bigfishybob

I’ve just requested mine to be transferred to QLD licence. Applied on the 9th and received notification on the 16th that the card had been produced and that I would receive it in 10 days.

The Gold Coast has a decent population ~600k vs Cairns ~150k. You also have the fallback of commuting to Brisbane, if you're struggling in the short term. I'd like to think you'd have a better chance, but I'm sure someone more informed will be able to let you know what the job situation is like down there. Good luck! Regards BFB

Not 100% decided where we’ll end up. Had a recent visit to Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. Liked them all, though my personal preference was the Sunshine Coast. Nothing set in stone yet, going to spend the first few weeks having a proper look around before making any firm decisions. I hope all goes well for you. Regards BFB

I might be inclined not to buy initially. This should give you a bit of financial flexibility, particularly if it doesn’t work. We’re heading out in July with a comparable budget and intend to rental for the first couple of years. Trying to be sensible in terms of the big ticket items such as the car and choice of long term rental. I expect to be paying more for rental, though factoring in location, I think this is fair value vs the UK. At least you can switch rentals reasonably easily if it proves not to be in line with your budget. Good luck! Regards BFB

I was just reading up on this. Seems like it does have a high fuel cost per passenger which is a shame. Looks like we may have direct flights to the east coast from 2022. I would still be tempted if the price wasn't too steep, but it looks like a 50%+ premium at present, which is hard to justify when you could probably get Premium Economy indirect. Apologies, drifting a little off topic... Family of 4 booking direct with Qantas and flying direct (marginally cheaper returning a day later, but there was an option for the 18th Jan): London (Heathrow) to Perth Monday, 30 December 2019 Departs 11:55 Flight Duration 16h 50m 0 stops Arrives 12:45 Tue ECONOMY Q Deal QF10 QF10 is subject to government and regulatory approval for departures between 28 October 2018 and 30 March 2019 Change this flight Perth to London Sunday, 19 January 2020 Select your return flight Subtotal: £2,261* GBP 2 Adults 2 Children Actually quite reasonable. Regards BFB

I was not a fan of the airport in Dubai, toilet facilities seemed to be fairly limited, with fairly long queues for these on the flight out and on the way back. Generally seemed busy and had a fair bit of construction ongoing. Still I may just have been unlucky. We were planning to use Singapore Airlines on our upcoming move out to Australia, but decided to break up the journey with a few weeks in the US. Had a look at direct flights to Perth, but these looked prohibitively expensive, I think in the £3-£4k range if I remember correctly. Then we would have had the internal flight also. Though if our end destination was Perth I would have been tempted. Hopefully as direct flights to Australia become more common they will drop in price. Good luck! Regards BFB

Thank you both for this.

Any idea what sort of documentation is typically required when applying for or starting a new school? I'm looking at Queensland in particular. I'm presuming general proof of ID, possibly some sort of handover document from their school in the UK, possibly medical documents (?)... Any general info or links to relevant posts would be appreciated. Regards BFB

For my recent trip to Aus I opened a free standard account with Revolut which allows you to exchange £5k per month at the interbank exchange rate. I also opened an account with WestPac which offered $50 for people who moving to Australia and opened a new bank account with them and deposited $250. Though I'm sure other banks offer similar. I then did several transfers from my Revolut account to my WestPac account in the weeks leading up to the trip. Shortly after arrival I went to the local branch to complete the setup of my account. My debit card was then ready ~5 working days after. In the meantime I withdrew money at the bank itself. Points to note. Not all bank branches open at the weekend (check online). Transfers should be done during the week i.e. not at the weekend - surcharge out of trading hours (I think). No fees. Interbank exchange rate. +$50. No issues as far as I'm aware. Regards BFB

We had a look round from the outside only, but it looked pretty impressive.

Thanks again. That all makes sense and aligns with my expectation. Much appreciated.

Thanks for this. I think this the approach we will be looking to take. What sort of hours per week were you working initially? Regards BFB

Apologies for the confusion. This makes sense now. Regards

Thanks for your replies. Elena (bruce 7) - Based on our recent visit, the Sunshine Coast would be our preferred destination. Though that is dependent on the availability of work - primarily for my wife - and having a reasonable degree of confidence in being able to securing a position, if not prior to arriving, then shortly after. We have been in contact with HR, but they said to just send in a CV and cover letter. I think the recommendation to try and make direct contact with an NUM is a good one and we will definitely give this a go. ramot - I will check out some of the hospitals you've mentioned. How did you find working in the private sector vs public sector? Regarding Casual positions - this sounds like there is no guarantee of work. Anybody have any experience/knowledge of this? Whilst not ideal, this seems like it might be a option short term to provide some income (possibly combined with other work e.g. agency), gain experience working in various department and making some contacts, with a view to finding more permanent opportunities. Regards BFB

That makes sense. Thanks for this. Regards BFB

I've searched a few times (via smartjobs.qld.gov.au) over the last couple of months on the SCHHS Vacancies for Registered Nurse positions and there seems to be very limited opportunities. Currently only showing some Casual Nursing Pool availability. Is this a fair reflection of availability? I thought there might be more considering SC Uni Hospital is a decent size hospital and fairly new. Is this the best site to be searching in the Sunshine Coast region? Any other recommendations appreciated. Also, regarding private vs public hospitals... My wife has generally been quite anti working in private hospitals in the UK. Clearly, the setup is a fair bit different in Aus. Is there a great deal of difference between the two in Aus vs the UK? Regards BFB

So.... *cough* Anyone else think Pom visually appears a bit to close to Porn for comfort? Offers a quite different perspective when viewing the Aussie chat page.... pornsinoz The Porn Queen Porn mum catches a very big fish etc... Probably just my misspent youth. I'll head back to my cave now, please move along nothing to see here. Regards BFB

Waz, Not particularly useful regarding car rental, but if you are looking to get a car when you move out there... I was just reading an article that said small economy cars are very competitively priced in Aus. It was from 2016, so a little out of date, but it quoted a Toyota Corolla as being 65% cheaper than the UK. So, I thought I'd check out what the prices were now for a Kia Piccanto (budget but 7 year warranty) and it looks to be around £8k/$14k. I think the same car is over £1k more in the UK, so more like 15% cheaper. It does provide some decent options though if you were looking to lease/contract-hire/finance, for a relatively low. Salary packaging seems like quite an interesting option too. I thought cars in general were a lot more expensive in Australia, though it does appear to naturally vary from range-to-range and manufacturer-to-manufacturer, presumably cheaper from South Korea, Japan etc as less far to ship. Regards BFB

Johndoe, Thanks for clarifying.

I could well be wrong about the suits, think I read that on here somewhere, but no idea to be honest.

Marisawright, Many thanks for your post, some excellent advice. I agree Brisbane seems like the main place for jobs, so I’m pretty resigned to having to go there for work and to live. Though there do seem to be a few web developer type roles in GC and SC, presumably tied to tourism, so we’ll definitely take a look. SC does look like it will be quiet, though this may be appealing (?), GC looks like it would be fun for the kids, but Brisbane looks the most practical for a number of reasons. I started a web development company last year, with a view to developing some more transferable skills and potentially then having some ongoing work while making the transition to Aus. If I could grow this business it would give us some flexibility, but this is hard to achieve whilst still working a full time job. I think we’re arriving very late autumn, the temperature looks comparable to a British summer. Which I agree will give a false impression. I think we’ll find the summer humidity challenging, but then I find the seemingly ceaseless wet, cold and dark of a British winter challenging. I was surprised to hear that suits in offices appears to be the norm, we seem to have moved away from that a bit in the UK. Commuting in a suit in the heat does sound horrendous, changing facilities at work would be welcome! Air conditioned garage to air conditioned car park would be preferable. Thanks again. BFB

I will definitely let you know how things progress and pass along any info from my upcoming trip. Interesting feedback from Hays, that’s pretty much what I’ve come to expect. Though at the start of the whole process I had hoped that as these were in demand occupations and that there would be active efforts to recruit from the UK. It actually sounds pretty competitive. On the plus side, it’s one less thing that I have to do before coming out. I will still try and make contact and see if there’s any interest. I’m not against finding any employment initially to provide some income, ideally somewhere that has potential IT opportunities, if not current job openings. Seems to be a lot easier to find and apply for a job internally. Building contacts and networking appear to be helpful in finding work also. Hope it all comes together for you and your family. Regards BFB

Johndoe, Thanks for this. My wife is a Matron at the moment. I’ve spoken to a few other people on this forum about this, some of the feedback I had was that she may have to go back to a nursing role initially (though reflective of her experience), but within a year or 2 she would be able to apply for managerial type roles. Things will work differently out in Aus, so she will no doubt have to learn the ropes first, though if the options are there to apply for these sorts of roles straightaway then she would definitely look at this. This is one of the things she hopes to discuss if we can arrange a meeting with an HR representative. I created a separate thread regarding nursing roles UK vs Aus and had some helpful responses regarding this, as I wasn’t sure how this would work: Regards BFB

Marisawright, Thanks for your message. We have decent equity (~50%) in our property, but we are looking to rent this out in case it all goes horribly wrong and we have to come back. We have the option of re-mortgaging our property to release some equity, but are currently tied in to a long term mortgage and we're about 4 years through the initial 10 year fixed period. So, if we re-mortgage now it will cost £10k in penalties, or if we wait a year it will cost £5k in penalties. There's also the issue with it not being a buy-to-let mortgage, so we might have to re-mortgage anyway, or see if we can get consent-to-let for a couple of years. Assuming we go down the consent-to-let option, which seems to be the preferred option at the moment. We would then probably look to use whatever money we've managed to save in the run up to the move plus some sort of loan in the region of £10k-£20k, which would get us towards the $40k figure you mention. If we then have to go back, we can revert to our original mortgage. Alternatively, if a year or so in, we need additional funds we can re-mortgage as a buy-to-let and take some equity out of the property, or sell up completely. In terms of budgeting, it's hard to do that with any degree of accuracy at this stage, as we don't know exactly where we want to move and we don't have any job offers so we don't know how much we would be earning. I am aware of pay rates for developer and nursing roles and have had a look at the cost various rental properties etc, so I have an approximation and I am aware of the costs quoted by other people who have gone through the process. Whilst I agree that the recce to Aus does seem like an unnecessary expense at this stage, it will be helpful in terms of finalising our plans and building a more accurate budget, and more importantly we’ve never been to Australia before so this trip is essential for determining that this is the right decision. Irrespective, it seems to be the experience of many that regardless of what planning you do, the only way to find out whether it’s right for you and the family is to do it. I’m aware of the risks/costs and we have contingency plans in the event that it doesn’t work out or in the event of needing more funds. Whatever we do though, successful or not, we are going to end up spending a lot of money, some of which we are not going to get back. I’m of the opinion that if we going to give this a go, then let’s crack on and do it. Regards BFB

Hi Waz, We are in a similar situation to you, we have family of 4, with 2 boys aged 7 & 5. My wife is a nurse and I have an IT background. We're heading out to Australia in May, looking to visit Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. I'm hoping that my wife has employment options in all 3 areas, but I think I might find it harder to find work, I have a background in database development but I have more recently been focusing on web development, as there seems to be more jobs in this area. I'm willing to take a step back to a junior level, if it means we can live in the area we want. Ideally, my wife would find employment prior to going out there, or at least having made some initial contacts with a view to having some interviews shortly after arrival. My wife will probably have to take a step back also, as I doubt she'll be able to move into an equivalent position straight away. We're going to try and arrange a visit to a couple of hospitals, hopefully we can arrange a meeting with someone from HR, who can then give some info regarding potential job prospects and what it's like working at the hospital. Though I've no idea how easy this would be to organise. We're renting a car while we're out there, definitely think this will be useful for visiting suburbs. Also, thinking of arranging a few viewings. When we finally move out, I had considered using public transport, along with a car share service such as Go Get where necessary. We're going to be on a pretty tight budget initially, no savings to speak of, so if we can do without a car for a short period this might help. It will be interesting to see how the work situation develops, my expectation was higher cost of living but also higher wages, but it looks like we'll have comparable wages initially (as in less senior positions). On which basis, we can either expect to rack up some debt in the short term or try and live within our means. Given that the first couple of years are fairly crucial in determining whether to stick it out or not, I think we'll probably opt for the former, which is not ideal but so be it. Good luck! Regards BFB