mungbean

...and then there's Sydenham - holy crap!! I went to the IKEA there today and it's literally at the end of the runway. Doesn't look like there's much residential development around there though, mostly shops and garages.

According to this the only visas with restrictions are 405 and 410, which are both retirement visas. http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/reciprocal-health-care-agreements

Have any new arrivals registered for Medicare in Sydney recently? I was half-way to the Medicare office on George St when I noticed on Google Maps that it has "closed permanently", and since I was already running late for something else I didn't bother going there to check. Do we now have to go to a CentreLink office instead? My nearest one (Leichhardt) isn't open weekends. Bit of a pain. Thanks!

up to date: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-leaving-the-uk-getting-your-tax-right-p85

Yeah, I lived in Fulham for 6 months. 5.30am alarm clock included in the price... :-P

List of websites here: http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/renting-real-estate/228947-some-links-finding-temporary-accommodation.html

Quite the opposite, if you're from the UK. http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/medicare/reciprocal-health-care-agreements/health-care-for-visitors-to-australia If you are a resident of New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Finland or Norway, you are covered for the length of your stay in Australia. If you are a visitor from Belgium, the Netherlands or Slovenia, you need your European Health Insurance card to enrol in Medicare. You are eligible until the expiry date shown on the card, or for the length of your authorised stay in Australia, if that is an earlier date. If you are visiting from Malta or Italy, and you are a resident and citizen of those countries, you’ll be covered by Medicare for a period of six months from the date of your arrival in Australia.

Many people have to work out the numbers to see whether it's financially viable for them to take up a new post, whether it's overseas or not. Reducing it to "wanting to" is rather naive, and doesn't take into account the many and varied commitments and circumstances that we all have when making these decisions. OP might find this site useful, since working conditions and pay are far more harmonised/controlled in Aus than the UK, but I'm not sure how this impacts someone doing shifts: http://www.fairwork.gov.au/

Already posted elsewhere, but I found this map useful... it shows the flight-paths to/from the airport. The shaded area ("20 ANEI") is the noisiest bit. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&mid=zKMXRFKrFd7g.kkbkkbIDE2Lo I've stayed in temporary accommodation in Balmain, Bondi Beach, Rushcutter's Bay, Rozelle, St Peter's and Leichhardt over the past few weeks, and I can tell you it makes a hell of a difference if you're on the flight path, with those last two being the worst. In Leichhardt you can pretty much see the tread-marks on the plane's tyres as it's coming into land, directly overhead of Balmain Road. More to the point, it's so loud that you have to pause your conversation and wait for it to go past. They don't fly all night, but I found I was waking up at around 6.10am each morning when the first one was coming in. There's also detailed data here if you want it: http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/publications/noise-reports/australian-noise-exposure-index-reports/ Needless to say -- if this doesn't bother you, then you will get much better value housing in these areas.

Details are here http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/income-test-pensions

Harder yes, but not impossible - if you use domain.com.au and realestate.com.au the listings usually have a flag to say whether the landlord will accept pets or not, so you just include that in your search criteria - which you can save, and get emailed to you daily.

So many great bays and beaches to choose from - thanks @MARYROSE02, looks like it's worth a visit

Very true... Google street view is particularly amazing. And PIO of course!

I just came to Sydney without ever having set foot in the Southern Hemisphere before. So far, so good. I also worked in India for 4 years before that, and I'd never visited before going there either. If you have a sense of adventure (and probably - no kids), then why not? Nobody's asking you to sign in blood that you will stay forever.

Koalas and snakes = swings and roundabouts. Where's this, in Gold Coast?

Also talks about property rental btw, e.g... One in four Australian households now rent their home, and many face punishing rents and some of the worst security of tenure in the developed world.

http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/property/infrastructure/sydneys-stuck-in-traffic-putting-the-brakes-on-women-and-the-west/72111 Sydney is a city grinding to a halt, with the worst traffic congestion anywhere in Australia. Our new analysis reveals that over the decade to 2012, the proportion of full-time employees in Sydney who commute for more than 10 hours a week rose from 22 per cent to 29 per cent. Those workers are spending almost three full weeks a year just to get to and from work. That is one of the new findings in our book, City Limits: why Australia’s cities are broken and how we can fix them, published today. It also shows that residents of large areas of outer Sydney have little choice about long commutes – and congested roads and crowded trains and buses are only symptoms of a much deeper problem facing Australia’s most populated city. [continues]

Well, I've already been out of the UK for 4 years actually, and have been trying to weigh this up for a while now. You don't actually miss the opportunity, full stop -- as I understand it you would just end paying a slightly higher rate. The rules on this seem to have been relaxed since I last looked, according to the updated gov.uk website... it used to be that you had up to 6 years to pay in arrears, now if you're lucky enough to be born after 1951 it looks like you can take even longer. I think we have to appreciate that pension arrangements etc. are all very individual, and that what's a sensible strategy for one person could be totally inappropriate for someone else.

4 years... not like we need to decide by the weekend, then.

I can't speak for WA, but in Sydney I was told I would hear in 48 hours, and that's exactly what happened. That "fire and forget" attitude is called time-wasting if you're a landlord of course.

Which city are you looking in, @itegoa? The application form I completed said something about promising to rent the place if accepted. Since you pay the holding deposit at the time of application, there is the chance you could lose it if you back out I suppose.

In Sydney this is described as a "holding deposit" - you pay a week's rent in advance to show that you are serious about the property, and it's then taken off the market. So it's not a fee as such, it's towards your rent, and to secure the property until you've signed the lease. Fees for listings and real estate agents are all paid by the landlord, which is why tenants get treated like cattle.

Yeah, I know. I only arrived 3 weeks back, about 3 months after getting the job offer. I've just got a house sorted, and completed 2 weeks in my new job. The thought of diving back into another round of RMA and visa stuff isn't an attractive one! But yes, the clock is ticking. Interesting how they just raised the retirement age to 70, but didn't change that 50 threshold...

It's also a bit of a gamble. I've not done any long term bookings, only 2-3 nights here, and up to a week there, all in Sydney since arriving 3 weeks back. But there is no guarantee that the place is anything like the photos, or that there will be any particular service standard, or come-back for that matter. All you can go on is the reviews. So committing yourself to 3 months could be a shot in the dark? Plus I was under the impression that the T&Cs are pretty much down to the hosts, rather than the system? I've actually enjoyed my Airbnb stays so far, but a couple of them have been massively over-priced for the place you get. Still, had to book everything at very short notice, and beggars can't be choosers! @djfuddy I'm curious where you've booked.... would you mind PMing me the Airbnb page? I feel like I've looked at every Sydney property on that website in the last 6 weeks!

I think I've read in another thread that the Labour Agreements are intended to be used for blanket coverage by large organisations for bulk-hiring? There is another option where you can be exempted from both Age Criteria and Skills Criteria by being a senior academic (ANZSCO 134411 Faculty Head), but from what I'm hearing this means being a dean in a university rather than a senior school teacher. Would be worth talking to an RMA about this specific option though, if you think it could be viable for you. I am also approaching 50 myself, so I'm trying to get up to speed very quickly on what the options are.