Dawn2002

We were charged $250 to destroy a small paper mâché box that had a dried leaf as a decoration on it, I know it's not food, but it's still plant material. Personally I wouldn't you'll be able to get it all over here and you may end up with large bill. We packed ourselves and I'd say over half our boxes were opened and inspected, so there's a fair chance they will see them.

Thanks for your responses, it's certainly given me something to think about. Engaus- that's interesting, I noticed the course I was looking at was also offered by flight centre with preference to jobs in the company given to candidates. Not sure how much it is, but it was $7k at TAFE. I am well fairly well travelled, but I think I defiantly need to take some career advice before investing such a large sum. I'll keep my eyes open for any upcoming events that might give me further insight into careers in the industry. Thanks again.

Thanks, Starlight7 I wondered if that was the case, I shall try to do as much research as possible. Have you ever studied at a TAFE ?

Hi There, I'm thinking ahead here, so after some advice. As both my children will be in school by 2016, I'm thinking of retraining and was thinking of doing a course at TAFE. Specifically on the travel/ tourism area, due to my current location on the Gold Coast and the fact that I love travelling. I was wondering if anyone has done a Course at TAFE, are the qualifications gained highly regarded by employers ? Was the tuition good etc ? And importantly how are mature students received, I'm a bit nervous I wouldn't fit in. Any feed back great fully received no matter what the subject studied was. Dawn

Hi there Not sure about the crocodile diving !!! Each to their own. My backpacking days were over ten years ago so couldn't help on cost of tours, but I did a few day trips as I was also travelling alone. I'm not sure I'd personally go for any tours longer than a few days myself, but that's just me. Perth- day trip taking in Wave Rock , pinnacles, and get to cuddle a Koala, long long day, was it worth it, I thought so. Day trip down the ocean road- defiantly worth it, I also shelled put for a helicopter trip on the tour and it was pretty amazing. Yarra valley wine region, also great and V pretty. I bought a car and did a bit of travelling also, Bendigo in Victoria has/ had a gold mine you could go down, that was really interesting. Not on the backpacker trail perhaps ? I slept in the car in the snowy mountains too, quite an experience, it was a station wagon though, so Put the back seats down and you have a double bed there ! Fraser Island is amazing, hired a 4wd and camped at lake Mackenzie which is stunning, saw a dingo and the shipwrecks, lovely place. If you can get to an Island on the Barrier Reef, do it go snorkelling/ scuba diving if you can, I didn't backpack here so don't know if there are islands in the backpacker budget. There's also lots of big things I. Australia Prawns, Avocados, guitars. All along the way. Canberra - I found a visit to Parliament House really interesting, I just turned up and there were daily tours, but I have no idea if you can still do this. Sydney- lived here for about 2 yrs( again over 10 yrs ago) you can walk and see most of the sights, just get a good guidebook, my personal favourite beaches are Manly and Tammarama, I always avoided Bondi, as I felt it was to crowded. But you can do a lot of walking round the coast there as I remember. Also if you can don't miss NYE in Sydney, we went to see the fireworks at midnight, cost nothing if you ignore the cost of alcohol. As Maryrose02 said, get the ferry round the harbour. The Manly Ferry is a good one. Go to Watsons bay there is a great view of the harbour and there used to be a takeaway fish and chip shop attached to the restaurant there. We have been to a few national parks and we've seen wildlife, lucky enough to see an Echidna in Sydney Royal National Park ( I think that's what it's called ), many of the less well known parks are lovely and you can really get off the beaten track especially if you camp and are willing to accept basic/ no utilities. Springbrook near where we are now is a prime example. As for zoos, Taronga was great, but again visited a while ago, I have however been to Australia Zoo recently and I thought they was worth it, you can even bring a picnic in. These are just a few of the things I did and still I haven't seen as much of the country as I would like. You will meet people if you are travelling alone, it sort of forces you to find company, it certainly did for me. I think it was the best thing I ever did. Have a great time, and best if luck.

We had one that lived behind a picture in our old place, he was there so much the kids named him (Neville), no idea why. One night he are a dragonfly that no word of a lie was almost as big as him !! He came and went on his own and the only annoying thing was when he used to do his noisy call every now and again. I'd leave him alone, I tried to catch one once, but it was too quick for me.

I'm on the Gold Coast, used to live near Surfers and never saw much wildlife except the Lorikeets. Now the Hinterland side of the M1 so much more about, we had a beautiful big Green Tree Frog in the garden last night. I would love a drop off point, when I called the council they really weren't interested. If I see another, I shall be catching it and getting the Hopstop.

Can I ask about the dettol method ? Does it have to be dettol or will any similar product with the. 99.9% germ kill rate do ? Thanks

Seems the general concencus is kill it. My hubby said I should have caught it, and kept it for him to check, he really does not like them either. I was going to get it and put it in the freezer, but I wasn't entirely sure it was a cane toad, as it was partially buried and didn't like to think I may kill some native toad. I agree a flyer in effect areas would help. I think my garden may be quite attractive for a toad at the moment as there's a lot of watering going on as we've just put grass seed down too. We also had a fair bit of rain yesterday. I have a feeling we may see another then hopefully someone can confirm for me for sure.

Ok so it lived to fight another day as it was gone by the time hubby came home. We did have what looked like a young one in the garden over the weekend, but he escaped under the fence, we've not been in this place long so maybe there's a lot in the area or it's just the time of year. If I get another one that's suspect I'll catch it and post a better photo. I think I'll be going for the freezer method though !

Not a great photo no, I'll leave him be for now, I don't want to touch it. hubby will be home from work soon and I'm sure he went on some sort of cane toad round up once, so he should know.

there you go, that's just its head, poking out

I'm pretty sure, checked out lots of pictures in the web . have a photo but having trouble posting. I'll keep trying

I know you're right Tina, I'm just squeamish about doing it, I did just give the council a call, they won't help, but did suggest putting salt on it !! Now I reckon that it's not very humane at all. Sorry Tina, do they jump about a lot when theyre in the freezer before they go to sleep ?

Lol, yes I've heard about that. I don't want it in the garden, then again I'm not sure I fancy it being in the fridge/freezer for a few days, which is the only humane method I can find. But Personally I think taking it down the local park wouldn't be right. Especially as we are in what I would describe as a semi rural area. I guess I've answered my own question !

Hello We recently started a veggie patch using some old car tyres as pots. When checking today it appears a cane toad has decided to make one it's new home. It's pretty big and description fits. Now I'm not scared of them, but I'm aware that they are poisionus and they are classed as a feral species. Also I have two young kids and my neighbours have dogs so I want to remove it. I've checked out a few websites, there doesn't seem to be much govt (qld) advice on how to deal with it. Others just suggest various ways to humanely kill it, and I don't think I could do that. Any advice ?

I'm in QLD, we got both our kids done on catch up at the GP all free, when we arrived last year. 3 doses, there's a 6 month gap between the second and third dose so takes a bit. I really wouldn't bother getting it done before you leave. Luckily we only had centrelink contact us once about cancelling their rebate, but it did take a while to sort out. Just go down with your Red Book from the UK with the record of your current jabs, v useful for them as it has the little barcodes on it, they loaded it all onto the system.

They sure do, I personally found getting a second rental more stressful than the first, probably as we had to get somewhere by a set date. But we were staying first time round with relatives so no money was being spent and no deadline to leave, ( except for my sanity leaving me !) Hope it all goes well.

Do you get a discount for a monthly payment on DD ? I would like to set one up to lessen the quarterly bill.

They, supply the obvious stuff, if it has air con, pool, solar power( not many rentals do that I have seen). In my experience, It's not really possible when renting to look as closely as you would like ( certainly if you wanted to stick your head in the loft I think it would be frowned on )as viewings are generally only for 15 mins with other people, you could ask about insulation, but I would be doubtful a rental agent would know. OH went for a viewing when we were recently looking when over 30 people turned up at once. I have found the rental market here to be a different kettle of fish to the UK, far more people looking to rent and lots of competition. So really you can note if something does look old, therefore possibly inefficient, but if this is the only house you've found that suits you, and you have a deadline these things can you out of the window. I don't know if it is a requirement to have the air con unit serviced regularly. We rent our house in the UK and as far as I know we don't have to have our boiler serviced once a year, we do this as we get it done with the fax safety certificate at the same time.

Not when renting no. Couldn't comment on buying.

Yes it's quite frustrating, it seems to be the same whatever we do. We move next weekend to a newer house with no pool, so I'm hoping the bill will go down too. Not sure if it is the age of the house that makes a difference, I have a friend who moved to a similar house to ours but only a few years old, so I'm interested to see what her bill is. She is also home with children like me. I have been told that the trick to getting the most from solar is setting appliences to run whilst the solar is generating, one after the other, if you can do that with yours.

I too was shocked at our first electric bill, we then checked out the Metre to work what sent it spinning the most and it was the pool pump and the air con. Our most recent bill was nearly $600 and that's with no air con/ heating on at all and a pool pump on for 6 hrs a day. Everything in our house is electric. We have a detached. 4 bed on the Gold Coast. I go with no 5 from srg73, I open the windows in the shade and keep the blinds closed on those in the sun, luckily we get a breeze in the afternoon so can open all the doors and windows and get a through breeze. It didn't work however in the height of summer !! Also, check out your loft, we have absolutely no insulation in ours and you can see the lights through the tiles at night !! We Also have those down lighters. We rent so not an lot we can do. I've also noticed that though the price for electricity used has gone down following the carbon tax being removed, our company has upped the supply charge to more than cover it...

We rent our place in the UK, for the same reason, we couldn't sell (without a huge loss), before we left. We use an agent to manage it, they take a percentage of the rent. ( haggle on the percentage we got them down by 2%). You will need to complete an NRL1 form for HMRC. We have had no problems with our tenant, just the managing agent, so we recently switched. We are also still in touch with our neighbours so I'm sure we would hear if they had any problems. Personally, I'm not comfortable with our biggest asset being on the other side of the world. We hope to sell next year. Just make sure all the sums add up before you decide to let.

That is bad luck. I noticed a bit of a suspect spot on my son tonight, so I guess I'll have to wait and see. Still better he gets it now than 2 days before we're supposed to go to Fiji.