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Living in Australia - What you need to know


Guest The Pom Queen

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But seems to have died a death in Victoria thank goodness, it really got to me at work and it got to other Aus people as well, it something the young were doing and we used to pull them up about it.

 

Another tip, we pay rates here for the house we own, to the council and the water board and anyone else who might have a finger in the pie i e a planning thing. We do not pay poll tax. Only landlords pay the rates however a tenant pays for the water usage at a property if there is a separate meter for each property ie a block of flats with one meter you would not get charged or should not get charged.

 

If renting a commercial premises the tenant pays all the outgoings, i e the rates, land tax etc. Just makes business that bit harder.

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Guest The Pom Queen

Lets not forget when you are driving if you are turning left and there is a pedestrian crossing they also get the green light so take care you don't hit them. Same for pedestrians if you see a car coming at you don't scream and shout at them like I did :wink: although remember they still have to give way to you.

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Guest The Pom Queen

Not sure if its been mentioned and I know its true for Melbourne but if a tram stops and you are behind it you need to stop as well you can't under or over take

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Guest The Pom Queen

I forgot to mention, maybe someone already has, but the price of fuel can fluctuate daily, sometimes in Melbourne we found this could be hourly, ie they put the price up at rush hour and brought it down off peak.

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A rashie/ Rash vest is a Sun factor 50+ long or short sleeved swimming top, for the beach, beach/sea sports. Keeps you from getting burnt as even factor 50 sun cream doesn't work in summer time. A absolute must IMO, specially for kids, but we all have one in our house. It's a pain having to apply and re-apply heaps of horrid sticky sun lotion otherwise.

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If you live somewhere even vaguely rural don't leave your shoes outside, or, if you do, then inspect them closely before putting them on. And ditto, if you leave your gardening gloves in the shed between gardening episodes, jump up and down on them before putting them on (spiders like snug dark places)

 

watch out for mobile speed cameras and RBT (random breath test). Mobile speed cameras have a nasty habit of lurking at the bottom of hills

 

always buy a car with air conditioning

 

your UK DVDs may not work in an Aus DVD player (but you can often find a hack on line to de-regionalise your DVD player

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No postal deliveries on a Saturday

 

JP's have a desk in the shopping centres for a couple of hours 2 days a week and all services free......costs a small fortune in UK

 

Cops keen on RBT's any time any where.......

 

If you're overcharged for an item in Coles they will give you your money back plus the item for free.......

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Guest Ptp113
No postal deliveries on a Saturday

 

JP's have a desk in the shopping centres for a couple of hours 2 days a week and all services free......costs a small fortune in UK

 

Cops keen on RBT's any time any where.......

 

If you're overcharged for an item in Coles they will give you your money back plus the item for free.......

 

We've had postal deliveries on Saturdays at Xmas.

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If you have school age children.... You have to cross with the crossing lady which walks out and blows a whistle before you can cross, this also applies when you have dropped said child at school! You can't cross on your own and have to wait for the lady/man to stop traffic, blow whistle for you to cross on your own lol. Now I don't mind this one little bit now and always have a kind word to say to the friendly crossing people.....but took a bit of getting used to, and wasn't sure whether to cross on my own or I needed to wait at first( whilst not having child with me!)

 

Also it is quiet amazing how many people don't want to stop for the lollipop lady .....or Zebra crossing... Often people seem not to WANT to stop, sshockingly mums during drop off times :chatterbox::eek:

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Guest guest87294

and if you use the word root like me who as a Lancashire girl did... you will earn yourself some odd looks. It is a word to stay away from using.

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i got laughed at at work when i asked if anyone had a plaster for a cut finger!

 

yes I went into Price Line and asked for a box of plasters and got a really weird look ..... :wacko:

 

Someone asked me a few weeks ago where they could get some Grog ..... I was all :confused: never heard the term before, had to ask the person what they mean't ... they said ' booze ', I got it straight away, because I have felt groggy on more than one occasion .... funnily enough though not much since moving to OZ as it's too expensive ..... :jimlad:

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Guest guest87294

And what about parking... went we moved to Melbourne, we went to park the wrong way and a lady stopped us and explained how you park with the flow of the traffic. My husband still has moments when he just pulls in a space facing the wrong way... when I was back in the UK four years ago I found myself parking with the flow of traffic and thinking how odd the traffic looked parked all ways.

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Guest lulum1986
Never paid for a Carrier bag in tesco or other supermarket but have noticed shops like wh smith and TK maxx charge

This is just in Wales though I think lol

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Yes, I caused a deafening silence in my first job when I announced that I still couldn't find a file that was needed even though I had spent the whole afternoon 'rooting in the storeroom'. Someone then kindly explained what it meant in Oz. I was equally silenced in the same job when someone asked me to get some durex out of the drawer (this is sellotape in Oz). We still laugh about it now..

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