ST1

Hey everyone,

Hope youre all good.

Ive been offered a job in Innisfail on a 482 Visa,with the intention of hopefully after two years being able to apply for permanent residency. My partner will also be added to my visa a long with our son. The company im going with are being very helpful by sending us contacts at estate agents and schools etc.

Just looking for some general advice before we decide to go through with it all..., our two dogs may be an issue as we have been quoted £9500 to get them transported.., this is without the cost of 30 days qurantine which is about another £2400 on top. Also if anyone can advise on the cost of living at the moment and general utility bills etc.., finding it harder to find figures for these in more remote places.

Any general advice would be great, anything to watch out for etc.

Thanks very much!

Steve

Danks

Hi had same quotes but started process myself check out Australian government agriculture site as has step by step guide..uk way behind as usual bu apha is the gov agency

Pollyana

How are you with heat and humidity, plus the occasional flood and cyclone?

Not a cheap place to live, as on top of the usual expenses everything has to be transported up to FNQ. A lot of freight transport in Queensland is still road based, which leads to shortages in the FNQ wet season when the Bruce Highway gets cut. Also means that its a long way when you want to go anywhere. Nearest airport is Cairns, but they have limited flights without flying somewhere like Brisbane first.
When I left Brisbane in March, FNQ was a nightmare for rentals, very few around, so hopefully your company will help you out. Not knowing how old your son is, you might want to look into whether his interests and hobbies are catered for.

It'd certainly be an experience, some people love the coastal towns in FNQ - others just would never be able to adjust to a very different lifestyle.
Good luck!

abner

I *have* to respond to this, if only to provide a countervailing view to Pollyanna's here. I generally greatly respect her posts, but this is overboard as a negative depiction of FNQ, frankly.

I have no experience of Innisfail itself, but I did have a very positive experience of FNQ when I worked there, and would still love to find some way of making a living/working in Cairns specifically.

• The whole adjustment to heat / humidity / wild-weather thing is greatly overblown. I spent decades in Canada, and would still prefer to end up in Cairns.
• The "cut off from freight transport" idea, also overblown. Maybe once in five years, a few days at most (though certain unlucky locales may have had worse records).

It certainly does help if you (along with your partner and son) enjoy an active outdoor life: boating, fishing, scuba, snorkelling in particular, but also camping, hiking and general exploring on land as well. If you do, there are truly few better places on the planet to be situated.

However, the one issue I would certainly agree with Pollyanna about is accommodation expense. It is critical that you nail this down before accepting any employer offer--looking for a subsidy or employer-provided accommodations. Or, at the least, a very generous offer and a well-researched view of local rental costs. Rents in FNQ are supercharged by both AirBnB-style rentals, and high insurance costs, so beware.

Pollyana

I don't think the heat and humidity thing is overblown. Some people are lucky enough to enjoy it, but for others it can be a nightmare and so I just think people should be aware of it. We have had posters in the past who have moved to the far North and then discovered that its not actually a climate they could live with. Brisbane's heat and humidity nearly finished me off, and isn't a patch on FNQ. If it suits, that's great, but anyone moving there just needs to appreciate the huge difference between hot days in the UK and hot days up there, its only fair to make the buyer beware.
The Bruce Highway is cut at some point, usually several points every year, there are often supply issues to the Far North, and severe floods and cyclones are very much a part of life there. If you don't believe me, maybe you would like to talk to my former colleagues, with whom I arranged weather warnings, emergency evacuation SMS alerts, numerous resupplies, emergency food drops, flood boat rescues ,evacuations, flood barrier placements, tarpaulins for roofs, towing out of stranded vehicles in floodwater, emergency housing, emergency cash drops, cyclone shelter maintenance, cyclone recovery plans etc etc for the last 18 years.

The OP asked for info, there's the info. Further research will help them to decide on whether its for them.

brits1

The weather definitely stopped our move to Queensland, we were already living in WA for a number of years but wanted to try a different state and we did a few reccies loved the greenery of Queensland especially after WA but the weather just ruled it out for us. My DH did work in Northern Queensland and he had to use a couple of flights to get there so it is a factor if you want to travel or have friends and family come to visit you as it does add to the already high costs of flights.

the troubadour

Definitely mentioning the heat is not overblown. Innisfail has close to the highest rainfall in Australia. Hence flooding. I worked a short time in Tully, which is nearby, which I seem to recall is even wetter. I recall Innisfail as a little 'rundown' in parts in my time there. Nice enough riverside town about an hour and a half from Cairns where I lived and far bigger and less parochial. I think it would prove to be an 'interesting' change from UK. I believe the crime in FNQ is far worse from my time there. Not sure of the impact on Innisfail. Perhaps not a forever place, but interesting in certain ways (environmental)

Pollyana

I'd agree with that about Tully. We used to track the highest rainfall figures across the State each day, and Tully used to appear more often than Innisfail. From memory, the Innisfail river/flood situation was worse than Tully. Both of course get cyclone impact.
Innisfail was decimated by Tropical Cyclone Larry back in 2006 and I think a lot of the effects of that are still felt - and were compounded by Yasi in 2011, which also did a lot of damage in Tully. Innisfail is indeed a rather "rundown" settlement, and my police colleagues would almost certainly concur on the crime front, and places like Innisfail which are more n the rundown side, and not really tourist havens have the worst figures.
Definitely an interesting place to settle. We did have a poster years ago who was in Mission Beach and was fairly content there, but I think Innisfail might not be so attractive.

OP - if you do decide to settle there, please stay on the forum, would be good to know how it goes