paul1981

how long do you think it will take me to find a job in brisbane area?

im arriving on june 22 i have one suit case a hotel for a week, before i find somewhere to rent, i was looking at cabooluture is this area ok, i know its about a hour drive from brisbane city centre, the property rent is alot better for the type of property you get out of the city centre, any tips anybody it will help?

ive booked my flight but worried i could be doing the wrong thing, i have 20,000 AUD to last me untill i find a job and a little monthly income from the uk, im hoping not to really spend much of this find a job and use that money, i have a working holiday visa, i can only work for 6 months of the year and if i want to return the following year i have to do 3 months seansonal work is this true? what are times of the year for seasonal work or is it all year round? how much do they pay for seasonal work?

i am a multi skilled trades man in the uk involving plumbing, electrical, carpentry, painting, kitchen fitting, property developing the last 3 years, but have no certificates just 14 years experience, i have good computer skills, im willing to take on lots of different jobs, before i booked i went on seek.com.au and found hundreds of jobs that suited me untill i came on this forum and it seems its not the case help me guys im thinking of cancelling? is it thumbs up or thumbs down or fingers crossed im

Also what is the feel like in australia compared to the uk its been raining here the last 2 days very heavy and its summer ( NOT! ), when you get there and get a feel for the place do you think you should of gone to australia years ago and absolutely love the place, or do you think its ok but not brilliant. help please!!

driving in australia is true you have 3 third party insurance on car as soon as you buy it? what else will i need with a car i,e M.O.T , Tax etc , how does it work in brisbane qld

i dont mean to babble on and most of you wont be bothered answering all these questions as theres lots of them, if you can just answer one or 2 of my questions i will be happy , thankyou!

vicki78

I live in Perth, so don't know much about Brisbane, but you might find it difficult to find a job quickly, it might take you longer than you would think.
But then again, it depends. They are very hot on certificates here in Aus. regardless of the experience you have in your job. They would prefer someone with certificate over someone who doesn't have a certificate if it comes to who to take on for the job.

With regards to cars, you probably will need a comprehensive car insurance, there are no MOT-s (in WA anyway), instead you get your car serviced every 12 months or at 15000 km-s, (whichever is first). You pay car tax similarly as in the UK (6 months or 12 months).

I would definitely choose Australia over the UK, although it's still early days for us as we have only recently arrived, but we are happy here at the moment and made the right decision to move out here.

Sunbound

We live on the Gold Coast, but from our trips up to the Sunshine Coast i would say that Caboolture is maybe a bit far to commute every day to the CBD ? Im sure other posters will correct me if i'm wrong but it would be a fair trip maybe not so bad by train but i know if it was me it would eventually wear me down.
If you dont find a rental within a week which might be hard going i would take a look at www.auspitality.com to see if they have their appartment free. We stayed there when we first arrived for 5 weeks.Much nicer AND massively cheaper than a hotel.(Lovely people too,expats with lost of help offered if you want it) Not far from Brisbane and maybe an option if you get stuck and they have space.
As for the job front ,its fairly slow here to be honest with huge amounts of people applying for the same job,meaning competition is fairly high. Just be prepared that it might take a while. It cant be much different to the Uk i guess?
On a positive note , I love Australia. Only been here 7 months but its definately a better life for us. I guess it depends on what youre leaving behind and what you want when you get here, but i wake up every morning far more motivated,happier much more positive about the future. There is so much to do here, its warmer, the wildlife is fantastic, almost everyone will strike up a conversation with you even in the oddest places,i ts healthier life, nice place for kids, more house space for your money...... I could go on. Sure there are some negatives but for me the positives far outweigh them.
The only advice i would give you is this ... if you make the decision to come ,then do so with a positive outlook, a sense of determination and you'll be fine.
Good Luck Sunbound

The_Pom_From_Aus

paul1981;

what qualifications do you possess if i may ask meaning what city & guild

Dreamy

We live along the Caboolture-Bribie Island Road - you won't want to commute into the CBD from Caboolture. It takes an hour to drive outside of rush hour - in rush hour the traffic will be building up from the city past North Lakes by about 7am (on a good day!)

The train service is pretty good though, friends of ours who live in Narangba (couple of stops closer to the CBD) ::waves to Heather if she sees this:: used to commute into Brisbane and on the occasions where the OH has had to go into Head Office he's used the train with no dramas.

With a tradesman though there's no reason to have to go anywhere near the CBD to work! Caboolture is a good sized town with plenty of areas around it. The main problem you would have would be getting your skills recognised I guess - but there are thousands of threads on here about that and its not something with which I'm familiar.

Caboolture can be a bit rough in places and the schools can be ... rough too. It was one of the places we'd thought about living until we got here, some of the areas around it are really lovely.. OH's work colleagues were unanimous in their opinion that we wouldn't want to live there, so we looked at Bribie/Sandstone Point/surrounding suburbs instead. We do love living in this general area though, you have amazing countryside and good amenities right on your doorstep.

Weather wise - its very hot and humid over the summer. It'll absolutely chuck it down and 10 minutes after the rain has stopped it's like it has never rained. I found the humidity much harder to deal with than the heat, in general. Last year, our first year here, outside of the summer the weather was absolutely perfect. Beautiful sunny days, cool nights, little humidity. This year the rainy season seems to have extended itself somewhat but around the rainstorms the weather is still beautiful. Even when it's raining, it's not like rain in England, you don't feel like the clouds are pressing down on your head all the time.

Cars - CTP (compulsory third party insurance) is a part of your rego, which is like road tax. You buy a new disc every 6/12 months like in the UK. Probably still advisable to get proper insurance though. There aren't any MOTs (I think?/hope?) in QLD, except I believe that if you are selling a car you need to get it inspected - happy to stand corrected on that as I haven't had to do that and we bought our car from an auction where it was inspected anyway.


We love it here but there's plenty who don't - just be open minded about the whole thing and decide for yourself! I would never presume to tell someone to 'go for it' - but I'm glad we did.

paul1981

i have the following qualifications

vq level 3 in computer aided design
city and guild key kills 1 2 3
nvq level 2 in I,T

and my gcse exams


i done these courses 9 years ago, im totally hands with work and have been working with numerous companys in the uk as a electrician mate but getting full sparks rates as my work is far better than a mate so im told, to be honest ive wired 4 homes of my own in the uk and had them passed by a inspection tester friend of mine, im very familiar with all the regs, i could go on all night. i did go to college but didnt even finish the first year as i was working away alot, seems i had the job that everyone in college was studying to get, so i have the experience and the knowledge but not my jib card, i have a ipaf licence and a cscs card, the last 3 years ive been self employed property developing, but now the market is on stop im on stop, and bored with britain thats why im on my way to australia for a adventure, but need to work i have applied for 2 jobs on gumtree classifieds the ads there seem non agency. thankyou everyone for your help

The_Pom_From_Aus

paul1981;

im sorry to say mate in Australia every electrician must hold an "Unrestricted" electrical license. meaning you must have served an apprenticeship or have 7 years experience on the job with no breaks, you must provide evidence of all work & company's you have worked for.
Without the electrical license its Illegal to perform any form of electrical work in Australia, if you do any electrical work you must give a COES certificate of electrical safety & only registered electricians can obtain these certificates you give a copy to your customer a copy to the electrical licensing board in the stet you live & also keep a copy for yourself for 7 years.

If any thing went wrong the insurance people here would not pay out at all & you shall be taken to court for performing electrical work without the license.

I know its a pig of a job Paul but that's the law my friend, even a restricted license is no good at all, if a company was to take you on board they have by law to check all work on a daily basis, you are not allowed to work alone, its very depressing for people to have to do that, also the pay it heaps less for restricted license holders & you can only have the restricted license for about 3 years now.

So i would recommend you try to get a company to take you as an apprentice either in the UK or try one here i would be very surprised if you can get one here seeming every man & his dog is trying to obtain an Apprenticeship.

best of luck Paul

paul1981

i thought it was the case im just looking to get a labourer or builders job im there to enjoy my self and relax, all my money these days is made on buying and selling property, it far out ways the 18 pound a hour electrician mate job i had plus i was my own boss which felt good, i suppose property maintenance would be a doddle for me, if i can find the work, i will just have to see when i get there i have enough money to last the 12 months and £1700 a month in profit rents in the uk, i dont like dipping into this as its my savings for the next project, if all fails and i have 7 months in australia thats one big holiday and ive done what ive always talked of doing, go to australia meet the people and get the feal for life.

ABCDiamond

How can you get 7 years experience on the job, before you can do the job ?

paul1981

i started off as a electrician mate for 3 years in uk we have mates as well as apprentices, never went to college, my employer was very happy with my work they gave me my own van and a trainee they paid me the full sparks rate i used to go to the jobs first and put up all the tray , trunking , conduit, mounting panels. the qualified sparks would then come and be onsite where they would tell me what cables to pull in etc, ive learnt that way not good i guess but still really good at the job, its a pain becuase i have all this knowledge but not my ticket it to back it up. back to college for me.

brickies wife

If you dont mind me asking what visa are you on?

adamlt1972

I'm living temporarily in Caboolture at the moment, its about an hour into the CBD by train. From what I've seen the road trip in the morning would be pretty horrendous.
As for the area, well its not the best, (and some of the scenes I've seen on the late night trains home rival anything in the UK) but it could be worse, and you're right in thinking that rents are a lot cheaper up here.

The_Pom_From_Aus

paul1981;

you may NOT need the ticket mate if you can produce evidence of the work you performed over X amount of years that counts for the skills over years. so things may be looking good for you, if you can get letters from past employers

The_Pom_From_Aus

ABCDiamond;

have you ever worked in contracting mate, there are loads of people working as sparkies mates who are loads better than some electricians, ive seen lots who can bend conduit & manufacture trunkings also do all cabling.

some of these blokes are 1st class so don't get on there case most are very skilful i would give them a job right away & i can say ive worked on some massive projects with electricians mates who are fantastic.

ABCDiamond

I am actually puzzled, hence I asked the question, rather than "getting on anyones case".

It seems odd for someone to say that a person will not find work in Australia, until they have experience of that work in Australia.

From what I have seen, many people come over here, with just experience, or qualifications that are not recognised in Australia, and they are able to find work. Admittedly not as fully licenced contractors, but work all the same, and that leads to better things once they can get licenced here.

Even I can bend conduit, I learned that in my first year as an Electical Apprentice.