By regional...do they mean state based?
 

Getting really confused!

I have just heard about the possible new visa class reduced points needed, but you need to live in a regional area for 2 years.
had hoped to move to WA - Perth, can anyone help....is WA classed as regional? How sepecific is it.....would you have to stay in the state or a sepecific town etc.

Hopefully trying to go out there under skilled spon class - due to being 5 points short. Would prefer however not to put upon husbands rels if we can help it.

Cheers Nikki

Re: By regional...do they mean state based?
 

Nikki,
This maybe what you refer to ?


The Sunday Times - World
January 25, 2004

Poms welcome – in outback only
Paul Ham, Sydney


FOR poms who are man — or woman — enough, it’s about to become easier to emigrate to Australia. The drawback is that applicants for new fast-track visas must promise to live in the outback.
In a plan to repopulate Australia’s interior the country’s state governments will invite skilled migrants under 45 to eschew Sydney’s sun and surf and Melbourne’s elegance.

Instead, they will be legally bound to stay in the bush for at least three years, perhaps battling the blowflies of Boggabri in rural New South Wales or soaking up the scorching heat of Mt Isa in far western Queensland.

The Australian government hopes the British, lured by images of indigenous culture, will take to the idea of a life in the outback when the scheme begins in July. The visas could be given to those who miss out under present rules.

In the post-war years, Australia expected skilled Britons to join a wave of migration. But it received many unskilled, non-English speaking settlers and the so-called “ten-pound poms�, who were offered a passage for £10 in the 1950s, and who then stayed in the cities.

Some Brits who live in the outback commend the lifestyle, although they warn that it may take some getting used to. Fiona Scott from Northamptonshire emigrated to Sydney just over 10 years ago, married a farmer-cum-polo player and moved to a cattle ranch near Willowtree, 250 miles to the northwest.

She found herself in a “one-pub, one-store� town amid a drought that killed 360 cattle out of 400. “The stench at night of dead bodies was horrible, and my children got so immune to death,� she said. “It’s the survival of the fittest in country Australia.�

For those with the gumption to stay, there are compensations. “I’m here on the mountain with the most beautiful views,� she said. “My children have just been riding their horses this morning. What more can you ask for?� Gordon Crisp, a retired academic who was born in east London, said the outback could be a pleasant surprise. His adopted home of Bathurst, four hours west of Sydney, “had a bit of redneck approach� when he moved in 1976, but now boasted a university and a school of music.

“It could be quite a decent environment even for Londoners,� he said. “But some say they couldn’t live without listening to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at least once a month. Those people obviously would be very unhappy in regional Australia.�

Re: By regional...do they mean state based?
 

HI Nikki
There does seem to be a new visa class comming out later in the year, all i know is whats on this thread.
You mention skilled sponsored class. If you have relatives already in oz who live in a Regional area, you may be able to apply now under the Regional Sponsored class,139 i think:confused:
Regional in west Australia is anywhere outside Perth Metropolitan area:lecture:
Under this class you are not tied to live in any area
This may help
Cheers
Philip;) ;)