digitalis

Yep, beef is around 4 euro per kilo for a food manufacturer, "horse" meat under a euro. Of course they were going to use it. Donkey on the other hand.... all these tales of roadside horses in Romania being used reminds me of Borat for some reason. And on humans eating anything.. yes in Stalingrad Russians defending blocks of houses were eating wallpaper. Russian POW's were routinely turning to cannibalism very early on into imprisonment, there was simply no food set aside for them. Germans at Stalingrad ate grasshoppers and also resorted to cannibalism.

Not that I am aware of but FYI there have been several members on here who have contacted companies in Aus. from the UK asking for sponsorship and received it. One member took many, many attempts as I recall but it's how much you want it I suppose.

He's got the good MSG!

Appaz word on the street is that the reason manufacturers have been doing this isn't so much to outright con joe public, more to preserve their bottom line due to govt pressure over esculating food prices. In other words, the government was forcing manufacturers to keep prices low as the REAL jump in food prices which should have been passed on may just be too much to bear to the already overburdened UK consumer. Remember how food suddenyl went really expensive a few years back? Yeah well it should have been worse, much worse. By forcing them to keep prices low, they had to use an alternative to more expensive eat, hence horsemeat. You heard it here first. That's the conspiracy btw.

In that case there's deffo nag meat in the ready meals here!

To be honest the most shocking revelation in all of this is that there is meat of any description in Findus products, oh and I heard ex racehorse meat gives you the runs!

So in the light of the "international conspiracy" how many of you are missing your daughters mounts? :biglaugh::biglaugh: http://news.sky.com/story/1049900/horsemeat-scandal-an-international-conspiracy

That would not surprise me in the slightest. There are some very shady backpackers here. Shoplifting is rife, amongst other things. Their philosophy is, work as little as possible, party as hard as possible and take whatever steps necessary to continue funding this lifestyle, ethical/legal or not. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/backpackers-in-charity-bludge/story-e6frg6n6-1226574451553

Very good. For every 1 negative OPINION on here re sponsorship I know of 3 that have been offered and taken it no problems. Beware of axes to grind on here mate.

You'll get work as a TA no problem mate, I know several who are doing it. A lot of the issue on here (the forum) is that time served and previously self employed sparkies (and their wives) don't like being told what to do by aussie tradies, read between the lines in the posts, and of course the lower money. They think they are going to come over here and earn big money and go self employed straight away. For some trades like welders and heavy diesel fitters that is true but not for sparks, due, I think justifiably to the risks to health posed. It's all very well saying Oz is 30 years behind in electrics when the bottom line is that they coming from the UK>Aus, not vice versa. If you can handle that then there shudnt be a problem, and yes they do sponsor TA's. In fact they sponsor anyone they like as long as the work ethic is there and the need, ignore the bitter PR naysayers on here mate. I know labourers and waitresses who've been sponsored the trick is to find the right company to begin with.

Electricians are a bit of a contentious subject here as it is apparently quite the ballache to get your UK quals transferred over. That being said, there is still loads of work in construction mate particularly in Perth.

LOL. I haven't done the whole sightseeing thing dude, I came here to find employment and in that regard it's more than met my expectations. Perth is very nice, very affluent and good looking women. Would love to see the east coast but have commitments here now. Any more Q's fire me a PM!

So sorry PomPrincess. I loved my dog more than any human so I fully empathise :hug:

Crime here is NOTHING compared to the UK. Abos commit most of the crime. Not PC but true. What my Aussie housemate considers the "boondocks" would be a pleasant quiet area back in Wales. There's fighting on nights out but not as bad as back home considering the male:female ratio here.

Mate the job market is booming. I am in WA and if I wanted to I could leave one job and walk into another the next day. May be different in other stated but I reckon Sydney would be the same. My background is construction but I vowed I wouldn't do it over here. If I could be bothered getting back into it my phone would be ringing constantly. Yeah 30 will stand you in good stead, same age as me. Life experience will steer you clear of a lot of the scams other backpackers get suckered into, in fact I was amazed how many were conned in varying degrees until I realised that the average age of backpackers is about 20! A lot of the time in hostels mate you will have to bite your lip and nod your head as you listen to a bunch of 20 year olds tell you how the world works lol. There are older backpackers here though. No mate I haven't though there are a lot more supermarkets etc here than in the UK. Every village or suburb has it's own cluster of supermarkets as there is that much disposable income here.

No worries mate. It's a misconception that there are all these fantastic jobs for travellers waiting here. TBH most of them are crap lol. You are competing not just with other backpackers but with immigrants (including Brits) who have decided not to carry on with their specific profession over here. I know for a fact that some of the women on the main forum get pissed off because they can't get cushy office jobs after they came over on the back of their husbands trade. Such is life. There are some decent ones the trick is to read between the lines in the adverts and take heed how often a certain business is placing ads for jobs. High turnover - **** job. Rule of thumb with gumtree is first to apply will get, or one of the first but I've found gumtree pretty dodgy for decent work. Too many cowboys on there cos they know all the backpackers are looking. The RSA, it's about $50 roughly, takes about 30 mins to complete mostly common sense. Don't bother paying for it until you get here mate, some bigger venues will pay for it.

Yeah that's understandable though still a sad state of affair given that even in the shittest area of the south wales valleys to rent a ROOM in a house is at least 60 pounds a week, a decent one more like 80. Assuming you worked 40 hrs on min wage, after tax you would have somewhere in the region of 190 a week left, before rent. After rent 130, after food 80 and that's before mobile phone, household bills, car finance etc etc. It's poverty, you'd have less than 40 a week to spare for clothes etc unless you worked like a 60 hr week, and let's be honest if the job is minimum wage the chances of it being bearable for over 40 hours are slim. In the UK you have a lot less disposable income compared to here, even for low paid jobs.

Yep.

Fair one. Yeah some of the "mixologists" are on good money when you figure tips in the bargain, drinking is a big thing in Oz lol. Barista work I don't think is great money but Aussies are big into coffee houses and there are always ads up for that line of work, if nothing else to tie you over and I can think of worse places to spend 8 hrs than surrounded by hot waitresses. Always labouring jobs around but be warned you are liable to get worked into the ground as the turnover and available pool of willing backpackers is huge and the builders know it.

It's a sick joke. I had to try and make ends meet on that before I left, and I have several friends who have had to move back in with their parents or are really really struggling after their relationships broke down and are on more than that.

My advice dude if if you are "unskilled" and male, get barista/mixology skills between now and when you arrive. You won't be out of work. If however you have some kind of trade panic not. There's a LOT of work in Oz, but also a LOT of backpackers looking. Partic. since the recession on both sides of the Atlantic.

Exactly! It's called conditioning. That's abject poverty! They can't make them lower but if the pool of people who are willing to work for that wage (or lower) is large, then they can just keep the wage at the minimum. It's like what they do out here with menial jobs. I know a landscape gardener who put an advert on gumtree perth for $18 an hour (very low for Perth). He said he had 50 responses in varying forms in half an hour, NOT one an Aussie. Now imagine the Aussie govt suddenly stopped WHV. Not an inconceivable notion by any means. The demand for landscape gardening in Perth would still be the same or higher, only now he'd have to jack his wages up fairly substantially to attract suitable Perth locals. Probably to at least $22 an hour, at least. A fair old jump per hour. It's not an exact matching example but you get my drift. The aim of big business and the powers that be is that wages are to be kept low in the UK.

Finding Aussie whingers is easyyy! Just go on any construction site past 3pm in Perth.

Andy we both know that will never happen as this is all planned as it brings the wages down for everybody. I looked on a UK jobsite a few weeks back and was shocked how low the wages were in comparison to how much day to day living costs in the UK. One of the factors in this is most definitely immigrants (legal and non) willing to work for virtually peanuts and still thinking they are on a fortune. I've seen plastering jobs in the UK last year advertised for 7 POUNDS and hour! That is most certainly due to Poles bringing the wages down across the board, so to speak.

Mate, quick tip. You have next to no chance of getting a job from the US. You have to realise how many backpackers are here looking for work. There's loads.