BathEd

On 30/08/2019 at 19:38, sharon h said:

Go Matilda are fantastic 

Any other suggestions? He's contacted Go Matilda but they said they are so busy they can't take anyone else on!

14 hours ago, Marisawright said:

What Cal said. Most reputable agents will give you a free initial consultation (avoid the ones that don’t)

Thanks, that's good advice. Does anyone have any suggestions for good agents? 

On 15/03/2019 at 06:00, Marisawright said:

I think the reason for the driving is just the fact that Australian drivers don't need to develop the skills when they're a learner, and after that there's no one to teach them.  

We were terrified on the roads the whole time we were in the UK (south of England).   The traffic was SO fast, even on narrow winding roads.  Roundabouts were nervous breakdown territory.  It wasn't that people drove badly, in fact their skills were good - but then they drove to the limit of their skill and expected everyone else to be just as adept.   In Australian suburbs - where Australians learn to drive - the roads are wide and relatively quiet and you don't even have to consider other road users half the time, because there aren't any. You don't have to be aware of how wide your car is because you never have to squeeze through a narrow lane.  And so on.  Then once you've got your licence, you venture onto busy roads and have no idea how to deal with them, but you're on your own. 

It's probably quite regional, but I found the driving in Australia to be much better than in the UK. To be fair I've only driven in southwest and south central England in the UK and a circuit from Cairns to Port Douglas, Atherton tablelands, Undara, Townsville, Innisfail and back to Cairns in Australia. 

But, for example I got a bit confused at Ingham and didn't realise the Bruce highway is dual carriageway in the town because the central reservation is wide and full of trees. So I started making a right turn heading north onto what turned out to be the southbound carriageway (oops!) at some traffic lights. I realised I was making a mistake and stopped to correct it. Here there would be furious beeping of horns and a lot of shouting and aggression but the other drivers were very patient and there were no horns etc. 

Driving within the speed limit (but not excessively slowly) I didn't get any tailgating or overtaking on blind bends as you'd get here.

It's probably different in and around Sydney etc.

Here are some of mine from a few years ago, not great photography and you can see I'm a bit nature and wildlife crazy!

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns, lipstick palms

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns with bush turkey

Travellers palm, Cairns

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns, boardwalks

Australian pelican

Flecker Botanic Gardens, Cairns

Australian pelicans at the seashore, Cairns

Tree frog in or B&B, Cairns

Kuranda Skyrail

Couldn't help sniggering at Yorkeys Knob! 

Port Douglas marina

Port Douglas market

Port Douglas

Flamboyant tree, Port Douglas

Licuala ramsayi, symbol of Cairns Regional Council

Boyd's forest dragon, Daintree rainforest

Daintree rainforest beach

Cute church at Yungaburra

Lake Eacham

Townsville Palmetum

Coco de mer, Townsville Palmetum (a real rarity!)

Undara Experience

This went onto the back burner for a while but is now on the cards again. Sorry if the questions are basic, but this is only an idea at the moment. 

So my partner is a web developer, this isn't on the visa list but web programmer is. He doesn't seem to think there is any real difference between the two things, so how would we go about finding out if he qualifies?

I wouldn't be too worried about Cairns being a "tourist trap". I've lived in Cape Town and now live in Bath which are both big tourism destinations and I don't think tourism is much of an issue. Tourists and locals tend to go to different places. I don't have much reason to go into the centre of Bath so tourists don't have much of an impact on me. Tourism in Cairns seemed rather small scale from what I saw of it when I went in September a few years ago from a European point of view. OK there were tourists at the esplanade but it didn't seem to be spoiling the enjoyment of people who appeared to be locals jogging, using the outdoor gym etc. 

Thanks all for the advice. I do use a daylight lamp and anti-depressants, which help to control it, but they don't make it go away. I love the outdoors, nature, gardening etc... except for almost half the year I don't even feel like going outside most of the time. By the spring my garden that was beautiful in summer is all unkempt and neglected looking.

I'm a bit of a weather and climate nerd, so I looked into sunshine hours for Cape Town where I only remember suffering SAD slightly in the winter if there was a cold front that brought quite a few overcast and rainy days in a row, compared with some Australian cities.

Cape Town is sunnier for the year (3094 hours) than Melbourne (2363), Sydney (2636), Cairns (2718), Adelaide (2765), Brisbane (2968), Townsville (3080) or Darwin (3092) but not as sunny as Perth (3230).

Perhaps more importantly though might be the number of hours in the least sunny month, in which Cape Town (175, June) is sunnier than Melbourne (120, June), Adelaide (138, June), Darwin (162, Feb) or Cairns (174, Feb) but less sunny than Sydney (177, June), Perth (181, June), Brisbane (198, June) or Townsville (204, Feb)

At the end of the day they're all pretty similar compared with Bath, UK with 1493 hours for the year and just 38 h in Dec though!

Wish you all the best but I would try to separate 'holiday' feeling vs. 'real life'. I've been caught up a few times visiting somewhere and falling head over. Imagining life there, jobs, housing... life... and then when you return home reality sets in a bit and wherever you are (for most) you still have to work, pay bills, argue about who's doing the dishes etc.. ! As long as you remember you'll still have to do all the boring things that life normally brings you'll be fine! Hope you find a way to get there.

This is true, but do you have any suggestions for how to do it? I've been on holiday to a lot of fantastic places: Cape Town (where I used to live), Lisbon, Rome, Japan etc and had a great time, but never for a moment imagined living in any of them.

Hi all, part of the reason I'm thinking of emigrating is that I suffer badly from seasonal affective disorder. The NHS sums it up pretty well for me (except for the weight gain bit):-

------------------------

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern.

SAD is sometimes known as "winter depression" because the symptoms are more apparent and tend to be more severe during the winter.The symptoms often begin in the autumn as the days start getting shorter. They're typically most severe during December, January and February.

SAD often improves and disappears in the spring and summer, although it may return each autumn and winter in a repetitive pattern.Symptoms of SAD

Symptoms of SAD can include:

• a persistent low mood
• a loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities
  
• irritability
  
• feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness
  
• feeling lethargic (lacking in energy) and sleepy during the day
  
• sleeping for longer than normal and finding it hard to get up in the morning
  
• craving carbohydrates and gaining weight
  

---------------------------

Does anyone have any experience of this, and did moving to a better climate help significantly? I'm not imagining it would be a magic bullet for all aspects of depression, but maybe it could be part of the solution.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I should say we're not really big city people, so though job prospects in bigger cities would be better, we'd rather live elsewhere and we'd rather balance surroundings against wages, within reason. For example I'm only an hour and a half from London by train, but I can't remember the last time I went, except for a work training day. Cairns or Townsville seemed large enough to satisfy any needs, employment permitting. I would also have thought housing would be a lot more affordable, for example I saw a beautifully restored four-bed tropical style house (living area upstairs, garage/storage/utility underneath) with a large garden in a small town (can't remember which) a manageable drive south of Cairns just off the Bruce highway advertised for $280 000. Which is almost exactly the value of our ex-council semi at current exchange rates!

I actually love the heat and humidity, I know a lot of people from cold countries struggle with them but I have bad sinus problems and it really helps clear them. Seemed happiest in the rainforest!

Hi and thanks for your helpful reply. Web Developer is on the CSOL and he may count as a Programmer Developer which is on the SOL, so the idea is not a non-starter. Obviously there are a lot of other things to consider like family, finding work their etc so thought it best to make sure it's not non-starter before thinking about those things.

Ed

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

Australian visas work on occupations, though it is also a points based system.

 

There are two lists of occupations known as SOL and CSOL. Ideally, one of your occupations is on the SOL as this makes things easier, if not, then you would need to check if any states are sponsoring for CSOL occupations.

 

The starting point is here https://www.border.gov.au/

 

Here are the two lists https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work/Work/Skills-assessment-and-assessing-authorities/skilled-occupations-lists/SOL

 

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work/Work/Skills-assessment-and-assessing-authorities/skilled-occupations-lists/CSOL

 

You will need to do a lot of reading

 

It may be a good idea to speak to a good registered migration agent such as http://www.newlifedownunder.com.au/

 

Being a same sex couple has no impact

Hi,

thanks for your helpful reply. Web Developer is on the CSOL and Developer Programmer (which he may count as) is on the SOL, so it seems it's not a non-starter. This is just an idea at the moment.

Hi all, hope you cangive me a bit of advice even though it's rather general.

We visited northernQueensland from the UK recently on holiday, from Cairns up toDaintree, down to the Atherton Tablelands, out into the outback toUndara and down to Townsville, then back up the coast via Innisfailetc to Cairns again. Totally fell in love with far north Queensland,with the tropical lifestyle, scenery, nature, people etc, AlthoughI've lived in the UK for most of my life, I was born in South Africaand I still get very down because of the lack of sunshine in winterand immediately felt at home in a strange way on my visit.

Anyway it set me offthinking how much I would like to live there but I know very littleabout the practicalities of it which is what I'd like some adviceabout. I know it's meant to be quite difficult to get into Australiaso I'm wondering if it's something worth looking into/working towards(we're not ready to just up sticks and leave by any means). Basicallyare we being unrealistic or is it worthwhile pursuing?

Background is we'reboth British citizens, same-sex couple (not sure what effect thathas) 29 & 34. Both of us have uni degrees, me in EnvironmentalBiology and him in Design for Digital Technology and GraphicalCommunication. I have a little experience working in EcologicalConsultancy and doing science lab work and he has five yearsexperience as a Web Developer. We have about £50 000 equity on ourhouse in the UK.