caroledouglas

Hey Guys, Would Like To Know What The Average Wage Of A Gas Fitter Is In The Perth Area, Also How Easy Is It For A Job. Cheers Dougie .

scottish

This may sound Irish so I do apologise.

If you go onto ***** and search under a member called Kiwimanc. He is in Perth as a Plumber/Gas Fitter and has worked in the UK, NZ and now OZ. He can give you loads of advice and help.

Scossie

Hi Dougie...

I'm a Plumber/Gasfitter, & have been working in Perth for 1 1/2 years.
Are you a qualified Plumber as well, or is it just Gasfitting that you do?

90% of tradesmen over here are self employed sub-contractors. If you're only going to be looking for gas installation work, you may find it difficult, cos most of the builders have been using the same, "gas subbie", for ages, & they don't like new guys stealing their work. The reason being that there is a lot of money to be made.

Be prepared for a major change in the Plumbing methods over here!
I reckon they're about 20 years behing The UK....
I'm a self employed subbie, & I got sick, fed up with doing all round Plumbing after a while cos it was so different to what I'd been used to.
I now specialise in solar heating for swimming pools. Much less hassle...

Anyway, I've copied & pasted some advice below that I gave on a previous thread a few months back.
Have a read at it, & let me know what you think.

Good luck Dougie.... Cheers... John...
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There is no test to get your Plumbers licence. I just took copies of all the documentation I used for my migration application (qualifications, references, etc.) into The Department of Consumer and Employment Protection…. www.docep.wa.gov.au and they forward it on to,

The Plumbers Licensing Board of WA… www.docep.wa.gov.au/plumbers/index.asp

About a week later, I got my Plumber’s License through the post.

The catch is……. This doesn’t allow you to work on gas!

No UK gas qualifications are recognized in Western Australia!!!

As I said, I got my WA Plumbers licence no bother, but was told I couldn't do gas until I completed their course.
It only takes about 4 weeks as there is no such thing as central heating in WA. You don't need it!!

You have to learn all the WA regulations etc. as they are totally different to the UK ones, and then sit an exam.
It's not to hard........ I got 96% and the pass mark is 60%...
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There’s quite a bit of work at the moment. Depends what you want to do. If you want to do subbie work you’ll obviously need to get a van, and they use a lot of tools here you don’t use in the UK. (and you’ll need to get an Oxy’ set as well).

The difference in the way they do plumbing is a bit of a shock at first.
They braise everything out here. No blowlamps or Yorkie fittings at all. It’s all done with Oxy-Acetylene. (even 15mm).
There's no such thing as surface pipework! Everything is chased into the walls!! A total pain in the arse if you ask me!

And no rising mains! You pretty much have to dig a trench right round the house for the H&C pipework, then tee off and drill through the walls wherever water services are required!!

Every house's ground floor is a concrete slab as well, so you can't run pipes under the floor. The drains, gas, and water services have to be pre laid before the slab goes down.

Every house is done in stages. Always the same, which are…..

Prelay
Drains
Water Service
Gas
Sani
Final

Most subbies specialise in 1 or 2 of the above.

I worked for a couple of different companies, but now I'm self employed doing sub-contract work with my mate who's only been here for a year as well.
It's probably the best way to learn the way they do things here.

I reckon the methods and materials are pretty outdated.
For instance..... No one seems to have heard of an electric shower?!!??

gaz70

Hi Scossie

The information you provided Dougie was very informative. However, you mentioned that no UK qualification was recognised in Australia. Don't understand why gas fitting is on the 60 point list? I am Corgi registered and ACS qualified, have no formal plumbing qualifications but through work I have gained plenty of experience in general plumbing. What qualifications do you have that granted you a PR? Just thinking now that maybe I need to get a formal plumbing qualification, before even trying to apply.

Gary