Maginca

Hi We are going to move from Western Australia (Mandurah) to Queensland this year. We've given Mandurah 2.5 years of our lives and are ready to explore now. Mandurah is very nice but we feel we need something else and a bit more life! It seems almost as hard as when we moved over from the UK not knowing areas. We have a 9 year old daughter and 2 dogs and love being out and about. So here's my list of wants: Live not far from shops, city, nightlife, beach Easy access to airport (husband works FIFO) Preferably not brand new houses on "lego-land" identical house estates (prefer traditional) Places to walk my dogs off leash Decent schools I can't wait to come and do a reccie and have looked at flights and will be hit for about $2000 for us 3 to get there from WA at a weekend so just one visit will have to do :wideeyed: Areas I've looked at are Birkdale, Wellington Point, Manly and that's as far as I've got (looked at Ascot and local to CBD but am put off by the prices) As for Gold Coast I've no idea where to start! Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks!

Hi Clara! Welcome to Mandurah! I've PM'd you ​x

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who's posted positive feedback, it's been a real help reading through the pages. We're no closer today than we were yesterday to safety, but are pushing on. I've vented on here because I've not told any friends or family in the UK how much we're struggling, and haven't spoken to anyone "back home" for a couple of weeks so that I don't worry them, so maybe having a rant on here helped me! I'd do anything to have been able to push my CRAP agent to sort out the PR for us, but like I said she wanted her 99.9% success rate. She gave Rob 5 years on paper as an electrician, even though he had proof of 8+ years which would have got us a PR. We asked and asked but she kept saying it was too risky and we may be refused, and after spending the best part of £8000 on agents fees, DIAC fees, medicals and Vetassess bills and with a week to go til Rob hit 40 we went with it and accepted the 475. Of course we researched it, but no amount of research could realistically prepare us for real life here (workwise). There are tons of jobs on Seek, Indeed, Gumtree etc, so it looked very promising as a TA or entry job from the UK. Anyway, like I said, we are here, we will stay here and things WILL change! Thanks again for the messages, most of them cheered me up immensely!

Erm, actually he's applied for everything from labourer to TA, to working in a bloody pig farm and a scrap yard just to get us by. There are hundreds of applicants per job. The ones he has spoken to for a TA have clearly told him they just want a 17-22 year old, not to mention someone with Ozzy experience. Or they're miles away and out of our region. It's absolutely NOTHING to do with pride or greed or ignorance. He has cold called in on businesses here. Given resumes to agents. Trawled the net. Asked in pubs. So I do think you are being a little judgemental here saying he thinks he's too good to be a TA. He went for a job interview today that was offering $16 an hour in a scrap yard which was 1.5 hours away for a part time hours which wouldn't even cover fuel after tax. He got turned down anyway as they wanted a local school leaver! Perhaps one day (when you've finished making your millions in Oz backpacking) things will change for you and you'll know how it feels? I hope not though. Ok, so I came on here whilst having a moment, worried about the future and feeling quite negative. I know something will come up, and we will stay here. I actually like Mandurah. It's just the bulk of the work isn't within our zone. Our holiday accommodation is expensive, as we had to book it very last minute and it was all we could get at the time (as we'd been let down at the last minute on the cheaper one) but we've now got a perm rental for a very decent price. My original moan on here was about the visa restrictions! I like Oz, and am glad we're here. And here we will stay!

What an unhelpful response! Had you read the post from the start (which clearly you haven't!) you'd see that we are on a 475 regional state sponsored visa, meaning we CANNOT live or work in Perth or anywhere near Perth, including Rockingham and Fremantle and ALL northern suburbs right up to past Yanchep. Hence we are living in Mandurah. We are well aware that there are lots of jobs in Perth. Furthermore, my husband needs to get his Grade A licence before being allowed to work unsupervised on any site, and has a provisional licence which no-one is interested in. We have forked out large amounts of money for him to get extra licences to enable him to get jobs, not to mention paying for the VETASSESS and all the relevant tests and fees to get here, and paying for his tools to be shipped over. I think your comments are very unfair. I am not worrying people unnecessarily , I'm telling it how it is for us. Lots of people come here and struggle. Enjoy your backpacking days. Good luck to you.

No, we're not able to get $500 every 2 weeks! To add insult to injury, we are NOT eligible in any way for any kind of help, including child benefits or medicare. The immi.gov website clearly states that we should ensure we have enough money to get us by! We have been here for just under a month and have spent nearly $10,000 on a used car, temp accommodation and just scraping by with groceries, courses for husband and necessities. We've not done ONE single tourist thing, not been out, not taken our daughter anywhere apart from the beach/park so it's not like we're being extravagant! All we want is a job so we can get on with it! We've both worked every day since the age of 16 and this is a cold blow now to be desperate and unemployed and thousands of miles away from help! I sound like a proper whinging pom!!!!

In an ideal situation that'd be fantastic, and we have thought of it. But we can't seem to find ANYONE who's done it. The visa stipulates that we have to stringently stick to the postcode rules and not work or live in the other areas ie live for 3 years, work for a minimum of 1 year in specified area and apply after 2 for PR. This sucks as even the houses are better towards Rockingham, and there's actually LOTS of work there. I'm sure Rockingham used to be classed as Regional? I'd love to hear from anyone who has managed to get around the regional strictness? I've emailed the immigration office in Perth 3 times now and sent them our documents to register our arrival as requested, but haven't even had an acknowledgement back!! If thats' how much attention they pay to us, then it makes me wonder if we could move? Probably not worth the risk

Cheers for the replies We've just got a 6 month rental in Mandurah. We only have 14 days left in this super expensive holiday rental (almost $1000 a week!!!) and had to find accommodation and get our daughter into a school. So basically we're here for the next 6 months, fast running out of money, and arguing/crying more than I can remember! I'm glad it's not just us. I did get offered a job feeding horses 25 kilometres away for a ridiculous $10 an hour!! My child care would have been £20+ per hour, so go figure! I know it'll come good in the end, it's just not the Oz I'd anticipated yet. I do strongly advise people to stay well clear of the regional sponsored visas though, as it is pants! We were forced into it by our lazy agent, I think she just knew it had a high success/acceptance rate and wanted her points at work. Rob's now 40 and I'll be 40 next year. Not even sure if he's allowed to work in the mines on our visa? Pffft. Thanks for the support though

We are UK citizens and declared my husbands conviction on the landing card and he ended up getting taken away for questioning about his spent convictions at 3am when we emigrated. Hindsight,,,, I wish we'd not written it down!

Hello!!! We've been here for a month now (myself, husband and 7 year old daughter) and I'd never have imagined we'd be this unhappy. We came on a 475 Regional State Sponsored Visa and are living in Mandurah. This regional sponsorship is awful. All the jobs are not within our regional areas, some literally a stones throw from our areas (Rockingham/Fremantle) but not acceptable by the government here for our strict visas. Mandurah is beautiful, but there's no work here. Yes, yes, I know that's what the regional sponsored visa is about, but even after a years research we couldn't have prepared for the lack of work! Damn my agent for not pushing for a 176 when we asked her to. My husband is a sparks and I've owned a grooming salon for years in the UK but have loads of experience in other careers and can turn my hand to most jobs. However, we have so far spent approximately 9 hours a day applying for jobs, cold calling jobs, emailing companies, registering with agencies, walking the streets looking for "Hiring" signs..... and NOTHING! My husband has begun expensive training to do all the tickets required to get a job, such as working at heights, confined spaces, EWP, forklift truck etc at a HUGE cost just so he can work on a site somewhere, but the companies want actual Ozzy experience and they're not in our postcode area. Can't get his Grade A licence until he has his provisional one through then goes to college at huge expense. He even applied to work on a pig farm and a 17 year old's job as a farriers assistant! I have had to pay for a course just to serve drinks in a bar, and STILL can't get a job despite going into every bar, restaurant and agency with my resume! I actually think we were better off in the UK. We owned a house outright, and had great jobs and support. I feel lonelier than ever here, and just cry all night after a day of utter rejection. I know that loads of you readers will shoot me down and say I'm lucky to have got here, but I'm sorry that's not how t feels right now. We won't/can't go home as we've invested everything we own into this, but I'm seriously at breaking point.