kazed

Hi We live in Tauranga, New Zealand at the moment. Originally from Ireland. We are thinking of moving across the ditch. Looking for sound advice on the pro's and con's generally. Keen to find out if there is much civils work incl sewerage, drainage or marina works (rock armouring). Not interesting in mining. Any advise appreciated. Cheers Karen & Eddie

EinsteinJ

Hi There,

I am from New Zealand too -auckland. Will move in Melb soon .

I beleive there will be lot of vacancy about civil works in Brisbane....just check with seek.com.au

kazed

Thanks for your reply - hope to get more info on folks already there but appreciate your help - SEEK is avertising stuff for Oz at the moment, I think.

Buzzy--Bee

Are you New Zealand citizens? If not you will have to obtain an Australian visa of some description before you can move here. Maybe sort out your visa options first before making any other plans....

BB

kazed

Thanks for your help. We will be NZ Citizens in a year. Before we moved from Ireland to NZ we did alot of research which prob took a year in total so I am starting my investigations now. I prefer to do it the easy way - ie NZ Citizenship

Buzzy--Bee

Cool. Do bear in mind that once you arrive here as New Zealand citizens you will be temporary residents with no automatic path to permanent residency or citizenship. Day to day this isn't a major, however it can restrict things like credit cards and mortgages to certain providers and there are a few other issues with it, so if you do have another visa option which will give you permanent residency I would investigate it.

Also in your line of work there may be some jobs not available to non-Australian citizens.

We arrived as NZ citizens but we knew we could apply for PR based on my skills shortly after we arrived.

BB

kmthor

when you say civil works... do you mean engineering or in the field?

if your looking for engineering civil guys with 12d and sub division are in great demand. if your in the field theres work out there but not as much as there was 24 months ago and contractors are really cutting it thin to win jobs

km

EinsteinJ

I think, if it is possible, having Australian PR would be much cheaper option in the long run.. that's why i did this.

kazed

Thanks Km - Civil works = Husband been a supervisor in a construction company in Northern Ireland. Wide variety of work from sewer and storm water installations, all types of housing and commercial ground works and earthworks (roads, footpaths, retaining walls, playgrounds) for both government bodies and private. In the later 10 years the company specialised in sheet piling, coffer dams, dredging, x-blocks and rock armouring for coastal defence sea erosion, harbour entrances and new marinas. Extremely good operator on plant ranging from 1.5 tn to 100 tn (incl long reach excavators) and a large no of other types of plant. Not only an operator but very experienced supervisor. Since living in NZ has been involved in sub divisions (AKA new housing developments civils), pressure sewer main, electric fusion welding and water reticulation. Currently self employed having completed a major 230 birth marina in Whangmata, NZ. Sorry went on a bit but he's really good - good reputation in a very short time.

kmthor

i know you said not interested in mining but with that plant experience there's big money to be made on the mines... otherwise id say it will be sub divisions which as i said are slowing ... the marina stuff is out of my scope don't know the situation there

Buzzy--Bee

There's a new Marina just starting in West Melbourne -

http://www.wyndhamharbour.com.au/

BB

Expat Kiwi

My advice is to approach all the civils companies you're interested in and leave it to them to put you where the work is. Don't use an agent but do reply to ads on Seek or on the company's own web sites.

Most of the larger companies have work in every state but some offshore their work to branches outside of Australia because its cheaper, and leave only a skeleton staff in Australia to bring in the contracts.

Expat Kiwi

I say the same.

Expat Kiwi

They're also off-shoring the design work, especially the American companies. A strong Aussie dollar makes this a good option for them.

kmthor

Yer agreed specially in petrol/ chem