How the hell did I get here?

[Guest]

Just wondering how each of you ended up in Australia in the first place.

 

My story goes like this....

 

Snowboarding in France in January, i took a wrong turn and ended up separated from my OH and on a chairlift with a couple of Aussies - I was amazed to find out that Australia had ski resorts and it got me thinking...reunited with my OH I shared my thoughts....'how about instead of going boarding in America at Easter we go to Australia in July' and so we began to plan a holiday...

 

My OH wanted to go to Perth because we had quite good friends there....my thoughts on that were I could understanding wanting to visit them, but there really wasn't anything to go to Perth for!!!!! I said we could do a 'stopover' there if he really wanted to...

 

So a month of pouring over travel guides , internet forums etc. with a few episodes of WDU in the mix later...we had decided not only would we go on holiday but we'd stumbled across paradise on earth and we might actually like to stay!! It was my OH really and I really tried hard to challenge why this would be a 'better life' - I even proposed buying a chalet in the alps instead and spending half the year playing in France and half the year working in the UK.

 

We had contemplated migrating before and not much than a year earlier we had considered NZ but couldn't get in without a job to go to....before that we'd looked at Canada....so when I said to my best friend we were thinking of migrating to Australia he pretty much rolled his eyes and said 'where will it be next week'

 

We kept putting one foot in front of the other...WDU became must see viewing....tickets for an 'invitation only' expo in London were applied for, an initial appointment with a migration agent booked....who refused to take us on because when he asked how sure we were my OH said 100% and I said 60%....to get in my OH would have to pass a skills assessment and as IT is a bit of a minefield - job titles don't mean much and there are not standard professional qualifications you must have - it wasn't certain he would pass, he needed to do a RPL too as he has a HND rather than a degree so I persuaded the migration agent to take our money on the basis 'I'm not going to make a decision unless I know we can get in'! Somewhere along the way I got caught up in the possibilities and excitement and agree to migrate to PERTH!! Only Perth no-where else, not

because of the friends there but Sydney was too much like London, Melbourne was too wet and cold, Brisbane and Adelaide didn't have the work opportunities.....and if it was a lifestyle change we were after we'd get it in 'laid back' Perth....not a bad turnaround for someone who didn't see the point of spend more than a couple of nights there!!!

 

In February (just one short month from the chance meeting with the Aussies on the chairlift!) I was down in London at the skills expo where I met who was to become my future employer - they told me on the spot they had been looking for someone like me for 5 years....in Perth!

 

So the holiday became a reccie with two weeks in Perth, a 'tourist' visit to Sydney, a week snowboarding in Queenstown and a few days in Auckland (in case we didn't like Australia after all!). My OH and I both had interviews on the reccie and both were offered jobs, the funny thing is we didn't really like Perth but the momentum was too hard to stop. And we fell for the 'better to regret something you did than something you didn't do' line....in fact I think it was my PIO signature at one point.

 

We did research, we absolutely did but the propaganda machine on Australia is huge and the human mind is very selective and so 9 months after first considering the move we landed in Perth on a 457 visa but with a skills assessment in the bag and application for PR in progress.

 

If only I was a better boarder and kept up with my OH and gone to Whistler at Easter!!

 

The really sad thing is our reccie is the last time I saw snow...we could simply never afford it once we were in Australia. Heading to Aviemore next week - please snow, please snow, please snow!!! And this time I'll ride the chairlift on my own

[3FatCats]

We had to leave Italy as my OH work shut down, he found job in UK and we settled, bought house etc. During all of this an Aus company had been asking him to look after a project in Sydney but they didn't sound very serious. We dismissed it and life went on, then the actual offer came and OH probably felt as though it was a sort of lifeline after a lot of upheavel. He signed the contract and I had 2 choices, go with him or stay in my amazing UK job and enjoy life as I knew it, alone. We landed in Sydney 22 Aug 2011 and my life stopped. I have felt unsettled since day 1, been through every kind of emotion possible and amazed we are still together and I am not yet on strong drugs :confused: Incidentally, the guy who headhunted my OH got sacked 2 months after we arrived for fraud! :laugh: I should have trusted my instincts he was a dodgy character and we should have stayed put....but that is another story!

[garyupnorth]

Not bothered how I got there, just glad I got out when I did.....just trying to re-adjust to a normal, un-complicated life in the UK. I think I was looking for a utopia that doesn't and will never exist.

 

Its a Lovely country, some nice ppl but I can get all that and more in Europe.

 

My little one has the right idea, she tells them at school about living in Oz, she says "been there, seen it, done it and have the T-shirt, didn't like it and got out whilst the going was good. But you know what? There are Brits who are stuck there!".

[bitman]

We came to Australia because of a job offer of my OH, on the London expo the HR took her on based on her 6 years experience and the need of mental health nurses. The hospital was expanding and they needed more staff. She has two family members who told her how great Australia is. The 457 Visa was done without problems as long as you pay the bills. But APHRA was another story, what a mess and this should be a sign to us not to go? Anyway we did go and after lots of hassle she was a registered nurse in Australia. Wasn't made welcome at her job, too many so called acting managers with the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, the extension of the hospital was not even started, me as secondary 457 visa cannot do a lot despite according the law I have no job restrictions. Problems with the 6 years of experience as you need to show them the start / stop date and the hours of work you did from the last 6 years, a bit of a problem as you have been working as contract nurse with some agencies who are not existing any more etc, while that was the reason of employment, disorganized as headless chickens, backstabbing colleagues, racist actions as being black etc etc. Over priced houses so close next to each other that you can hear your neighbors snoring with post stamp gardens. Low class colleagues who are constant swearing including the 'F' word even in front of patients!

 

So now we are going back and my wife already has did a contract in Manchester for the last 2 months and is very happy.

[fourcorners]

First came out here to Kalgoorlie after I finished my Masters degree. As part of the degree we came to WA on a field trip visiting various mines around Kalgoorlie, Perth and Bunbury. One of our old lecturers was working at the Superpit at the time and mentioned he was on the look out for a geotechnical engineer, and I thought that would suit my OH when he graduated. They flew him over business class for a week to interview (those were the days!). A few months later we had 457 visas and moved down here. We had never dreamed about living in Australia, we made the move purely on the fact we could both easily get jobs here and needed to get some experience under our belts. I didn't apply for anything until we arrived but it only took two weeks to find a job. We stayed 18 months that time before my OH got an opportunity to do a Phd in Vancouver. Hated Vancouver, we lasted 9 months there before returning to the UK in late 2008 (great timing for the GFC!). We had ups and downs in the UK for 3 years, but by the end our situation was great - we had a house in Cornwall, both had good jobs, loved the lifestyle there. Just one glitch, my OH's first major contract involved him doing FIFO to Karratha! He did that for 10 months before saying sod it, too hard, and making plans to move back to Australia.

 

Gained some more 457 visas, both had jobs before we moved, and arrived in Kalgoorlie again on 1st October 2011. We chose Kal again as we could both get well-paid jobs easily, had lots of friends here and both get to be at home every day. Kal isn't that bad, I know a lot of people really look down on the place but it has a great community feel that just isn't there in say Perth (going by our friends experiences). We came out again with the aim of paying off our UK mortgage, taking advantage of those lovely exchange rates. Now they're shifting the wrong way and the incentive to stay is becoming weaker and weaker. Particularly with me expecting our first child in April it makes the pull of home that much stronger. We just have to line the right jobs up back in the UK and get our timing right and we should be good. By April we'll have paid off 90% of the mortgage and have some savings in the bank so pretty much mission accomplished. Just can't see us being happy here long term and don't want our children to grow up thinking Kalgoorlie is normal!

 

Just booked a couple of weeks in January in Melbourne and Tasmania, can't wait to avoid some heat and have one last holiday as a couple before our little girl arrives and life changes forever!

[simmo]

I done the backpacking thing back in the 90s and loved it a told myself i would one day come back to live,,, I was quickly made aware that the difference between backpacking and "real life".

[Jacaranda]

I did'nt get a choice,my parents emigrated when I was a little kid!Not really complaining about the move as such,but wish they had of sat us all down(there are 5 of us,me being the youngest)and asked us first and discussed it.We just got told we were going and that was it!

[bitman]

I done the backpacking thing back in the 90s and loved it a told myself i would one day come back to live,,, I was quickly made aware that the difference between backpacking and "real life".

 

I also think that Australia is changed through the years. If I compare the stories from my brother who was here 15 years ago and talking with older Australians at my work about the past gives me some clues. All thou every country changes IMHO.