on a hire car in Melbourne and it got hit with a lightning strike whilst in the motel carpark  and fried all the electrics, we had an almighty row with the hirecar company as they wanted to charge us thousands, saying the incident wasn't covered.

Just tagging @BobPetairUK

We’re on bore water and rainwater tanks. The bore does irrigation, toilets and a couple of other areas in the house. I know there’s iron in the water which results in some minor discoloration. 

Respect where respect is due. One tough cookie to be in shorts and t-shirt when it’s 12 degrees

1 hour ago, Guest Peachy said:

Hi 

I have often seen jobs advertised with QHealth out at Ipswich too, but unless you are keen to live in the area, and involve yourself in the community, it wouldn't be my top choice. It feels a long way from things, and not in a particularly beautiful rural kind of way. I appreciate that I am massively generalising. and I don't wish to offend anyone living out that way....

P 

Sorry, but don't really understand the 'It feels a long way from things' comment ? Aside from having most of the things you'd expect a large town/small city to have - university, hospitals, etc etc, you could be in the heart of Brissy - South Bank, QPAC, convention centre, museum, Suncorp, Botanical Gardens, Indooroopilly shopping centre etc in 30 minutes or under from Ipswich

Just a quick heads up that some members may find they don't have access to certain features for a couple of hours.

Behind the scenes, permissions (such as the ability to send Private Messages, Post Status updates in your profile etc) are managed by assigning members to different primary and secondary 'groups'.

Certain permissions don't become available until members have made a certain number of posts on the forum. We do this as an anti-spam measure - to stop spammers signing up and sending unsolicited PM's, posting spam as status messages, in blogs, photo albums etc etc.

When we changed the forum software back in March, I didn't set up the primary and secondary groups correctly, making it difficult to manage the permissions.

I'm in the process of sorting it out. Basically, everyone has been placed in the default group, but when you log in, it should trigger a job which will assign the correct permissions to you. It may be instantaneous, it may take a little while, I'm not sure. If you find you can't access something after a couple of hours, just send me a message using the 'Contact Us' option at the bottom of the page.

Yes, that's correct, Dec 13th.

I wouldn't really class Ipswich as rural. City of Ipswich alone has a population of 200,00+ which is big in Australian terms and Ipswich is classed as part of the Greater Brisbane Metropolitan area.

I suppose it would be a minimum of an hour to the coast, longer in peak times.

Photo below is Ipswich hospital and the other 2 photos are West Ipswich, to give you some idea of how urban/rural the place is.

(We live in the Lockyer valley, about half way between Ipswich & Toowoomba).

Hi Kbald86

Welcome to the forum

It's many years ago since we emigrated, so I can't advise on a lot of the costs, hopefully some of our members can help.

However, I'll start the ball rolling. 

Flying in March (which tends to be the cheapest month) 2 adults and 6 children London to Perth would be in the region of £3,800 (although it depends on the age of your children). 

There are many good agents who post on the forum who I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

@Richard Gregan http://www.overseas-emigration.co.uk/

@wrussell   http://www.pinoyau.com/ 

@Raul Senise http://www.ozimmigration.com

@Alan Collett https://www.gmvisas.com/ 

The articles purely about the strength of each state's economy, not the cost of living. So from an economic standpoint, NSW is the strongest state.

Cost of living wise, Sydney always tends to be the most expensive, followed by Melbourne, then Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth in that order.

Hercules Moth  (House in Cairns)

Brush-turkey  (Back garden in Cairns)

Kookaburra (Our house in Cairns)

Cassowary (somewhere on the Atherton Tablelands)

Green Tree Frog Vocalising

Golden Orb Spider (Cairns)

Scorpion (in the house at Cairns)

Sunbird  (House in Cairns again)

Northern-Brown ? Bandicoot  (Back garden in Cairns)

Most of the wildlife photos are from round our House in Cairns. Also had lace monitors, Echidnas and a few other snakes round the house. 

Python in Cairns (the bulge is one of our chickens)

Green Tree Frog (back garden in Cairns)

Pelican @Bobj will recognise the location

Camels (near Mary Kathleen mine)

Wedge-tailed Eagles ? (Just north of Alice Springs)

Hi Alex

Telstra has the best coverage, followed by Optus, then Vodaphone. Unfortunately, costwise, generally speaking, it's also in that order Telstra most expensive etc.

Who are you with at the moment as I'm surprised you'd have mobile coverage problems in Sydney?

If you want the benefit of being on the Telstra network, but maybe a lower cost option, maybe look at some of the carriers who use the Telstra infrastructure.

Have a look at 

Hi pavz

Welcome to the forum. Hopefully some of our members in the Berwick area will be able to help you.

You can also check out the myschools website which has plenty of info about each school.

eg, these are the latest naplan results for each primary school in Berwick.

Berwick Chase Primary

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/108555/BerwickChasePrimarySchool/45261/2016

Berwick Fields Primary

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/108448/BerwickFieldsPrimarySchool/45154/2016

Berwick Lodge Primary

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/108382/BerwickLodgePrimarySchool/45088/2016

Berwick Primary

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/107373/BerwickPrimarySchool/44040/2016

Brentwood Park Primary

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/108449/BrentwoodParkPrimarySchool/45155/2016

St Catherine's Primary

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/109358/StCatherinesPrimarySchool/46100/2016

St Margaret's School

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/109455/StMargaretsSchool/46203/2016

St Michael's School

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/109215/StMichaelsSchool/45957/2016

Timbarra College

https://www.myschool.edu.au/ResultsInNumbers/Index/108539/TimbarraP9College/45245/2016

29 minutes ago, Sunset said:

Whats this extra for please?

Nothing yet, I'm just trialing it.