Nearlythere1

Hi All, Haven't been on for a while, but here's my initial report after arriving in Townsville on the 5th November. Long hideous flights, as expected lol.. Arrived to heavy rainfall which was a surprise, which made it quite humid and sticky. Sorted the bank and phone on day one, Drivers licence and Medicare on day two, TFN on day three. Had the weekend off and started looking for work on the Monday, day six, got a job on Tuesday, day seven ( took about 29 hours to find a job, which was great). Took the rest of the week off as started work on the following Monday.. Visited friends and had a bit of a tour around the area. Am staying with friends until after Xmas, so very little pressure at the minute. Got a casual job initially, until Xmas with a view to becoming permanent if both parties are happy with the initial 5 weeks work etc. review on the 17th. Won't commit to a house rental contract until I get a permanent contract for work. Been offered other jobs in the following weeks, but in different parts of Queensland, so will stick with this for now. Weird being the new guy again, after so long in the same dept, like starting over again. Work is very different here, people don't seem to be as polite as in the UK. Wages aren't what I'd hoped for and workload is far higher here.. Don't know if it's just the company I've chosen to work for or not as yet.. Loving the constant sunshine, and have learnt to park the car under a shady tree and find the shady spots to stand in when outside.. Been mostly 32 degs + upto about 35 degs one day, plenty of water needed and a dip in the pool at the end of a hot days work has been essential and very invigorating.. They all came to me quite quickly lol.. Our furniture arrived at my brother in laws in Brisbane about 10 days ago, mostly useless forwarding company at the Brisbane end, wanted to charge me $2500 to forward stuff to Townsville from Brisbane, if they kept the stuff in their warehouse, or $4500 after being stored at my brother in laws, still packed.. Declined both those services.. Drove down to Brisbane last weekend to fetch my tools, that was a long weekend.. 32 hrs driving, altogether.. I was amazed when I realised that I'd started from half way up Queensland, drove 16 1/2 hrs South and was still in Queensland.. Puts the size of the place in some perspective for me.. Won't do that again without a week off, really needs minimum of two days each way.. Going to look at a one way hire of an 8 ton self drive truck for the furniture removals, after Xmas, not sure whether I can hire one with my UK licence though.. Friends birthday party yesterday, had a bit of a storm to go with it, mostly "p*ss and wind" seems to be the saying around here.. Little bit delicate today, so nice relaxing day off, apart from joining super fund online.. Initial thoughts are quite positive, the streets aren't paved with gold and quite a task trying to get used to working for a living again after having such a cushy number in the UK.. All the people outside of my working environment have been lovely and welcoming, too early to tell whether I need to re-evaluate my career path to get something better paid and cushier though.. Thanks for listening all, and have a great Christmas.. :chatterbox: X

Hi Gbye grey sky, still no news on that front then? Have decided to go with Australian Super, as far as my contributions in Australia are concerned, seems to be the best performer of the Supers that I'm eligible to join in my line of work, and on QROPS list. Still waiting to find out about the UK civil service pensions transfer though.. Getting suspicious now lol..

Everything will be ok as long as it is all clean, especially outside stuff like garden furniture, shoes, golf trolleys etc. No cane or wicker and only treated or varnished wood.. He's not exaggerating unfortunately.. You can leave it, but have heard some stories about the costs of cleaning or failing that, destruction of items etc.. Someone paid around $90 to have a wicker basket destroyed lol.. Apparently if everything smells of Jeyes fluid then they know that you've made the effort to clean stuff.. They are pretty keen on this kind of thing... Don't want any outside plant life or crawly things getting in.. :wacko:

The wonders of modern technology eh? Would've been better tying it to a pigeon and pointing it south lol.. At least you have your receipt. Some tech will hit the server with a hammer in a few hours and everything will be back to normal.. :wink:

Maybe an Immi website problem, I'd give a day and see what happens, did it send you or give you a receipt for your payment ok? Haven't used the system myself, so can't help anymore than that I'm afraid.. Hopefully someone will be along soon to advise further, bit quiet here at the mo.. Best of luck, I'm sure it'll sort itself out sooner or later.. :wink:

What do you need proof of your $5000 for? Just wondering? :wink:

OH loves M&S stuff, so that's good.. I like the Cheesy Puffs though and they don't do the food range.. Have sent a package of M&S Cheesy Puffs over for my Brother in law in the past.. Most expensive Cheesy Puffs ever TBH.. :wink:

I think that my choice would be based on the vehicle safety rating TBH. All great to have economical and low cost, think I would rather survive a crash, especially with some of the wingnuts driving around on the roads these days. I think that my driving is pretty safe (as most do), but you can't account for the person coming the other way.. :chatterbox:

Just watched the trailer on youtube, looks good. My type of movie; Cheers :wink:

Sounds good, I'd watch it.. :wink: Sorry for being thick, but what do you mean about the Wagga Wagga bit? not familiar with the term.. :confused:

Hi, I agree with Ozmaniac on this. My OH had some medical issue, but our Agent told us that DIBP are more concerned with likely long term and expensive medical costs which divert healthcare funds away from Australians. Needless to say, as my OH isn't on any medication at all now, that all was ok. Maybe they just want to check that this an historic event and not a current one.. Best of luck anyway.. :wink:

I can't even find it on the Citizenship website, tried Googling it too, there's an old thread on a different forum that asks about it, but they didn't get an answer either.. Curious one this.. Best of luck getting some info, sorry can't help.. :wink:

Hi, I did the IELTS a few months ago. Needed the 20 points for our 189. It's only £130, which is not a great deal when you tally up the rest of the costs.. I thought i'd use my first attempt as a guide to how much work I would need to put in to get the 8s across the board.. Got 8.5s on my first attempt with little revision, which amazed me to be honest, was terrified prior to going in lol.... Some have struggled with it which is understandable, as peoples strengths are always in different areas, but when you sign up for the test, they give you a log in that provides access to practice info and examples etc. Also, I googled IELTS band 8 and that came up with lots of info. Don't see why any native Brit shouldn't get it, with the right amount of effort etc.. Best of luck.. :wink:# Edit: PS, you can sit it as many times as you like, but £130 each time.. :chatterbox:

Hi, I haven't got anything, as yet, but interested to see what tips you get back.. Haven't heard anything from friends and family already there either, TBH. The UK seems to be quite unique in the way it does the two for ones and bogofs etc.. :wink:

Hi All, Just a quick one.. When looking to book your first entry flights when emigrating, consider the baggage allowances of the different carriers.. Some carriers will give you an extra 10kgs baggage allowance on first use of your visa, on certain visas (check if yours is the right type). OH is flying with Singapore Airlines in Jan and has 40kgs, where as I will be flying with Qantas on Monday with only 30kgs allowance. They have a migration package which does allow an extra 10kgs, but the tickets must be bought through Qantas direct, rather than a third party, this unfortunately appears, in my case at least, that I have saved considerably by going through a third party to book, but then don't get the extra 10kgs. Qantas currently charges Aud $140 per 5kgs for extra baggage, when pre booking, and all carriers charges are considerably more at the airport. Maybe worth looking into prior to booking.. Cheers :chatterbox: