Cappuccino99

Last year I rented a 1 bedroom fully furnished apartment (with parking/gym/pool/concierge) on St Kilda Road, Melbourne for $490 per week. Try to keep away from the big rental agencies and find a smaller agency or private landlord.

I would rather pay for a good, reliable service than inconvenience family or friends. There are a few of these parcel forwarding companies and I'm just looking for personal recommendations.

Has anybody used a parcel forwarding company for when you buy stuff online from companies in the UK (e.g. Boots) who don't ship to Oz?

See if you are eligible for salary packaging where you can have all kinds of items inc rent/car payments etc taken from your gross salary so you only pay tax on the remainder. Hospitals have excellent salary packaging schemes.

So I sent approx 30 boxes of personal effects as part container from NZ to Melbourne at the end of January. The container arrived in port on 17th February. The shipping agent tells me there is a backlog at the port and customs are slow in signing off all the shipments and they can't tell me how long it will take to be cleared and delivered. Has anybody else waited weeks for their stuff to be delivered from Melbourne port? I desperately need my iron and ironing board cos I'm running out of unwrinkled clothes!!

Anybody here working for Telstra? Do they have good staff benefits? Can somebody here please explain salary packaging and novated car leasing?

Try meetup.com for social groups

Pollen count here in Melbourne is often v.high. In fact I've started to suffer with hayfever for the first time as an adult. It's pretty bad at the moment and I've been sneezing/itchy eyes all day :-(

That's an article from 2012.....Julia Gillard is no longer Prime Minister!

Have a look at meetup dot Com for groups with similar interests, also, if you are on Facebook there are several social groups e.g. Female friendship groups.

You should all get a whooping cough booster as there is an outbreak in Oz at the moment and there are a lot of anti-vaxers here! I just had my booster as it comes as a triple - diphtheria, whooping cough (pertussis), tetanus. Cost me $50 as an adult but I needed it be around new born babies.

I didn't vote but I've just bought a fist full of fivers :-)

I've never thought about this before reading someone's story about being charged for ambulance call out. So I did some research and just paid for ambulance cover as I don't have private health care. You might want to look into this especially if you've arrived recently from somewhere there is no cost for ambulance services.

I've just signed up for the MyPost Parcel Locker. Hopefully this will work successfully as I live in an apartment building with nowhere for parcels to be left securely if I'm not home. The nearest Post Office with these lockers is just over the road and open 24/7 so it seems like a great idea. Has anybody used this method successfully or any problems?

No, it's not. I'm already living in Australia on a SCV.

Has anybody else been in this horrible situation? After receiving verbal job offer via recruiter with email confirmation, references taken and all good, call from new manager to discuss potential start date, then contract not materialising, and then told that an internal candidate came forward at the last minute and is cheaper to retrain them than to take on a new person. I'm not too happy with this global company's ethics.

Has anyone done one of these in Melbourne? Any recommendations?

Yes and no

It's 3am and the thunder/lightning/rain is keeping me awake!

New Farm - village feel but close to City.

I think you've missed your flight ;-)

I've been asked to provide 3 references. They must be contactable by phone to give full answers to questions about my work and character. Is this normal practice in Oz? My last job in the UK (contract via an agency) asked for 2 referees but didn't bother to contact either! Also I believe that UK references are just statement of fact confirming employment and not about character.

Try looking at the Meetup website for social/interest groups in your area.

I've recently arrived in Melbourne and busy applying for jobs. One company requires a current Aus police report. I'm happy to do this but it seems a little bit pointless as I arrived in Australia (Brisbane) in February after 2 years of travelling/working around the world. For the company to be sure I have no criminal convictions etc, surely I'd need a report from each of the countries I've lived in for more than 6 months?

I'm also alone in Melbourne (arrived this week!) but I've joined lots of meetup groups and my diary is filling up - there seems to be so many groups so I'm surprised when you say there is nothing that interests you. I've already met a few nice people but it takes time and patience to make new friends.