AndyandAnge

Guys its been a horrible week!

Well ive been on a downer for a week now but maybe you could cheer me up with some sound advice.
I sold my house a year ago and made only a very modest amount of profit from it. I banked it and rented a house with my family and then unfortunatly i had to move and rent again (tis is where we are now). I have now been told i have not paid off the loan (thought it was paid of when we sold the house) so i had to pay £10,000 to settle it. This has hit our savings hard to say the least. We still want to go to Australia but as we had set our plans on Queensland (even wifes got a job offer- Nurse) we have to change venue and got to Adelaide where the property is cheaper and even live in the hills suburbs.
A big blow - she needs to be within half hour drive of the hospital so near the freeway and i have to get a job (not a tradesman) 4 children have to be in school close buy and .....

My research into a new state within South Australia starts all over again and try to get her a job within an other hospital with a reloaction package.

doom and gloom but the drean is still alive i hope.

Anyone with a idea on a nice to live just outside of Adelaide that will accomondate two adults and 4 children
with a mortgage of around $280,000.

Sorry for the gloomy thread its just the way we are feling at the moment

Stitch

There are a few places further North in Queesnland. Don't give up hope but make sure it's what you all want as a family. You can get houses around Brisbane and there are a number of hospitals about for work.

There are a few located around Adelaide wh o will be able to give some ideas.

Cheers

Ginny

Wendy

It's all very well saying that you have to come to Adelaide because the property is cheaper, but is there work here for you? Your wife is fine, there a few hospitals around, but what do you do for a living? - No work may mean that you can't afford here either.

You can buy property in Adelaide within your budget, not all in the hills either (which are beautiful by the way ). But I bet you could also buy something in Queensland for that too, if you're willing to compromise on the 'beach' lifestyle etc. Depends which you feel is the lesser of two evils.

I'd also say that because your wife already has work lined up, you really should be looking at carrying on with your plans. If she were out of work when you landed, you'd soon be eating into your savings then you'd be even worse off.

After saying all that though, Adelaide is a nice place to live for a lot of us

AndyR1976

I wouldn't just be pointing in one direction in this one - ie - don't just focus on adelaide or SA! There are hospitals everywhere and work should come up regularly for nurses etc.

Many hopsitals outside main cities (in smaller towns along the NSW and QLD coasts) have trouble getting staff - many young people don't necessarily wnat to live in a small town when all their mates are in the city etc etc. the added bonus is that if your wife can get work n one of these hospitals then housing would be cheaper than Sydney/Gold Coast/Brisbane/sunshine Coast as well!

If work and school for the kids is the key determining factor then I'd be aiming to sort that ad use it as a basis for where you decide to go! But don't dismiss NSW or your iniital choice of QLD Just yet!

What type of nursing does your wife do and what is your profession??

AndyandAnge

Hi well ive been offshore in the sub sea division for a couple of years in the ROV game but before that i was a manufacturing engineer for BAe systems. I have a masters degree in advanced manufacturing systems but have forgotten most of it (dementia at 41yrs old) Ive always been in some kind of engineering role of some sort or another, its just that everytime i read about jobs in Australia its about trades and anything else is not a requirement. I do also have a HND in Welding and Fabrication but havent followed that up with a job so unfortunatly i have no experience there also.
My wife says i put myself down alot but without a trade i think its gonna be very hard for me.

My wife is a cancer nurse and she also goes out to people with cancer at there homes and stays with them over night to look after. (Marie Curie Nurse). Shes worked in hospitals and Hospices but its always been cancer care for her.
Thanks for your interest.

wardy2

Have you escaped from PIO??

Why dont you look at renewing welding skills at the local TAFE in which ever state you choose it would probably be very straight forward and theres always lots of jobs advertised for fabrication shops. I dont think it would take long either, personally if I was set on Qld I would follow it up, come up to sunny Cairns a little bit cheaper and a wonderful group of people such as myself are heading that way in the next few months.

Again personally I would not settle somewhere I didnt feel I wanted to be.

kaye

AndyandAnge

Funny enough Cairns was our first choice but the wife got offered a job at Mater Adult Hospital which unfortunatley is the center of brisbane city (its all down to where queensland health offer you a position) House prices are a bit pricey there. But Cairns was our first choice it is so beautiful. I am actually now looking into renewing my skills at the tertiary technical college also so we must think on the same lines (its got to be fate).
Still love PIO but this aint such a bad community either ive found

wardy2

I would stick with Qld then you are already half way there.

Have to agree with you about this being not to bad a community.

kaye

Bobcat

Perth is booming offshore. With your background and a current HUET ticket you would have no trouble whatsoever scoring a job offshore.

If you've got North Sea experience.......... better still........ but don't volunteer for Bass Strait gigs.

Your missis would sail into a job at any hospital here as they are crying out for skilled and experienced medicos.

With your background I can see you scoring a nice easy number up the Timor Sea and with the film star wages you'd earn up there......... the price of property here in WA wouldn't be an issue.

auspal

I have spent a few days in Cairns in their summer, it is a beautiful place but the humidity can kill you:curse::curse: No beaches there to speak of either, especially central Cairns.

I live on the Gold Coast ( and have done for around 11 years) so get my fair share of humidity here in the summer months, so I know what it is like. I have a few mates ( aussies) who have lived and worked in Cairns and they couldnt take the humidity either. I was there in February and to give you an example, was staying in a nice airconditioned hotel, would shower and change, step outside the hotel and immediately be wet through Beautiful place in the winter months though, you cant have everything.

Dorothy

We just moved from Adelaide to Perth. I had no trouble finding work, as the hospitals are crying out for staff in SA. My husband, however found Adelaide was terrible for his career. He's an electronics engineer with a special interest in security. We went 9 months in SA with him unemployed and ate into our savings so much that we are now starting completely from scratch here in WA. The last few thousand $$ we had was used to move us to a place where he could find work in his field.
My 2 cents worth, if you are interested, is to go to Brisbane. You will find it much easier to get work for yourself there and you can still buy a reasonably priced house in Qld if you look. Quite honestly, a mortgage in the $280 range in SA won't get you within 1/2 hour of the major downtown hospitals. Mind you, Adelaide has a very good transit system, so she could take the bus or tram to work.

k76

I'm pretty sure you have potential to make far more money than a tradesman. Your two keywords are mining and oil/gas. WA is obvious for both oil/gas and mining. Hunter/Newcastle is a good spot for mining, with a strong manufacturing base. Adelaide is ramping up in naval shipbuilding at the moment, that would be an option for you too although probably slightly lower renumeration.

My guess is that your wife will be making the same kind of money all over Australia, but your salary could range from 60k - 120k+ depending on which industry and location you pick.

AndyR1976

As you can see from people's replies there looks like there might be a few options for you!

My idea is this - somewhere around the Newcaslte Area north of Sydney. Newcaslte was a former steel working town and there are plenty opf associated industries where you could find work! British Aerospace have a manufacturing base at Williamtown where they put aircraft together or something like that - there are hundreds of mines in the lower hunter where your welding/engineering skills would be useful for a range of assocaited industries - lus there are stil some large manufacturing firms (including one or two that make train locomotives and haulage carriages for coal trains, a dry dock where large ships are repaired and so on etc). There are companies that make/alter trucks/lorries and all sorts of mining equipment etc. Newcaslte has a lot of those manufacturing/engineering type industries!

Also, for your wife, there are a few major hospitals - The John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle have major cardiac and cancer wards/clinics or whatever you call them - it is probably the biggest hospital outside a capital city (and it is HUGE)! there are also a range of smaller hospitals and hospices (private) in the Newcastle area!!

Look into it, I would be surpised if you couldn't find work their to suit you both! And the added side is that Newcastle is an amazing little city!! One of hte best (I went to Uni there and it really is magic - has this small town feel about it for some reason - despite having a population fo more than a million).


I am sure other people have ideas for their own areas !! So like I said - don't give up on your dream of QLD or NSW just yet!!

A

wardy2

Hi Auspal

When you say there are no beaches to speak of in Cairns what do you mean have seen plenty of beaches there and they look fantastic.

Was on the gold coast last year we are not looking for something as big as surfers etc was just something more relaxed and tropical we wanted.

We have been told to expect the humidity will affect us until we get acclimatised but as other expats have said on here it doesnt take long to get used to. My parents have spent a lot of time in Cairns and loved it they did live in Bahrain though so used to the heat but they think we will cope once used to it.

If it all doesnt work out will head to Brisbane its a close second anyway. We are pretty flexible just out for the adventure kids dont mind where we settle as long as they can play football.

Any advise is great

kaye

AndyR1976

Hiya, Cairns doesn't really have any nice beaches near to the town and you have to drive either sout or north to find some nice sand!

As a very general rule, beaches in north queensland are not as nice as beaches in Northern NSW and south-eastern QLD. Just a factor of the topography etc. North of about Mackay beaches are very sheltered from the ocean by the great barrier reef so the build-up of sand is different to what you get further south (like the massive sand islands of Fraser Island and the Whitsundays). Also, in the region around Cairns the Great Divide comes much closer to the coast - leading to darker sands on some beachs (as opposed to the whiter sand along the mid-qld coast and northern NSW (thinking places from Byron north to around The Whitsundays)

Also, the further north you go the more you have to worry about things such as irucandji, box jellyfish and the odd saltwater croc (usually not a worry unless you're in NT or Cape York) ....chomp chomp!