Originally Posted by karen 67

I don't understand the wage thing being less here, I was from North Wales and was Retail Manager and was paid 5 pounds 50 an hour (average for the area) here I am just a sales assisstant and I'm paid $26 an hour!!!!! Hubby is a Toolmaker and was on 9 pounds an hour, here 35$ an hour. Meat from the butchers is so much cheaper here and fruit and veg about the same (don't buy packet stuff or frozen food)but fruit and veg taste so much better here. My daughter's friends at school and never heard of anyone cleaning the toilets. We love it here and are so much better off, and the Northern Beaches where we live is just so beautiful too.

Karen

Originally Posted by Centurion

Thanks for posting that! - very good reading and sums up my own experience too! It would be good if other people would share a frank comparative. Personally I'm a student at present since being in Australia but identify with your food comments but it would be interesting to read more wage experiences.

Originally Posted by sammy77

We have been in oz now for 6 months. This is my experience:
We travelled around quite a bit before deciding on a place to settle. We went to Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart, Bate mans bay, Brisbane, Gympie and Bundaberg. Finally settled on North Brisbane. Most places are fine in OZ. For me, I wanted sunshine all year round, and somewhere we could afford to buy acreage and be semi-rural, somewhere not too busy but yet with some life. So North Brisbane seemed to fit the bill.

So having finally settled we started to get on with our lives. Now this is where reality hit home. Brisbane summer months!!!...Geez the humidity...ok we think lets not run at the first sign of trouble, so we are still here.By the way forget the mozzies, its the sand flies that are the worse, they even get through the mozzie nets!

Then I am completely flabbergasted how expensive everything is, that is with the exception of houses and petrol. Shopping is just so expensive, its way more than what we paid in the UK. Its utterly ridiculous. To try and save money you find you will have to buy bits and piece's from different stores picking up the specials. Yeh like I really want to spend my day doing that!!!!
For example I picked up spring onions for $2.54 at Woolworth's, organic carrots (1kg) at coles for $5.99. Outrageous. Back in the UK I nearly always brought Organic, it didn't cost that much more, but I cannot afford to that here.
I find clothes shopping is just as expensive as UK. But when your earning $ and not £, its actually more expensive here.
Hubby is in the building trade, he says that everything is just so regulated, he is so pissed off about it, he says that he even needs a certificate to f**t!!!!
I went to book an appointment for my kids dental checkups. Bleeding hell!, they want $200 just to check their teeth ($100 each). No bulk billing Dr's around here, so every visit to the Dr's costs me at least $20-30.

Now about the schools. Well I reckon the schools here about 1 - 2 years behind UK One of the school teachers here said this as well. So my kids are finding school all too easy. So here is the problem do we put them up a year or two? (not a good idea as other kids will be older and this can make a big difference at their age with forming friendship), or leave them where they are and risk them losing interest in school?
The schools are so underfunded. Classroom sizes are about the same as UK. Kids are expected to study in hot humid classes, no AC, but it is illegal for employers to expect their employees to work in non AC offices! You have to pay for all of your kids books and stationary. Then you are asked to make voluntary contribution to the running of the school like over $50. Then they are pleading with you to come and help the teachers out in class. Then you have to pay to watch your child in a school performance And then they expect the kids to clean (and I mean clean including toilets) up the school at the end of term!!!!
I dont know if this is just in QLD, maybe others can comment.

Everywhere you look its Aussie this and Aussie that. Well that just struck me as strange, as in the UK, you dont get British this and British that. Not a criticism just an observation.

Well we are still here, as I said we didn't want to just run at the first sign of trouble. Got to give it a proper go. Its just going to take time, to know whether we are going to stay or not.

So thats my take,

Sammy

Originally Posted by thatsnotquiteright

We've found our local meat wholesaler today. Cheap as chips. 3-7dollars a kilo.

Thanks Mr Diamond.

Said to the same tune as "Thanks Mr Hooker!"

Originally Posted by sammy77

Geez I never expected so many replies. Thank you.
Maybe I could another one "my take on oz 12 months in"!
Just to let you guys know how committed we are on giving oz a real go, we are buying a little acreage property up here, (and by the way we had a nice big 4 debroon detached house back in the uk, and not a 2 bed terraced!, not that there is anything wrong with that). I am hoping to grow all my own organic fruit and veg!, so hows that for a postive attidute, and no we are not doing this just because of the prices here, this was always part of our dream for our lives in OZ.

Originally Posted by goldcoastblue

Once you spent all that time and effort growing fruit and veggies, will you sell out of a van, or at the end of your acreage, if so how much?

be interesting to know if you are cheaper or more expensive than coles or woolies,

Are you the aussie "Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall " if so, i would love to hear more.. thats a serious note by the way on being self suffecient.

Anyone got his DVD's I'd love to know where I can pick this up from locally and Jamies O's latest Italy trip.

Originally Posted by renth

*At the end of the day I look at it this way, a country needs to be able to generate its own power, to feed its own population because one day, maybe soon, but one day the sh*t is going to hit the fan. It could be bird flu, a "peak oil" driven global recession, a natural disaster, who knows but one thing is for sure - sooner or later it will happen.

*So I'll continue to buy Australian, to suport our local economy, to invest in our countries future.