Australia

[alreadypacked]

I know...but LAS...I am not he!!!!! I am just another poor soul, who until recently was known as as someone else!!!

Someone who had at penchant for thread domination perhaps ?

[smee.again]

Someone who had at penchant for thread domination perhaps ?

Your good...but not sure who you mean :::--)))))))

[alreadypacked]

Your good...but not sure who you mean :::--)))))))

[smee.again]

Who do you think I am...or you are?

[alreadypacked]

Who do you think I am...or you are?

I left the answer in LR, where you should stay if you don't want to get banned again

[scooterscot]

I just wanna go somewhere where I can have a pint and a fag when I want without having to listen to the puritans bleating on about how bad it is for me, so if Australia can offer me that then I'm up for it.

Flew back to Bergen tonight, outside the Irish pub expats watching the footie drinking and smoking like there's no tomorrow... What a differnce to pub I left behind.

[barely_pointless]

Perhaps, but they soon realise it's jumping out of the fire into the frypan! Taxes are higher, far more govt. regulation and nanny state mentality and even the cost of living there isn't all that low any more.

Devlin is quite correct, I am contracting at the moment in Australia and well, it's not all it's cracked up to be. The romantic view that most ex-pats have rapidly disappears once they find that the cost of living here is actually more, clothes, Tax, Cars, Education, Food, childcare is an absolute joke, we pay 6K aud for a 3 year old per annum,and another 2K in stealth taxes for our 5 year old even though she's in a public school with another one on the way we're planning to be back up north next summer.

Outside of the cities, it's a pretty grim place, Most people travel via the "nice" tourist destinations, Cairns, Ayers Rock, Gold Coast, Whitsundays and so forth, in essence they don't see the real australia (warts an all).

check out www.flickr.com and do a search for "airsafari2007" , nice pictureesque country , but most of the places we flew to you'd not want to stay in for longer than 1 night and a refuel.

I can tell you that the outback can be a very grim place indeed, Tenant Creek = sh!thole, Ayers Rock same, Alice same again, Broken Hill same, Katherine is an aweful place, Darwhine not bad, most if not all of the "nice" tourist places are coastal (but that's noty real oz) then they're pretty souless.

The shortsightness of the incumbent government is astonishing in it's stupidity, there is no long term water management, Infrastructure is not planned properly, the M5 motorway recently opened runs at capacity for 3 hours each side of "rush hour" which means it's alot worse than the m25 ,

Each state is bickering about it's geographical resources, Mining is driving the economy here and when there's nothing left to dig up, Oz will financially implode. I do not believe it is sustainable.

Tax and stealth tax is a huge industry here, because of it's convoluted and ridiculous tax system accountants clean up and you have to have one. I have a ltd becuase I need it for personal indemnity, but other than that it's a complete pain in the butt to administer.

Financially we are going backward.


On the other hand, it's good for Kids , to a point, I don't see the Australian Education system as providing as broad an education as the UK or Irish systems, they just don't seem to be able to produce the goods here.

My Kids can already swim at age 3 and 5, this is quite normal in oz, but it could be just as normal anywhere else.

I can hire a pitts special and fly aerobatics most mornings if I want to, the weather is good, and stuff that would not have been availabe in Europe is available here (like amphibious beavers )

Oh, and did I mention the culture ? It's great! if you like dumbed down commercial stations. The Media here is appalling, aside from the ABC (equivalent to BBC) and SBS, other than that it's a nanny neo con dumber than dumb state.

Aborigines are treated as an infestation - talk to most Australians and they either ignore them, are ignorant of them or regard them as 5th class citizens, The racism is quite surprising, The Aborogines they have been trying to anethistise themselves for the last 100 years and only recently (as an election ploy) did the government ban alcohol in the NT.



Sydney's OK as a city (more expensive than London), Brissie Vegas is the place to be but the salaries suffer the further North you go, draw a line 50Km above Brisbane and the only industries are, Mining, Tourism and Agriculture Not a great deal of options.

a-Dull-aide is just that, dull dull dull beyond belief.

Never been to WA, can't comment.


discuss..............

[Moscow Mule]

Devlin is quite correct, I am contracting at the moment in Australia and well, it's not all it's cracked up to be. The romantic view that most ex-pats have rapidly disappears once they find that the cost of living here is actually more, clothes, Tax, Cars, Education, Food, childcare is an absolute joke, we pay 6K aud for a 3 year old per annum,and another 2K in stealth taxes for our 5 year old even though she's in a public school with another one on the way we're planning to be back up north next summer.

Outside of the cities, it's a pretty grim place, Most people travel via the "nice" tourist destinations, Cairns, Ayers Rock, Gold Coast, Whitsundays and so forth, in essence they don't see the real australia (warts an all).

check out www.flickr.com and do a search for "airsafari2007" , nice pictureesque country , but most of the places we flew to you'd not want to stay in for longer than 1 night and a refuel.

I can tell you that the outback can be a very grim place indeed, Tenant Creek = sh!thole, Ayers Rock same, Alice same again, Broken Hill same, Katherine is an aweful place, Darwhine not bad, most if not all of the "nice" tourist places are coastal (but that's noty real oz) then they're pretty souless.

The shortsightness of the incumbent government is astonishing in it's stupidity, there is no long term water management, Infrastructure is not planned properly, the M5 motorway recently opened runs at capacity for 3 hours each side of "rush hour" which means it's alot worse than the m25 ,

Each state is bickering about it's geographical resources, Mining is driving the economy here and when there's nothing left to dig up, Oz will financially implode. I do not believe it is sustainable.

Tax and stealth tax is a huge industry here, because of it's convoluted and ridiculous tax system accountants clean up and you have to have one. I have a ltd becuase I need it for personal indemnity, but other than that it's a complete pain in the butt to administer.

Financially we are going backward.


On the other hand, it's good for Kids , to a point, I don't see the Australian Education system as providing as broad an education as the UK or Irish systems, they just don't seem to be able to produce the goods here.

My Kids can already swim at age 3 and 5, this is quite normal in oz, but it could be just as normal anywhere else.

I can hire a pitts special and fly aerobatics most mornings if I want to, the weather is good, and stuff that would not have been availabe in Europe is available here (like amphibious beavers )

Oh, and did I mention the culture ? It's great! if you like dumbed down commercial stations. The Media here is appalling, aside from the ABC (equivalent to BBC) and SBS, other than that it's a nanny neo con dumber than dumb state.

Aborigines are treated as an infestation - talk to most Australians and they either ignore them, are ignorant of them or regard them as 5th class citizens, The racism is quite surprising, The Aborogines they have been trying to anethistise themselves for the last 100 years and only recently (as an election ploy) did the government ban alcohol in the NT.



Sydney's OK as a city (more expensive than London), Brissie Vegas is the place to be but the salaries suffer the further North you go, draw a line 50Km above Brisbane and the only industries are, Mining, Tourism and Agriculture Not a great deal of options.

a-Dull-aide is just that, dull dull dull beyond belief.

Never been to WA, can't comment.


discuss..............

Ouch! Kick them Aussies whilst they're down!

I spent 9 months in Sydney (working first in telesales, then in tourism as a Divemaster), had an ball. but I was barely working and had loads in the bank. This was 2002/03 and there was very little banking work around hence the crap jobs.

Not all Aussies are racist twunts, I'd say about 50-50 in the cities, 90-10 in the outback. You don't have to associate yourselves with them.

My girlfriend at the time was a primary teacher, and she was teaching at a good (state) school. I think your experience may have been clouded by some of the rubbish that's around - there are good schools, but you have to know where to go. As for higher education, it can't be that bad if all the Chinese & Other SE Asian parents want to send their kids there...

Culture wise, why don't you get out more? There's more to life than re-runs of the Simpsons & Everybody F.in hates Raymond.

As for WA, it's f.in brilliant. Perth is a great city, albeit the size of Basingstoke in the city centre. South (& North) of Perth there are some great beaches and some good scuba. I worked for a while in Dunsborough (as a DM again - home of the Swan) and had a ball there too.

As for taxation, I didn't pay any - but don't tell them that.

All in all, I'd love to go back but the current girlfriend won't countenance being so far away from the parents - especially as she wants kids in the next few years.

That being said, I would only go on a 457 visa to start with - probably maintaining a house here - as it's a bloody big life change to go the whole way in one go.

[smee.again]

I thought Sydney was a great place...and I like the Aussies....very laid back kinda people...

[Euro-commuter]

Perhaps, but they soon realise it's jumping out of the fire into the frypan! Taxes are higher, far more govt. regulation and nanny state mentality and even the cost of living there isn't all that low any more.

Some might regard "out of the fire into the frying pan" as a good move, no?