robfromdublin

Just had this conversation with my wife as we're planning a trip back next year. I would definitely fly with them even though the incident was a little bit closer to home than most (a friend in work lost both his parents). Having said that, we would not want to risk them going bankrupt and leaving us high and dry, which you'd have to say is pretty likely unless the Malaysian government intervenes. This is based on my understanding that they were merely unlucky and followed all appropriate safety guidance.

Hi Shelly, Just so you know, as someone vaguely interested in the topic (I have a kid in Brisbane) I skipped right over your post. Obviously it doesn't matter too much if you decide not to put any full-stops or paragraphs in what you write. It's entirely up to you. But a lot of people, like myself, won't even try to read it as a result. I'm not having a go or anything (my writing is awful too) but just adding to what Rupert is saying. Best of luck in getting your kid into State High! Rob

The original source was based on median salaries between UK & Australia. i.e. median Australian salary = 2.2 * median UK salary You can apply the same methodology to be more exact to your industry and/or location (e.g. median London salary to median Sydney salary, or median engineer salary to... you get the picture)

Look at it from an investment perspective. $8k a year is acceptable if you are expecting $20k a year in capital appreciation. Otherwise if you are paying $8k a year and getting nothing in terms of capital appreciation then why would you invest in property like that? If your money can earn more elsewhere then get it out of property investment. Obviously if you want a place of your own to come back to if Oz doesn't work out then keep it, but that is a lifestyle decision, not an investment decision. You need to decouple the two.

A colleague has family out there. They love the country lifestyle and all the open spaces but it gets stupidly hot. 44 degrees on Sunday, which I can't even imagine. Flooding also an issue as TP says. Might be an adventure but don't bring anything valuable with you! As they are used to flooding you can expect the emergency flood response to be good.

That ad has nothing to do with rape at all. Only because a woman is portrayed do you all immediately jump to the conclusion of rape. If it was a guy portrayed in the same headline you would not think the same.

Just to lend weight, I agree with all the Cez sez... Your partner will get permanent regardless of whether she's in Oz or not. After that it is a matter of when you go back to Oz. Talk to immigration and they will set you straight

Yes (but they might not be happy about it...)

Sounds to me like you should go for a working holiday visa. You've got a decent amount of cash to get set up with as long as you're in 'backpacker' mode. I would try to kip on your mate's couch for as long as you can. Enjoy the first 2/3 weeks just checking the place out, sightseeing, going on the lash, etc. You can also go into recruiters and look for drain jobs if you think you'll want to stay longer. If you like it (you will) then stay and get a job. If you don't, spend your money travelling around the rest of the country and then come home. The only thing I'd do before going would be to suss out whether your drain qualifications will transfer to Oz. Call recruiters or companies for this. Other than that just treat it as a backpacker adventure and enjoy yourself. If you like living there you can worry about getting a better visa and a permanent drain job towards the end of your WHV.

move to sydney - you'll need a visa and flights. Try the visa checker on the immigration website and flights through a flight comparison website find some where to live - probably depends on how much you can earn. Find that out first then look at realestate.com.au for properties or gumtree for share houses get a job, doing my job in oz, (drains) - as mentioned, go to seek.com.au want to live in oz for more than a year - you need a visa for more than one year travel around oz - buy a car, quit your job, go driving. When you come up with more specific questions you'll get more help. At the moment it sounds as if you're not sure if you want to live in Sydney and travel for your 4 weeks holiday a year, or if you want to move from place to place working as you go. Very different lifestyles and work prospects.

Call immigration?

Are there any other employers that would give you a 457? Otherwise WHV keeps you in the country but employers might be scared off by the time limits on WHV employment

Abbot is bad news for Australia. I agree with Cal. I saw Abbot speak at a function two months after arriving in Australia (in 2011) and I was a bit taken aback at his views, especially on climate change. Having said that, Gillard is not a populist and Labor has not played good politics the last couple of years. I honestly don't know who I'd vote for. Rock and hard place indeed. Unfortunately, most people hate Gillard but can't really elucidate why. I was at a Danny Bhoy gig a couple of weeks ago and he asked the audience why they hated Gillard. Nobody could answer beyond 'she wasn't elected'. I keep hearing 'Juliar' and the debt issue, but there were clear reasons for both that are obvious to anyone with half a brain. I would be very careful about what you wish for, as QLD is finding out now

Started in actuarial maths (ie insurance), moved to computational astrophysics, moved to marine science, now in environmental consulting. I'm 32 and hopefully will stay in this last one for a few years now. So clearly I have changed my mind a few times but these days staying in one career is unusual. I would identify broadly what you are good at (e.g. talking with people, sales, maths,...), what you like doing (e.g. working on your own, working in a team, desk work, working with your hands) and go from there. There is a classic book called 'What colour is your Parachute' which can give you a systematic approach to deciding what you should do for a career. It might give you a few ideas if you haven't got any. Any reason why you don't want to go to uni? Nothing wrong with it of course but it does rule out a few options as you mentioned. I would have thought that some kind of nursing would be ideal if you want to work in a hospital. Could you get a job somewhere in a hospital to get an idea of what it's like? Or shadow some nurses? I wanted to be a doctor when I was 17 but doing a weekend job in a hospital cured me of that. The poor house doctors were doing over 100 hours in a week regularly. Thankfully there's less of that madness now.

Yeah the system is a confusing mess here alright and I think the previous poster is right in that Aussies grow up with it and therefore there is a lot of assumed knowledge in the literature. We are paying a whopping $273 a month for family hospital & extras and yet still going public for my wife's pregnancy as it would cost us several thousand dollars otherwise. Nevertheless I'm having a procedure done soon that would cost more than the years' premium if I paid it myself and I have no idea how long I'd be waiting if I went public. It's very hard to know if it's worth it to be honest. I think we'll reevaluate when the kid is born and we see how much we actually use it. At the moment it's just peace of mind in case anything does go wrong.

In short, they can afford to only if they have a massive deposit. In oz, a deposit less than 20% is likely to attract LMI (lender's mortgage insurance). This is insurance for the bank in case the house owner defaults on the loan. However the bank doesn't pay the premium, the house owner does! Therefore most people like to get a 20% deposit to avoid this, or as close to 20% as possible to minimise it. This is the same for migrants or citizens. A mortgage provider will take into account all income and expenditure when assessing an application. They will also take into account access to credit. For example if you have a credit card with a $10000 limit, the mortgage provider will assume that you have used up all that limit when assessing your mortgage application. Therefore it is often a good idea to lower the limit you have on your credit card or get rid of it altogether. Re income multiples, everyone is different and you can't really extrapolate from statistics like median house price divided by median income. As an example, myself and my wife have salaries around the $80k mark. For the purposes of buying a house, we are only going to count mine (as she will be off having babies hopefully in the coming years!). The maximum we think we can comfortably borrow is $430k. However, based on our joint income we could probably borrow up to $900k! That would be madness although no doubt some people do borrow as much as the banks will let them.

No I think they have to cover it anyway. Consider the situation where you resign but can't afford the fare home. The government wouldn't want to be stuck with the bill so they almost certainly would make the sponsor pay.

Neither employer brought him/her over, but as far as I know it's an obligation of the sponsor. If the new employer took over the sponsorship, then they are obliged to pay for the flight. Of course, if he only worked for them for a month then making them pay for a flight home is a bit harsh.

They are also obliged to pay for your flight home (for you and any dependents listed on the visa)

You might arrive in time for the biennial watermelon festival! Rock and roll baby!! http://www.melonfest.com.au/

I had no idea either until seeing it on the news the other day. I don't see how we're encouraging them to shore (overfishing will generally move food sources offshore, not onshore) but I think we just have to accept that people will die from shark attacks. We seem to accept it when it comes to snake bites or car crashes so I don't see why this should be any different.

The QLD shark control program has a website here but they are very careful not to mention that they kill the sharks. They only talk about 'capturing' them (although a representative made a mistake on morning tv this morning by saying they conduct autopsies): http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/28_15736.htm This site gives info on how many animals have been killed since introduction of the program: "[TABLE=width: 950, align: center] [TR] [TD=width: 948][TABLE=width: 948, align: center] [TR] [TD=align: left][TABLE] [TR] [TD=class: subText]Between 1975 and 2001, 11,899 great white sharks, tiger sharks and bull sharks were killed in nets and drumlines. Over the same period 53,098 other marine animals were killed [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] " http://www.hsi.org.au/?catID=116 I think it's neanderthal that sharks are killed off the coast of QLD and I wonder if any study has ever been conducted to determine if it makes any difference to the number of shark attacks on humans.

Contact the travel agents you got that from. They forgot to put 'In the event of cessation of employment' at the top. Seriously, an employer is not obligated to pay for your holidays home. They ARE obligated to fly you home if your employment (and hence visa) ceases, in which case you have 28 days to leave the country (unless another employer acts as sponsor).

You should give some indication of the sort of lifestyle you're looking for, otherwise it is difficult for people to help you. As you are young, I'm going to assume you want an apartment (unit) in a lively suburb, close to the city, with plenty of cafes, restaurants, bars, etc. Off the top of my head, possibilities are New Farm, Newstead, Tenerife, Paddington, Red Hill, Kelvin Grove, West End, South Brisbane, Spring Hill, Bulimba, Hawthorne, Balmoral. All have different characters & price ranges and, if you can give further details of what you're looking for, I can try to suggest more or narrow the search for you.

Yes where you are is important. I used to drive to a stop where they all stopped. Still had those issues though as I needed a particular express bus which essentially halved my commute time. Ashgrove is a lovely spot. A nice mix between the space of suburbia but having local services within walking distance.