Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

Someone suggested this in another thread and so I'm happy to oblige, because I think it's a good idea.

Can I make one tiny request. Could we pleeeeeeeeease keep this to genuinely useful information, rather than turning it into the usual bun fight between the 'defenders of the faith' and the 'Oz is bollocks' crews. Information, good or bad, but not stupid generalisations and opinion. I don't hold out much hope :rolleyes: , but let's see how it goes. :cool:

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I wish I'd known (or believed!) exactly how cold it gets here in the winter. I would have brought all of my winter clothes with me (well not the coats but winter woolies etc and loads of warm pj's) instead of giving them all to my mum for her to carboot! :mad:

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I wish someone had explained the 'document' route to me and the order you get them in. Medicare, TFN, Centrelink, ABNs, Bank, Driving licences etc. Would have saved a few trips back and forth. It was different for me being an Ozzie citizen, but you can open a bank account with your passport (100 points of ID), which (three days later) gets you documentation with your name and address on it. Passport and bank statement got me a driving licence. Passport, citizenship certificate and bank statement got me a TFN (this was diff. for me though because I'm visa-less). Driving licence, passport, bank statement, evidence of worldly goods being shipped and DIMA receipt, got me a Medicare number. TFN (prospective, takes 28 days to come through), citizenship certificate and passport got me Centrelink'd.

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I wish I'd known when you go to rent a house you are one amongst many.

I wish I'd known the Real Estate people choose YOU rather than YOU choose the house:D

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I wish I'd have know how fierce the sun is here. I have a sunroof (going thin at the back :D ) You really need to wear a hat and cover yourself with high factor sunblock (never used to in the UK). So I've had several cases of crispy head.

My wife weeded the garden during summer, she was bent over and her jumper rose and exposed a cresent shape. She burned above her backside pretty badly and you can still see the tan line :)

Even on bad days you can still catch the sun, be careful!

Hector

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

i wish i hadnt got rid of all my bedding, quilts, duvets etc, i wish i had brought more stuff over with me, instead of getting rid of everything, i wish i had brought all my clothes instead of reducing them down to a third, and most of all i wish i had brought ALL my shoes over!! sorry typical female i guess!!! - still gutted about the lot though!!
apart from that absolutely loving it!!!
regards
vb2

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I wish someone had told me about all this 'selection criteria' bollocks for job applications, and that you need to pay for some kind of certificate even if you only want to empty rubbish bins (certificate III in advanced bineria ;) ?) for a living.

And don't mention the general bastardisation of the English language through mispronounced words and vowels, and invented words like 'jackpotted' & 'spruiking'!

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I council say that they are now going to commingle my recycling... what was wrong with just saying they were taking the cardboard center out of the bin?... and apparently I can get a car on a Novated Lease... a what?

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

Not to use the Conyourwealth Bank Migrant transfer scheme... When I got here the local branch had never heard of it and denied all knowledge of even having a branch in the UK.

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

I wish that I had known just how slack they are with regards to getting things done in business. I had an idea, but never realised just how slack and behind the times they can all be. It makes it all very interesting :rolleyes:

Tony


www.platinumrelocations.com.au

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

If I'd have known that poisonous snakes, spiders, bats (dripping death saliva), etc were rather over emphasized I might have come here sooner :)

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

To make sure you know exactly how you are going to transfer your cash across. We relied on information from our local bank branch in the UK, who when we needed the money over here could not do it. Register with Oz forex or who ever in good time to save yourself a lot of stress and possibly money.

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

Wish I'd known to expand my 3 page CV to a 5-6 page Resume when I was sitting around desperately waiting for my Visa. Trying to get your head together to do it when you are running around like an idiot getting the rest of your life sorted is a nightmare.

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

Very accurate. Some people really need to know this.

The only thing I had to realise was that there is a winter here!

Re: Things you wish you'd known before arriving in Australia..
 

Tis full of foreigners.