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[blanktom]

I've just applied for a working visa for a years visit beginning July 2012! When I arrive I will have approx £3000 in my bank account, a food hygiene certificate, a qualification in catering a culinary skills, 5 years bar experience and barista training! So I need advice on a couple of points...

- I shouldn't have too much trouble finding work, right? I have a really strong work ethic coupled with a really friendly and outgoing personality, I've been led to understand getting work is a piece of cake, but I'd rather hear it straight from the Oz's mouth.

- Where should I start, and when I get there, whats the best/cheapest way for me to get accommodation? If anyone fancies offering me a couch or spare room with fairly cheap rent as of Summer 2012 I'd be stoked to hear from you.

Please people, help me realise my dream!

[Lunchbox]

It hugely depends on where you want to go!

JOBS:

I live in Sydney (as do most of the Australian QCers), and have for 3 or 4 years now.  My boyfriend has been trying to find bar/barista/waitering work for almost a year, however he doesn't have as much experience as you. And I guess when I came here I had quite a lot of experience as well, there were jobs being thrown at me but I was just trying to get barista stuff.

Good job sites are Seek, Mycareer and Jobsjobsjobs, but doing the old walk around with resumes and a smile always helps.

HOUSES:

Housing is EXPENSIVE in Sydney. It is one of the most expensive places to live in the world. Your best bet is to hunt for sharehousing before you get here. You can find a room in the Inner West* for around $200AUD a week. Studio apartments go for around $300. Expect to pay 4 weeks bond up front.

Gumtree, flatmatefinders and share-accommodation.net are good resources. Gumtree is also great for finding furniture.

STUFF:

There is tons to do in Sydney and the weather and nightlife is pretty good. Yes, some areas are dodgier than others but I have not had any problems in the time I have lived here.

To finish: Come to Sydney, we're super cool. Although Melbourne is great too. All the other cities are much smaller and quieter but I am sure they are also nice.


*Bunches of suburbs have different names, ie.. the Inner West includes Newtown, Glebe, Marrickville (where est, eris and I live), St Peters, Redfern, Stanmore, Leichhardt, Petersham and a few others. It is probably the best place to live if you work in the city plus it is full of young people. It is about 20 minutes to the city via public transport. Public transport is pretty good and you won't need your own vehicle.

Don't try living in the city, it is full of people crammed 20 in a 2 bedroom apartment and there are very few supermarkets etc.

[Tom]

I wish you luck but just so you know, you will never leave this island alive.

[Lunchbox]

Here, I made you a cheatsheet:

[Tom]

Not only is the Eastern Suburbs TOO EXPENSIVE but there is barely anything there that anyone needs (like transport and other necessary infrastructure).

[Inlander]

On the other hand, you could come to Melbourne!

If you want the stereotypical Australian sunshine 'n' surf culture Melbourne is probably not the place to go to, however if you're looking for work in the food/coffee industry it might be a better bet. I've never tried finding hospitality work in Melbourne (or anywhere else, yay!) but there are approximately 5 million cafes and restaurants per square kilometre in Melbourne. Coffee is worshippd like a god in Melbourne. Cars in Melbourne don't run on petrol, they run on coffee. The Yarra River that runs through the middle of Melbourne is so brown and foamy because it's full of coffee, not water. Etcetera. It's also probably cheaper to live in than Sydney, though again I've never tried living in Sydney (yay!). The inner-city suburbs are certainly creeping up in price these days, but they're also full of sharehouses so you can usually find somewhere affordable. One problem, though: there are literally tens of thousands of people moving to Melbourne every year, so the housing market here is extraordinarily competitive. Though also strangely clustered: don't even think about trying to find a place to live in Brunswick, but if you go looking in Thornbury just next door you'll hardly be competing with anyone.

Also, live music and public transport here like whoa.

[Tom]

Melbourne is the classiest city we have.

[Inlander]

Apart from that whole Australian Football angle, I don't know what's going on there.

[Ozymandias]

When Anthony Bourdain chose a city in Australia for No Reservations, he chose Melbourne. That is basically the only endorsement you need, I think.

(NOTE: I AM OZY, NOT AN AUSSIE)

[blanktom]

This is some awesome advice people, thanks! I'm definitely going to start checking job sites and housing sites within the next 6 months, as you can tell I like to be super prepared!

Tough choice to decice between Sydney or Melbourne though! I only really want to spend half the year in the city though, the other half I'd like to be doing typical travelling and beach type things, whether its like 3 months on 3 months off or in 6 month blocks. I shall update you with my findings!

[Tom]

On a serious note, New South Wales is now run by a shadowy group of moderate seeming fascists.

[JD]

On a serious note, New South Wales is now run by a shadowy group of moderate seeming fascists.

I hear your prime minister is nuts.

[Tom]

Our PM is very sane but not well liked, the opposition leader on the other hand is a whole different sausage deficient barbeque. <=-This is national politics.

[JD]

Yeah I know that, I was just throwing in the only thing I know about aussy politics.

[blanktom]

Looking at jobs, it would seem you need a certificate to work in pretty much every profession in the hospitality and catering sector! Over here you can just walk into a pub with a decent CV and a bit of experience and land a job, in Australia nearly every job I've read about asks for a Responsible Service of Alcohol certificate! Don't get me wrong, I think it's a positive thing, I just find it funny that to even work in a basic bar job you need to do a day course to get a certificate, whereas here you do a days training in order to get issued a Personal License!

[Lunchbox]

You can do day RSA courses at training schools really easily, you just pay $60 or whatever and then you're certified forever. But yes, you do need one to work with alcohol. I didn't know it was an Australia only thing but I suppose it makes sense.

[Jimmy the Squid]

It's also a really easy course. Like, you sit down, they give you a booklet. They tell you the stuff in the booklet. You get tested on the booklet. It is an open book test. If you get anything wrong they sit you down and go through it until you get it right.

[Inlander]

Oh yeah one thing you'll learn about Australia pretty quickly is that it's obsessively over-regulated.

[Kugai]

Oh yeah one thing you'll learn about Australia pretty quickly is that it's obsessively over-regulated.

Ahh, ol' fashioned British Bureaucracy still lives hun? 

[Tom]

Oh yeah one thing you'll learn about Australia pretty quickly is that it's obsessively over-regulated.

This is not entirely a bad thing, though.

[Inlander]

No. I definitely believe in a big government over a small government. However on the other hand when I'm driving through a forest I don't think it's entirely necessary to have a sign warning me that there are trees near the road.

[jodizzle]

Come to Queensland!  It's AWESOME. 

Come to Toowoomba!  it's got....uh.....me I guess.  It's the largest inland city inAustralia!  And it's on top of an old dead volcano!  And I swear that whole inland tsunami thing was just a one off.

(Don't actually come to Toowoomba.  But go to Brisbane, at least to visit!  I like Brisbane!  It's smaller and less terrifying than Sydney.  I have not been to Melbourne so I have no opinion pn Melbourne)

[look out! Ninjas!]

In the immortal words of John Safran:

"Don't go to Adelaide. It's a hole."

[Akima]

Come to Toowoomba!  it's got....uh.....me I guess.  It's the largest inland city in Australia!

Eh? Canberra has a much bigger population, and was inland last time I looked. It is also possibly Australia's dullest city, though Adelaide runs it close.

[jodizzle]

My bad! haha!  turns out it is the second largest.  Oh it is the largest 'non-capital inland city'.  What kind of a dumb claim to fame is that!

Shut up, we had an inland tsunami, beat that Canberra

[look out! Ninjas!]

Come to Toowoomba!  it's got....uh.....me I guess.  It's the largest inland city in Australia!

Eh? Canberra has a much bigger population, and was inland last time I looked. It is also possibly Australia's dullest city, though Adelaide runs it close.

City that exists solely for politicians and bureaucrats and the support thereof because the two largest cities couldn't agree on which one should be the capital vs city that just seems to exist and will continue to exist for no real reason

[Kugai]

Youu could always go to Kalgolie (sp?)   

[McTaggart]

Why would anyone ever want to go to Kalgoorlie?

[Kugai]

Work??

[Tom]

Bloody kiwis

[Akima]

Why would anyone ever want to go to Kalgoorlie?

Gold mining and prostitutes.

[jodizzle]

They totes have a derby team there.  that's a good reason for me.

[blanktom]

They totes have a derby team there.  that's a good reason for me.

Roller derby? Good reason for me too, I'm a ref!

[McTaggart]

But there are so many other places that have derby teams too, while at the same time having more than just skimpies and the biggest hole in the ground in the country.

[Lunchbox]

I saw this article today:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/high-dollar-pushes-relative-cost-of-living-in-australian-cities-up-world-rankings/story-e6frg926-1226089795642

THE rise in the Australian dollar means we now have four of the 15 most expensive cities in the world to live in, according to a survey released today by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit.

Sydney has moved up from 32nd place two years ago to sixth now and Melbourne is up from 38th to seventh, with a cost of living more than 40 per cent higher than New York.

Perth and Brisbane, which are almost 25 per cent more expensive than New York, are ranked 13th and 14th.

[blanktom]

Shit. I might go to Canada instead.

[Kugai]

Beer, Bacon and Ice Hockey eh?

[Inlander]

Hang on, what?

The survey noted that Melbourne just pips Sydney for the expense of a daily business trip, at $US760 ($708) a day, with Sydney on $US627. The trip rate covers one night's accommodation in a hotel, a two-course meal, a simple meal, two taxi journeys, a drink in a hotel bar and an international daily newspaper.

That's not cost of living, that's cost of visiting. Very different. The whole article is predicated on the fact that the Australian dollar is really strong at the moment compared to other currencies, so of course if you're visiting from another country and converting your money into Australian dollars everything's going to seem super-expensive. But if you're living here and earning Australian dollars it's a completely different picture.