RichardP

Hi Hodgies There's loads of great purpose made moutain biking parks and trails round Victoria. Lysterfield has a great network of trails including a couple of black runs for a bit of air time and is conveniently located in the south eastern suburbs. You Yangs has a nice mix from gentle trails to hairy enduro oriented black runs Redhill on the Mornington Peninsula is just stepping up its profile and has some nice trails and a good brewery nearby by the way Forrest just north of Lorne (Great Ocean Road south-west of Melbourne) has an impressive network of trails for all styles of MTB. Personal favourite is Mariners Run. To the north-east of Melbourne heading towards the Alpine region there are some impressive MTB venues. Buller has just opened a 40km trail called The Epic. Also Buxton has some lovely flowing trails. Personally I think Victoria alone has more MTB'g possibilities than I had available in the north of England plus the chance to enjoy the sport year round. Then there is Tassie which is just a short cheapo flight away with a huge growth in MTB trails both in the north and south of the island where you can hire decent bikes. Your boys won't be disappointed !

Are they really cities or towns ? I meant proper cities, y'know; with traffic jams, and electricity and stuff

Hey Daniel Small world... I work in Boronia but live in Berwick...... oh and born & raised in Scaaaabruh There's a Pommie blokes night out in the Berwick Inn on Saturday night 8pm if you can make it ?

Hi Stevey You're spoilt for choice really. I also like cars and moutain biking. We live in Berwick about 45mins east of Melbourne CBD and its ideal. I go MTB'g 3x a week at Lysterfield Lake Park (hosts a variety of MTB events including the Commonwealth Games MTB in 2006)- its excellent. You also have the You Yangs on the West side of the city for more extreme tracks, Mount Buller and alike about 2 or 3 hours north for full on downhill MTB'g. The weather here is ideal for MTB'g. Not humid. It does rain a bit in winter but that just keeps the trails from drying out to dust. In summer it can get seriously hot compared to other cities but just means you have to go earlier in the morning We have the Formula 1 obviously, two rounds of the V8 Supercars, MotoGP and World Superbikes at Philip Island (1.5 hours south). 4x4...... The entire continent is your playground. Melbourne is definitely a sport oriented city, so put it on your itinery. The beaches are good - in the bay there's no fear of sharks. The surf beaches are more attractive and of course the higher up Australia you go the warmer the water gets which is why the crocs & jelly fish like it so much. Your trade is brilliant and gives you the opportunity to chose any city that you like. Good luck with that choice. PM me if you come over and want to go for that bike ride

Hmmm Canberra; the only city in Australia (apart from Alice Springs) that doesn't have coastline. Hugely expensive real estate, colder than Melbourne and Tassie in winter due to altitude and built for politicians. Joking aside, every city in Australia has something to offer it just depends what your interests are and whether your profession is marketable in every city or biassed towards one in particular. Good luck whatever you decide on

Nahhhh - race tracks are for people who love to drive :biggrin:

My employer offers Novated Lease and while I love the idea of paying for a car out of my gross income I still can't get away from the fact that you're paying a significant sum every month and still don't own it at the end of the term and have to pay market value if you want to buy it. In the end I bought a 3 yr old Commodore SV6 Wagon for $25k which is a lovely car - drives like new and no monthly payments. Still not sure if I missed a trick with the Novated Lease though - nobody could explain the benefits. All the best for 2013 everyone ! RIchard

But the big BBQ question is..... do you get that authentic charcoal flavour with a gas bbq

Happy days ! I'm gonna blow the lot on fast cars :biggrin:

Thanks a lot Dan & everyone - some great advice there.

We're going on a 176 visa. i get a bonus and 2 for 1 shares as additional benefits in the UK which bump me up to about £51k but I haven't yet found out if they are offering a bonus with the new job so thought I'd keep to base salary figures for the discussion. Sounds like we're going to be ok :biggrin:

So we've had the week we've dreamed of for about 18 months - about to exchange contracts on our house and have a job offer from my company in Melbourne. So I've done some research based mainly on posts on PIO regarding cost of living but just wanted to pose the question to those that know from experience..... I'm on £43k in the UK and have been offered $110k + super. Is this equivalent, better or worse ? We have a little boy so we don't spend a lot of money eating/drinking out. We pay about £400 per month on childcare and £1200 on mortgage so we don't have a great deal left at the end of the month. My wife is a hairdresser so should be able to work from home and earn more than she does in the UK and still cut down our childcare costs. Without giving all the detail, by my calcs including my wife's income we should have up to $2k per month left overafter all essentials are covered. That's a lot more than we have now. All advice welcome please.

Yes exactly. I'm having enough difficulty finding a job from the UK - there seems to be a reluctance by recruiters to offer jobs to applicants who are non-resident (I can understand why). I'm thinking, get a job anywhere for a bit, and then relocate to our intended state as sponsored. That doesn't feel immoral to me.

I don't want to sound negative but I wouldn't recommend holding out for a sponsor regardless of your occupation unless you're current employer can offer you a transfer to a branch in Oz (which unfortunately is unlikely in hairdressing). I think you're better off making your own arrangements for securing your visa and then just go for it. We got our visas in april and I've found that although the job market looks ok, on the whole employers and agencies aren't that interested unless you are already resident in Oz with your visa. There will be exceptions of course. I'm a project engineer in the pharmaceutical industry but recruiters keep asking me "when are you planning to be here ?". If you reply, "when i get a job offer", they don't want to know. So as soon as we sell our house, I'm putting my notice in at work (12 weeks... aargh !) and booking the flights. If i don't get a job in those 12 weeks, I'm quite confident my wife will get fixed up with a hairdressing job within a couple of weeks over there which will keep us going while I market myself for jobs. I hope you get sorted one way or the other - hairdressing looks to be a well paid job down under and as they say....fair dinkum !

Tell us where you live Noob.

Raaaayyyyyy ! Got our visas granted today ! :ssign19: 8.5 weeks and that included us delaying the decision in order to get our passports renewed. Over the moon and a tad tipsey thanks to the bottle of Veuve Clicquot we just popped.:twitcy: Good luck to you remaining February applicants - your time will come ! Richard

Have you had any feedback from your CO ? If it was me, I'd eat huge quantities of humble pie with them and ask for them to give you the 3 or 4 weeks necessary to take your Ielts.... For your part you would have to find the first test available wherever it is regardless of location. We got our CO and then realised that our passports had less than the required 2 years validity remaining. The CO was fine and just told us to get them renewed and email copies in a couple of weeks. Good luck !

Agree with almost everything above except the puff pastry (IMHO). I think a home made shortcrust is easy and so much better texture..... Put 70g lard & 70g butter with 100ml of water & 100ml of milk in a pan and boil. Measure 425g plain flour in a bowl, tspn salt and 2 egg yolks in a well then add the liquid. Mix. Chill for a bit then roll out to dinner plate size about 3 or 4mm thick. Stuff with highly seasoned filling and crimp as described. Then glaze with salted egg yolk wash. Handsome !

Yeah we got our CO a week ago and they asked for Form 80 from both of us and police checks. We've been a bit slow but got the police checks application in the post yesterday and form 80 is getting uploaded today. Will hopefully get some good news in a couple of weeks. Just need to sell the house now, oh yeah and find a job :biggrin: Thanks for the good wishes. Richard

We haven't emigrated yet but my wife (the horsey one) has found an equestrian centre just north of Box Hill called Ding Dang Doo ranch. We obviously have no experience of the place living 10000 miles away but I highly recommend the name.... Makes me laughs everytime if pronounced with a Paddy McGuiness accent.

Just a word of caution - Engineers Australia categorise your occupation almost entirely on your 1st degree. I applied under the Washington Accord with my degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering - this degree was shared approx 80% with the Mechanical Engineering classes with just a couple of classes specific to the MSE subject (project management etc). I then spent the next 20 years as a Mechanical Engineer but EA classified me as an Industrial Engineer despite my career as a Mech Eng and my Masters degree and 1st degree both being IMechE accredited. The point I'm making is that you need to try and anticpate what occupation they will come up with based on your first degree rather than your experience. An alternative route is to complete a competency demonstration report (CDR) which although is aimed at those with a non-accredited degree, it might allow you to steer the ANZSCO code you're allocated. In my case I found Industrial Engineer falling off some state sponsorship lists where if I'd been given Mechanical Engineer, I'd have had no such problem. Good luck.

My first impressions are that subclass 189 is equivalent to the current 175, and subclass 190 is equivalrnt to current 176 ? If that is the case, have they got the criteria wrong for the 190 - "Permanent visa for skilled workers who are nominated by a state or territory government - Allows visa holder to live and work anywhere in Australia." Surely a state sponsored visa limits the migrant to that state for a period of time like the current 176 (2 years) ?

Yes, we got our case officer yesterday, 4 weeks to the day of application. Very exciting !

We also applied on 29/2 and haven't heard anything yet but I was expecting to wait 4-6 wks anyway. Haven't applied for police checks yet so I feel the ball is still in my court. Good luck

I'm in the pharmaceuticals manufacturing industry. This is one of the industries Australia is looking to develop before the mining boom ends. Currently though there's no evidence if it at the moment. My applications have been via job sites so far but I've stopped until we get that visa. I have had a positive discussion with the manager at our sister plant in Sydney so I'll definitely follow that up once I have more positive news with the visa.