Ardita13

That was exactly why it rang an alarm bell for me! You wouldn't buy tickets to a concert without listening to any of the band's music before you went! Thanks so much to everybody for all your responses to my post! My partner and I did end up going to the expo in the end, mostly because we wanted that feeling of 'doing something' positive towards moving, as mentioned by other people here. We drove for two hours to get there and, frankly, it was rather disappointing. We didn't find the seminars particularly informative, they were basically advertising presentations from people trying to sell you services, (money transfer, migration agents etc). There was one solitary medical recruitment lady there, and we had to queue up for at least 45mins to speak to her. She was friendly and helpful, but the information she gave was easily available on the internet. I walked away feeling that I could have called her company office the next day, from the comfort of my home, and had a very similar conversation without having to queue up for ages. I think there is a feeling that if you don't go to one of these expos, you might be missing out on some vital nugget of information that will help you move to Australia. The truth is that, with excellent information/advice available on websites like this one, and from the official aussie government sites, you can work it all out for yourself and save the time and money. On the upside it did give my partner and I, who are usually very busy, a day dedicated to discussing our move, planning our timetable and thinking it all through, which was very helpful (although if we had the time over again, we would set the day aside and stay at home together with cups of tea, our laptop and PIO!). Thanks again to everyone for your responses and advice :-)

I am planning a move to Australia with my family in the next 2 years so I thought it might be helpful to go to the 'Down Under Live' migration expo in Birmingham this weekend. I just had a rather bizarre experience! I phoned the Down Under Live 'hotline' to ask which exhibitors will be there this weekend as I wanted to know if any will relate to us. That seems a fairly reasonable enquiry to me! The guy on the phone was really evasive/defensive and wouldn't give me any information at all. He said he thought I was from a "rival exhibition company trying to find out what was going on at their expo". When I said I just wanted to know what was going on at the exhibition before spending £15 per ticket and travelling a long distance he said "I don't really understand why you want to know" and got quite assertive. Eventually he said there would be 25 stands, but refused to say what any of them would be. I was only asking for an exhibitors list to decide whether a visit would be worthwhile, I wasn't asking for the guys personal bank details for god's sake!! It rang a bit of an alarm bell that it might be an utter waste of our time - potentially a 2hr drive to visit a few people behind folding tables trying to sell removal services etc. Hrm, strange! Can anybody help with advice: Are you going? have you been before and was it worthwhile? Is this unhelpful turd in customer services a reflection of a Mickey Mouse expo/event? Thanks, all advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks, the doctors thread is really helpful :-)

Thanks, I'm interested in any advice/general comments if he has any pearls to pass on :-)

Thanks :-).

Hi PomPrincesses, Thanks for your response. It has been a little bit of a worry, which was why I'm keen to find out more, but I don't think it would put me off moving to Oz though. Out of interest, is your cousin's husband a GP or a hospital doctor? there seems to be information online about being a GP in Oz but almost nothing about hospital specialities.

Hi Everyone! I've been reading through these forums for ages but am new to posting! So, hello to all and thanks for the hours of reading material :-)!! I'm really hoping to get some advice from British doctors working in Australia. I'm a mature student (28) in my final year of med school and have my heart set on moving to live in Australia (hopefully the Brisbane/Southern Queensland area) once I've qualified and completed my F1 year. I have a list of questions as long as my arm but first of all would just really appreciate any advice / tips people could give about working in the Australian healthcare system; the jobs, the training, what being in 'an area of workforce shortage' really means, (am not keen on spending 5 years in the far outback as the 'Doctor connect' website implies!)? I'm going to Brisbane for a bit of a reconnaissance mission in a few months time so is there anything in particular I ought to do or find out about while I'm there? (I did a working holiday year in Oz when I was 20 but spent most of my time either picking fruit or at the beach!). I've tried to look for Doctor/Medic threads but can't find any so if these sorts of questions have been answered elsewhere and I'm just being a nube then my apologies! Thanks!!!