Graemsay

If you want to travel carry-on only then you'll be limited to about 40 to 45 litres. There are a number of bags designed around the box, but something like the Tom Bihn Aeronaut 45 would be an (expensive) example. However, some of the Aussie internal flights limit carry on bags to 105 cm, rather 115 cm. That's 48 x 34 x 23 cm, or about 30 to 35 litres. The Tom Bihn Tri-Star would fit into that box.

Another solo here. Landed in Melbourne in mid January, and possibly moving up to Sydney soon. I'm a programmer currently specialising in Android app development.

Would they? If investors pulled out the market then it's likely that rental properties would be sold onto owner occupiers. That would reduce rental demand. Secondly, rents are elastic. If they go up then people will buddy up for house shares. Furthermore, there are hard limits as to what people can actually pay. I can't see the rents in Sydney doubling overnight as people are already stretched there. Somewhere like Melbourne would have more headroom.

I don't know if it would have made that much difference. There are about 5.3 million people living in Scotland, 800,000 Scots in the rest of the UK, and 300,000 overseas. I'm going to assume that the number of voters is proportional to the population size. If every Scot living overseas had voted for Independence then the result would have been about 52% No, 48% Yes. That would have been closer, but not enough to change the result. To win the Yes vote with the whole diaspora then you'd probably need about 75% onside. Given the opinion polls then that would seem unlikely. And it'd get messy trying to figure out who's eligible. That said, if the principle of voting at your last address holds for expats then there might be an argument for giving them the franchise in a referendum.

Well there's always Tasmania...

As tina0101 said, Queensland adopted the ECE (European / UK) standard recently. I believe that you have to buy the helmet from overseas though. NSW allows you to wear an ECE helmet if your head size is 62 cm or more, and you've got a doctor's certificate. There was talk that they'd adopt the ECE standard wholesale this year. My guess is that all the States will follow in the next year or two. There's lobbying going on to push for this.

Vodafone currently do a mobile SIM for $50 / month (pre-pay) that gives unlimited calls to landline or mobiles in ten countries, including the UK.

The ACS accepted my experience as a Java contractor for their assessment. The only risk is that you might have gaps between jobs that a permanent employee wouldn't have, and that might cause problem.

I tried to sign up for NAB before I left the UK, but, err, the online system didn't work. So I popped into a branch after I arrived in Melbourne, and, err, the guy I needed to speak to to sign up had gone home early. So I went elsewhere... I ended up opening an account with Citi. They're fee free, but also don't have charges for using your account in overseas ATMs and for purchases. They do multicurrency savings accounts. In the UK they offer the Citi Gold service for those with over £50,000 or £75,000 in savings which gives a multicurrency (Pound, Euro, US Dollar) current account. I don't know if this is available in Oz, but it might be an interesting option if it is. So far so good, but I've only been with them for a week.

I applied for a 175 visa off my own back a few years ago. | found the most difficult part of the process was the skills assessment. Once I'd done that, I was fine. I also found that my CO was helpful, and when I'd made a mistake, I was able to correct things. Basically I turned out to have a few less points than I thought because I'd had a patch of unemployment during the recession, so I ended up doing an IELTS test to get the extra needed. As others have said, if you're capable of reading, can follow instructions, and don't have anything problematic with your background then you're probably OK. At risk of upsetting the agents round here, I don't see an awful lot of advantage in using one.

I've held a 175 for a few years, and am finally heading over in the next few weeks. I'll be landing in Melbourne initially,as I've got somewhere to stay from the start of January, but may end up in Sydney in the longer term.

I did an OU course some years back, and I remember it ate all my free time. I don't have kids, and my job back then varied between part and full time. So you have my sympathy. Doesn't the OU year run from January to January? If so, you're nearly there. If not, would it be worth dropping one module, and hold off Oz for another 12 months?

I've been to both, but know Melbourne better than Adelaide. As others have said, Melbourne is the bigger city, and has more shops, cinemas, theatres, and other cultural attractions. It's reputed to have the strongest arts scene in Australia. I'd probably guess the centre has a similar level of amenities to somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham. The downsides are that its beaches in the Bayside suburbs aren't as good as other cities. Plus the city sprawls quite heavily, so it's probably getting on for an hour to get into open countryside, such as the Dandenong Ranges or the Mornington Peninsula. And, as others have said, it's pretty expensive. Adelaide is smaller, so fewer shops, theatres, galleries and so on. At a guess, I'd put it in a similar bracket to somewhere like Coventry, Newcastle, maybe Leeds in terms of its facilities. It's got a really unusual layout, with the centre being surrounded by parkland, and I really liked that. I don't know what the beaches are like, because I didn't venture that way. Because of its size, you can get to the countryside quicker. I've got a friend who lives in Bridgewater, up in the Hills to the southeast of the city, and that's a semi-rural, low density suburb. It's about 12 miles out of the centre, so about a half hour drive, or just under an hour if you catch the bus. Plus being at a higher altitude, the summer temperatures aren't so fierce. It's worth a look, and cheaper than being closer in. If you've got the chance, and I appreciate having kids in tow will make it harder, then I'd look at spending a couple of days or weeks in both cities and see which suits you best. Brisbane and Perth might also be worth a look.

I'm not sure if the threat from Ebola is being overplayed, as @VERYSTORMY suggests, or is being massively underplayed. What terrifies me is that the spread has been exponential. If you look at the graph that Forbes published, the numbers of deaths are roughly doubling every month. Roughly: Early August: 1000 Early September: 2000 Early October: 4000 Most people really struggle to grasp these sorts of functions, but if the rate of increase continues then there'll be about a million deaths by June next year, and a billion by April 2016. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but if the disease isn't brought under control, and spread more widely than Western Africa, then it could be really, really bad.

I've never worked the banking sector in London, largely because it requires prior experience in it before you can get a contract within it, but the rates there tend to be £100 to £200 per day more than a comparable non-finance job. So it's a bit of a special case in itself. But I'd agree with Squarepusher that rates in Sydney's IT sector do look lower, whilst housing is a similar price, possibly more expensive, than London. Melbourne might be a better bet, as pay is broadly similar to Sydney, but property is a bit cheaper, and Brisbane too, though I don't know how big the job market is there. But overall I don't think you're going to be better off in Oz if you're used to contracting in London.

OK, how about Japan, which had what is widely considered to be the biggest property bubble in recent years, or the USA. In 1991, Japanese real estate peaked at being worth around $18 trillion in total, or $31 trillion in current (US) dollars. Their population is 128 million, versus 23 million, so it'd be the equivalent of Aussie real estate being worth about $5.8 trillion (Australian). In 2006, US real estate peaked at being worth $24.3 trillion, or about $29 trillion in current money. With 317 million people, it'd be equivalent to Aussie real estate being worth $2.2 trillion (Australian). Australian real estate was claimed to be worth more than $5 trillion in February. That's not far off Japan, and given price rises over the last six months, the gap could have closed.

Ah, economists... They've got a tendency to view interest as the only cost, since repayments of the principle count as forced savings. Thus a house at $500K with interest rates at 8% would be considered to be as affordable as a house at $800K with interest rates at 5%. The thing is that the repayments on a thirty year loan would be cheaper for the former, $3700 per month versus $4300, meaning that the lifetime repayment of the $500K house would be $1.3 million, versus $1.6 million for the more expensive one. Though I'll concede that at the end of the thirty year mortgage, the $800K property would be worth a bit more, and that should put it ahead by a nose. Plus the current RBA base rate is at emergency levels. That means your cheap mortgage payments would get substantially more expensive when it normalises to 7% or 8% in a few years... Two other things to bear in mind, the Dublin bubble peaked at a median price of €470K in 2007. Depending on exchange rates and inflation, that works out somewhere between $800K and $900K, which puts Sydney in the same ballpark. And secondly, long term studies of property prices have shown that they tend to track inflation, so the 20% bump in Sydney over the last 12 months is equivalent to seven years' growth. (I could have a go at Dr Wilson claiming that prices not rising by 2.5% over inflation is a "heroic assumption", but that would be an easy target...)

I don't think that there's anything that I can really add that Flag of Convenience hasn't already said. However it strikes me that house prices in Sydney and, to a lesser extent, Melbourne are off the scale with respect to wages, to the extent that the average house is getting to be a stretch for someone in the top 1% of earnings. (They Sydney median house price is around $820K according to one series, and a $210K salary will put you in Tue top 1%.) I'm not convinced that the Southeast of England is any better. In London you need £100K as a deposit and the same as a salary to afford a two bedroom house. In both cases I reckon the causes are low interest rates, investors and speculators recycling equity into new IPs, homeowners fearing missing out, government intervention, and foreign capital chasing safety and strong returns. As for warning signals, the yield on a property is less than the mortgage rate in much of Oz. Prime London has a similar yield, but might be positive due to the interest rate. I don't know what the outcome is going to be, but I wouldn't want to hold property in any of the above markets over the medium term. If it does go bang then it will trash the economy.

People keep on citing demand as being a reason why property prices will remain high in London, Sydney or wherever. What you need to remember is that it means people who have the means and desire to acquire something. For example, I might want a nice house on Richmond Hill (I'm just down the road from you zk2012), but I can't afford the several million quid price tag. Therefore I don't add to demand for it. If I won the Lottery this weekend then that would be a different matter. What's really driving prices at the moment in parts of the UK and Australia are a combination of the following: Record low interest rates. Foreign buyers looking for a safe haven for their assets. Local investors seeking a higher rate of return for their assets. Government support for buyers, such as Help to Buy or the FHB grant. Interest rates are probably going to rise in the UK and USA in the next twelve months. The latter will probably put pressure on the RBA to hike theirs. This will reduce mortgage serviceability and reduce demand. Plus, buying at a time of low interest rates isn't quite as affordable as the property pundits would have you believe... http://grandemotte.wordpress.com/modern-myths-2-interest-rates-are-lower-so-buying-an-expensive-house-is-cheap/ What would happen to foreign money if (say) China's property market implodes? There are signs it's starting to turn. http://www.smh.com.au/business/are-chinas-ghost-cities-building-towards-economic-ruin-20140321-358l2.html http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-19/music-just-ended-wealthy-chinese-are-liquidating-offshore-luxury-homes-scramble-cash Or if sanctions are imposed on Russia over its expansionist tendencies? OK, the British government is unwilling to allow these to bite, due to complicity in London attracting capital from over there... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/londons-laundry-business.html The number of investors in some markets is also worrying. Over 50% of mortgages were for investment properties in Sydney in the last few months. It all feels a bit speculative, particularly when growth rates are predicted to run way above wage increases or inflation, and from what is already a high base. If things did turn sour, I suspect a number would head for the exits... And lastly there's the governments of the UK and Australia, who've decided that a housing bubble is the best way to get the economy going. I'm not sure how that's going to work, given that was one of the causes of the crisis we're slowly crawling out of. I don't think that a crash is imminent, but given current price levels I wouldn't buy into the London or Australian property markets right now. There are also a lot of predictions of above inflation rises in both these places, and anyone who believes that this is sustainable on a long term basis is mathematically illiterate.

In the UK there are a number of these collection agencies. What they do is buy up unpaid debts for pennies in the pound, and then chase up those named in an attempt to make easy money. Quite often the debt doesn't actually exist. I've been approached by one of these companies, and it was over a broadband bill for the month after I'd cancelled it. The same thing happened to my brother over a mobile phone bill. It's also possible that the debt is owed by someone else with the same name. If you're convinced that the company is legitimate then get in touch with them, and ask for proof that it's owed. I'd also check on the Australian laws covering debt collectors to ensure that they're not loading the payment with fees.

I can't help with living costs in Gladstone, but $90K a year works out as about $1300 a week net according to a basic tax calculator, and $190K is around $2500. If you're curious as to whether it's enough, $90K would put you in the top 10% to 15% of earners, and $190K is in the top 2%, so I don't think you're going to starve. If you're curious then take a look at this article on income distributions.

If you want to build muscle then you're going to need more than 300 calories per day, unfortunately. You have to have a calorific surplus to do so. That is, you need to eat more than your body requires for its day-to-day upkeep. I don't think that swimming will make things much worse. The amount of exercise that you have to do to lose weight is surprisingly large. But I'd really advise speaking to someone who's got a professional clue, rather than anonymous Internet types.

I dislike McMansions. However, I am a fan of good, modern design. This factory conversion is fantastic.

As far as I know they're not. Australia has its own helmet classification scheme, and you need to have the appropriate sticker affixed to prove its legal. Without that you're considered to be riding without one, and fined appropriately. So you can only legally wear them off road, or on a track day. That said, apparently Australia has signed up to the CE standards, which will take over from the local ones in the next few years. (According to a post on the HUBB.) So you might be OK sometime in the future.

The European Court of Human Rights strikes me as being a good thing, because it has a long track record of upsetting politicians. The fact that Home Secretaries of all political persuasions have a track record of riding roughshod over individuals if it'll score them brownie points with the most rabid columnists in the Daily Mail makes having someone to keep them in check an attractive proposition. Does anyone else find Theresa May's calls to withdraw from an international human rights treaty to be just a teensy bit worrying? Stepping away from the press, there are good arguments for staying in the EUCHR... http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2013/03/03/what-would-happen-if-the-uk-withdrew-from-the-european-court-of-human-rights/ http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/roger-sahota/abu-qatada-echr_b_3567226.html