Graemsay

The DIAC page concerning file formats is at: http://www.immi.gov.au/e_visa/general-skilled-migration-attachments.htm DOCX is listed as acceptable, so I can't see why DIAC would reject a scan in that format. I sent everything as PDFs, and provided you've got the image data inside it I can't see there being a problem. Besides, I think that the system would reject unknown file types. Do you have all your documents up, even in what you think might be the wrong format? If not, make sure that you've got all the gaps filled first, before worrying about some being in DOCX and some being JPEGs.

If you look at property prices relative to earnings in Sydney, then the market would need to halve for houses to be merely unaffordable. (Based on a mortgage for a median priced house costing 30% of median household income, which is considered to be the threshold of mortgage stress.) Assuming wages continue to grow at 3 to 4% per year, which is the rate they've risen over the last decade or so, then it'll take about twenty years for incomes to double, and to catch up. Now, I know that a lot of investors talk about prices doubling every seven to ten years, but if Australia avoids a dose of inflation then property could be cheaper (in nominal terms) until the 2030s.

I just did a quick Google, and found an APM report on median property prices. http://www.domain.com.au/content/files/apm/reports/APM-Mar-Qtr-12-House-Price-Report-FINAL.pdf In March, the figures that a median house in Melbourne was about $529K, versus $433K in Brisbane. Of course if you're comparing New Farm or Newstead, which are the priciest parts of Brisbane, with Frankston North or Melton South, the cheapest suburbs in Melbourne, then you might come to the opposite conclusions. As an aside, I was in Melbourne about two years ago during what was supposed to be the coldest winter in recent times. It wasn't that bad, with lows of around 4 degrees. Think of it as early spring in the UK.

The big risk is on the exchange rate. At present the Pound is at a historic low against the Australian Dollar. Suppose you wanted to buy a $500K house, then you'd borrow about £320K at the current exchange rate. But that would mean locking in your borrowing at around $1.50 to £1. If there was a shift, and that's possible because a lot of commentators argue that the Dollar is overpriced, then you'd be out of pocket for a large sum. In the mid-noughties, the exchange rate was around the $2.50 to £1 mark, so your mortgage would be circa £200K. At this stage I wouldn't think about it, unless I was borrowing in Australia and buying in the UK.

There have been evolutionary adaptations in recent history, some of which are due to cultural preferences, others down to tragic events in history. Here are a few examples. Ever heard the one about Asians not being able to hold their drink? In the pre-modern era, drinking water was often unsafe. Europeans tended to brew and drink beer, as the process killed off harmful microorganisms in the water. (The expression small beer comes from that era, and was generally drunk by children.) As a consequence, selection favoured those who could process alcohol. In contrast, Asians tended to be tea drinkers (boiling water sterilised it), and so didn't have the same selective pressures put on them. As an aside, tea being adopted as the British national drink allowed cities to grow rapidly during the industrial revolution. I once read that the reason AIDS is less of a problem in Europe is a consequence of the Black Death! Apparently the genes that protect against the plague also confer some immunity to HIV. In sport, there's a high proportion of black athletes, and some of this is unfortunately due to the slave trade. The traders selected the biggest and strongest, and these were further whittled down by the conditions on the ships across the Atlantic. Consequently the Caribbean and African-American populations tend to have more muscle (particularly the explosive fast-twitch fibres) than those of European descent. Meanwhile the Kenyan marathon runners (who have a lot of slow-twitch muscle fibres) are an example of a more isolated population that has concentrated a particular set of characteristics. Incidentally, before I get branded as being horribly racist for the above, I should point out that if you want to have the most healthy children possible then marry someone of a different ethnic background. Having no common ancestors within a few thousand years means that any offspring will have a greater genetic mix, and so inherited conditions are less likely.

If you correlate asking prices on Rightmove with actual sales prices from Zoopla then you'll frequently see properties being offered for more than any has ever achieved on its street. Whilst I appreciate the housing market is tough right now, a lot of vendors are being hugely optimistic. There's a lot of talk of the housing market recovering. Relative to incomes, prices are still higher in the UK than they were at the peak of the housing bubble in the States, and the levels reached prior to the last crash in 1989. What we've had over the last decade isn't normalcy by a long shot. I'm not trying to sell a house, but if it wasn't shifting I'd be looking at comparable sales and estimated values on Zoopla, and discussing pricing with my agent. I keep on hearing about "cheeky offers". If these are 20% or even 30% down then they might actually be closer to what the house is worth. If they're 50% down then they're probably from an investor looking for a distressed sale.

I've not spent much time in Adelaide, so I don't know it that well. If you haven't been, the city's got a rather odd layout, with the CBD being in the centre, as you'd expect, and then this is ringed by parkland. Outside of this you get the suburbs. I'd probably pick North Adelaide as my favourite part. As it's name suggests, it's a short walk north of the CBD, which means it's got the leafy parks around it. It's the original part of town, and is full of historic (for Australia) buildings. You can pick up a two bedroom Victorian terrace for your budget, for example: http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-sa-north+adelaide-111031303 http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-sa-north+adelaide-111306331 (Needs work!) This is a little more expensive, between $600K and $750K, but could be fantastic. http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-sa-north+adelaide-109847136 When I was there I stayed with friends in Bridgewater, up in the Adelaide Hills. It's a fairly low density suburb, which is heavily wooded, so houses tend to be separated by trees. It tends to be a bit cooler than in the city, due to the altitude. I've got a feeling that Stirling is the more expensive end, and prices drop off as you get out towards Bridgewater. A quick look on Realestate.com.au suggests you could get a three or four bedroom house for $500K (and up), whereas building plots are $200K to $300K. I can't remember the travel time into the CBD is, but I think that it was about 40 minutes on the bus.

I had a call off Jumar Solutions a few days ago about a possible team lead job in Sydney. I lost out because they found someone who already lived there. I followed things up today, and had a chat to one of their recruiters. It sounds as though the market is mixed, with quiet periods interspersed with bursts of activity. I don't think that it's great, but it's probably better than the UK.

There's a piece at The Australian today. (Not behind their pay wall.) http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/it-jobs/job-uncertainty-hits-it-sector/story-fna12gpc-1226456277556 It sounds like things aren't great.

Hey, I'm nothing if not inconsistent. :biggrin: The impression I get is that things are slowing in the East, but that they're not as bad as in the UK by a long way. There's still work there, and in some cases the money is decent. But it's not a boom time by any stretch. And, yeah, I'm hearing mixed messages.

I'm seeing similar in the UK. There are a lot of Android contract roles offering a contract rate for a very short (typically six week) engagement at a rate that's broadly similar to a graduate developer.

I've got a friend over in Adelaide, and he reckons that the economy is slowing, as did another who left Melbourne for China a few months back. I get the impression that things are bad in the east and booming in the west, which might affect IT roles, since these tend to be concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. Contracts aren't bad, as they tend to pay more. At least, they do in the UK. Unfortunately rates are down, and the gaps between them are wider, which makes it a tougher business to be in.

It might be worth having a chat to a few agents or locals. An IT contractor in Sydney was telling me that things are good down there, whereas the UK jobs market has been poor all year.

Prediction is hard, especially when it's about the future. Sydney property falls into the sodding expensive category on pretty much any metric you can think of. Economists talk of mortgage stress as being when a household has to pay more than 30% of its gross income to cover repayments, and this is considered a precarious place to be. For it to get back to the point where the average (median) house merely causes an average earning family to be in mortgage stress, prices would have to half. Northshorepom highlights a lot of the problems in Sydney. The list that I've seen include increasing population, poor mass transit systems, restrictive planning, government levies on developing land, and generous tax breaks for property investors. I read a report a while back that concluded that the worst choices had been made in virtually every area by the government, and that this witches brew had inflated prices. The question is how much of the rise is down to speculation. There are innumerable property investors, and many are running a loss (known as negative gearing) in the hope that they'll see above-inflation price rises. If the market does take a turn for the worse then I could see those with a portfolio yielding 3% against mortgage costs of 6% to 7% heading for the exits. My guess is that if the Australian economy runs into recession then there could be a serious slump, in the same way that there was in the US, Ireland or Spain. And we all know how that turned out. Or there could be a slow deflation, as we're seeing in the UK. (I'm puzzled by the London property market, which continues to defy all logic...) Personally, I wouldn't buy just now. But that's a gamble, and there are a lot of people who sold up in the early-to-mid noughties in the UK in anticipation of the crash that never came. Or buying in Sydney now could be the same as Florida or Dublin in 2007, which possibly ended even worse.

Have you checked the job situation in London? I'm only asking because it's been pretty dire recently. I work as a freelancer in IT, and have had about a month in work so far this year. It's looking a bit more positive now, but things tend to slow down during August as people are off on holiday, before picking up again in September. I agree that London's got its attractions, and good luck with the move.

A pound of fat contains around 3500 calories, so to gain 4 kg you'd need to consume around 30,000 calories beyond what you'd normally use. If you want to do it over a fortnight then you'd be gobbling down an extra 2000 or more calories per day, which for the average person would mean doubling their food intake. I'm not convinced that's healthy. This weight would mostly be fat, so unless the person in question has single digit bodyfat levels, it won't be good for them. If you want to do it healthily then sign up for a gym, lift heavy weights and eat more. But that will take around six months for a typical, untrained male. And longer for a woman since they don't build muscle so easily.

My understanding, and this isn't from first hand experience, is that CSA payments are based on your income. So if it initially falls whilst in Australia then there should be scope to temporarily reduce them. I'm pretty sure that they'd insist that the husband maintains payments once in Australia, but conversely the ex would have an obligation to make them once the daughter moves. That said, there's always the chance the she might decide to remain in the UK for A levels.

Blobby1000, what proof do you have that you informed VicRoads that you changed your address prior to January 2011? The only way to get the additional $145 waived would be to prove that you had submitted all the details, and that there was a mistake made by VicRoads, or a problem with one of their systems. If your licence was updated but not the car's registration then you might have an argument. If it comes down to "I'm sure that I phoned VicRoads in December 2010 to change my details" then you'll probably lose. I appreciate that these things are unfair, but unless you can provide reasonable evidence that you changed your details and someone else screwed up then going to court is going to be an expensive waste of time. For the sake of the sum at stake, I'd be inclined to swallow the loss, as things going the other way will cost an awful lot more. Sometimes it's better to just cut your losses.

When I did my medical in early 2010, my BMI was around 30. I asked the doctor whether that would be a problem, and was told that provided there were no apparent health issues, I would be OK. Had there been issues then I'd have been referred for further tests. Bear in mind that BMI is a bit of a blunt instrument. There have been times when I was rated as obese (back in 2008 or 2009), but would have been around 20% to 25% body fat, which is in the acceptable range. This can be common for people who lift weights. Conversely, there are Asian populations whose BMI is at an acceptable level, but whose fat levels are unhealthy. Lizaberrie, I think that your son will be OK on the BMI, but the ASD diagnosis could be more of an issue.

Looks like not all is rosy Down Under in the IT sector. http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/relocation-the-only-option-for-it-contractors-20120703-21ene.html It sounds like the east coast is slowing, whilst things are booming in the resource states. Anyone noticed this on the ground?

Jules, I'd argue that it would be difficult for Oz recruitment agents to be worse than their UK counterparts. :biggrin:

The contract market in London is pretty dead right now. It seems to be very sensitive to recession, and whenever there's a downturn recruitment shuts down. That said, I had a call from an agent about a banking job which could be the best opportunity in the last few years if it comes off... I don't know what's going to happen with the economy. My suspicion is that the UK is going to be down for the next few years, which would seem to be supported by predictions of interest rates remaining at 0.5% until 2017. There still needs to be a correction in house prices here, and that will bring about more pain. Since you're an IT guy, you've probably seen this piece on the RBS at the Register. There's a telling comment that the only reason we're not seeing a financial crisis from the major failure of their systems is that we've already had it a few years back. With Australia I get the impression that it's in the same place that the UK was in 2007. House prices have started falling, but no real problems have kicked in. One possibility is that they'll have a bit of a slow down, then things will pick up again. The feeling on property investing boards is pretty good at present, which might be an indicator. But then again, if something goes wrong, such as a withdrawal of foreign funding to the banks, then there could be a nasty housing market crash, and we've seen what they can do to places like Ireland and Spain. I'm considering heading to Oz in the autumn, unless I find something decent here first, and maybe spend a stint down there on a contract. If things look good then I can always make a more permanent move down. If not, my possessions can cope with six months in a self-store facility.

I'm currently in London, and mainly do Java / Android. The UK jobs scene is pretty bad at present. I'm a contractor, and have seen rates fall over the last three or four years, with long periods out of work. I'd certainly not recommend it as an option if someone's looking at coming back. Having canvassed a few people, I believe that Oz is better. Most of the work is in Sydney, followed closely by Melbourne. There are a few things up in Brisbane, and whilst the salaries tend to be slightly down on Sydney, that's more than made up by lower living costs.

There's an article on the Age's website today about encouraging people into IT. http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/innovation/blogs/smoke--mirrors/software-engineering-starts-at-home-20120621-20qbe.html Some of the comments are interesting. I'm at the point where I'm starting to get the urge to move out of programming.

From what I've seen (and I'm in the UK), salaries and contract rates are broadly similar to London outside of the banking sector in Sydney and Melbourne at the current exchange rate. Something I heard was that start-ups tend to pay better than established companies in Australia because they want to attract talent. This is the opposite of my experience in the UK, where they tend to offer lower salaries. Funnily enough, there seem to be more new companies coming out of Sydney than London.