hi can i take my mobile phone to Perth and as long as it's unlocked just get a new simm and away i go. OR can you just go to the phone shop and get a free mobile with a contract just like this country a good phone that is
thanks

You can get free or very cheap phones like the Uk, but the contract is 2 years. You do have to watch the deal as some of the "free" phones are not actually free and they add a charge to your line rental over the 2 year period to cover the cost of the phone.

there are also 2 different types of Network, I no longer have a digital ohone as they don't work much further than the big cities and have a CDMA phone which works in a lot more places, I also have a sat phone which is not necessary in most part of Oz but if you are gonna live in the sticks (litterally miles from anywhere) then it will be necessary.

Even though CDMA is probably not required in Perth it still might be worth getting one if you intend on being able to contact anyone when you travel further afield.

Basically a digital phone will not work once out of Perth until you get to Geraldton and that will be only in the city centre and after that North it will not work until Carnavon and then Darwin.

Kala

In answer to your question, yes you simply unlock a UK phone and you can then chuck a Australian Pay as you go SIM into it. If you want to be super organised then search for Australian SIMS on ebay.co.uk. We bought Vodafone Red Sims before we left and the day of arriving threw them in the phones and activated them.

Cost of a sim is around £10 and you get $50 of credit anyway for that.

You can buy them from here - we did and I can recommend the guy (not connected with me) :-

http://www.simcard.me.uk/australian_sim_card.htm

Thanks for all the info very useful!

I always use vodafone when in Oz..always found them pretty good. I bought the red sim card for $30 when I arrived there. Got $50 of credit and then when I topped up after that I went on the $49 maxi cap and for the $49 I had $230 of credit to use up that month. As well as calls it includes txt, pxt and 20mins of international calls.
http://www.vodafone.com.au/rep/redSi...st=promo280803

Oh and I took my own phone that was unlocked.