chloe

I like tents well enough. Nothing against tents.

But I'm wondering if it's really this bad:

"When we hear services giving out tents and advising people about where they can camp, we know things are really bad. That's the anecdotal evidence. But all of the empirical data now backs up what we know anecdotally - that things are worse than they've ever been, especially for low income earners."

We've been reading this site voraciously, so that we're going in with our eyes open. I've read carefully all the complaints - some seem legit, some less so (not much on tele? well, I hope nobody's moving to Australia for the tele).

We thought we were prepared. Then I see that. I'm a nurse, we're planning to go quite soon, and suddenly we're wondering if we're going into some kind of nightmare.

We can move anywhere, really, but we're headed to Brisbane because we have friends there. Only they were just informed they're going to be kicked out of the rather large house they were renting (landlord putting his daughter in).

We thought, well, we can go somewhere more rural... but then they say even rural towns are in the same crisis. What?

Can anyone there, especially those on moderate incomes, tell me if it's really that bad?

And if it is, what kind of flattened tins, plastic sheeting and cardboard they'd advise using for construction of our Aussie dream shack.

thebears

Chloe,

A majority of longer term professional landlords (like myself) are not in the practise of raising rents dramatically. The reason is simple it is far more costly to have to keep replacing tenants than have good tenants for a continous tenancy.

You will find it is the highly stretched and naive investor/landlords who are just trying it on. There is no point in having tenants on the bread line who will turn around and deface your property or jump to another cheaper option as soon as one appears.

You may just have to look for a suburb further out on a temporary basis until the market realigns and comes back to reality.

Pollyana

LOL!!!
Not sure we even count as moderate, more like low-moderate; live in the northern suburbs of Brisbane and not a tent in sight....nor does anyone I know live in a tent!
And in 18 months our rent has gone up by a grand total of $10 a week.

232Bar

I've got a nice garden you can pitch your tent in and I'll even let you draw water off the bore - how does $75 per week sound?

chloe

Thanks for the replies. So, I'm guessing from Pollyana that even if we have very moderate income, we won't be pushing our worldlies around in a shopping cart.

OH is terrified. Every day he discovers something new, and worse. Today it was the drought.

We've also read about people having a great deal of difficulty finding work. I'm a nurse, but I have to sort out my credentials once I get there and that could take a little while. He's done everything, from temping in offices to farming to bartending.

If anyone feels like reassuring us... there is work to be had there, yes?

(Where we currently live, it gets a bit insane. A friend of ours went to the unemployment agency asking for anything at all. The only thing they could find him was a dishwashing job. He said great. Then they said, Oh, you have to be under 26. So he can't even dishwash.)

I read that there's very low unemployment... I hope that's true.

I guess in a month we'll know for sure.

We're a little worried we won't have a home, won't have work, won't even have water.

Wait, that 75 dollars includes water? Hmmmm...

Wendy

All these worries you have are quite normal. Try not to let them get on top of you.

There is absolutely loads of work out here for nurses, so you won't have a problem getting work. Here in South Australia there is always at least two pages of jobs for the medical profession.

Chin up and stop worrying yourself to death

chloe

It's more my other half that's worrying myself to death.

ozzieeagle

As a nurse you should be able to get a job, within 10 secs of picking up a phone to an agency.... I dont see how you can land without the credentials being sorted... even so, as long as the Agency beleives you are a Nurse but not sure what level surely that would let you work at the base rate... Which would have to be around 18 dollars per hour only 1.50 per hour less than a RN. Plus penalties of course. This would definitely apply in Melbourne.

Now if I knew you personally, or anyone else that I knew.. I could definitely point a bloke in the direction of starting two jobs within a week. Although he may not want to do them. One is Parcel delivery at 80cents per parcel cash in hand.... have to supply your own van for that one... The other is in a piggery the otherside of Goondiwindi. My visiting mate actually did the latter at my BiL's pggery.... It's very remote and probably only sustanable for about 4 months before the isolation gets to you. There are also Mushroom picking jobs available at piece rates here, that you could probably start within a week.


Depends how desperate you are and how far you are willing to go.

Just thought I'd show you the lowest common denomnator as I see it.

Best of luck

Jobs are there... and probably plenty of better ones.

chloe

Hi, as Chloe's OH, I've read through your posts and I'm very grateful for them. especially the excellent one on unskilled work.) And the lowest common denominator is definitely what I want to see, what I think a lot of people want to, to be able to say, "OK, it won't be worse than X." To be realistic, I'm looking at my/our fallback options.

So thank you very much for that. It's a generous service for me and others like me.

I've gone on at a bit of length here, so if it's a lot more than you care to read just say, Hey crazyman, condense that already, and I'll give it another shot. And basically, whatever I'm asking for here, you've already mostly done. I just kinda need to write all down in one place. And maybe have someone look over it.

Unfortunately, she's not exagerating my trepdidation.

It's just that want to make sure we're going in very eyes open. E.g., in the UK they go on and on about the nursing shortage, but I've talked to nurses there who are being laid off, so I don't quite get it and certainly would've want to move there to look for that sort of work. I've also seen talk of a labor shortage in some other places when really it just seems there's a desire to have a pool of unemployed. And I've heard that a lot of advertised jobs in Australia are actually false just to get people to sign on with agencies.


I'm not saying that's the case here, but I really want to make sure we're not going into something like that. Online, I've been looking at jobs just to be sure to have something. My failsafe has to go fruit picking. Sounds at least survivable and possibly even enjoyable... but then I read from someone that she's been trying "forever" to get that sort of work. I went on the harvest jobsearch and everything I clicked came back "No Jobs Found".

So, I've been a just a little, teensy-tiny bit TERRIFIED. I was the impetus behind moving us to Australia, and I don't want to be dragging this wonderful person who regularly has to do too many of my dishes into some sort of horrible living situation.

We won't have a lot of money, certainly not at first, and I've read that it's hard to find housing without a healthy bank balance to show off. We do have friends who were glad to put us up indefinitely - this is the only reason we decided to head for Brisbane (Manly, actually) - but they were just informed they're being evicted by a landlord who says wants to put family in the house. This after they'd kept paying rent on the house during months away because they wanted to have it to come back to. So they're not sure that they won't be staying with someone themselves.

You know, I can sleep in a ditch. She's... Parisian.

My original thought was to work hard and give her all the time off she wants to get settled and used to Aussie accents and to sort out her nursing documents (she's got ANMC, but needs to get specific state licensing which may require some courses once we're there - the QNC is frustratingly vague about what they actually make of her credentials and how she'll go about satisfying them, plus they have a considerable backlog). It may take a while, even months if they decide she needs to take some courses. (From what we can tell, the worst case is that they'll ask for four three-month classes.) She may return to France for bit while I set things up.

I sometimes feel hopeful. I'm reasonably bright, energetic, sociable, at times even presentable... I think I'd do an excellent job working as a tour guide somewhere a bit rugged - I've done that sort of thing before and done well at it (but it seems to require nineteen and a half certificates). But I'm glad to bus tables and wash dishes anywhere (depending on how many certificates that requires). Or mow lawns (done that, too).

I just don't want to make my sweetie live in the park while I do that.

Your posts have been considerably reassuring. (Aussie Post sounds great... just I might have to wait a while until they call.)

And part of what I need is reassurance. I know maybe this isn't the place for such whimpering, and sorry to sound so fragile, but... well, it's the case, because it's not just me that's going into this.

At the height of my hyperventilating panic, our friends there called and spent a good while speaking in Soothing Tones, but they're actually there for professional reasons, had everything set up before they moved, so I don't know if they entirely relate.

All that said, I've been there and loved it. Among the many dissatisfactions of where we live now, besides the utterly defeated populace, is that lack of things that make a place redeeming. You can live with a lot of bad things if there are good ones that balance it out. And I expect we'll find those there. I know I did before.

And we can relocate any place once there, though we're keen on staying where it doesn't get terribly cold (terribly hot is OK).

Nothing I've read has made me say, No, we can't do this. But it just seems like every time I look, I find more red flags, and not enough green ones lately. I just want to be realistic on the negative and positive. Some of my friends here think I've lately been spening time specifically searching out negatives, but it's not that. It's just that every time I log on, I seem to find something new. I've recently read that there's a severe drought - already the worst in a hundred years and set to get worse for at least the next six months, wheat shortage, soaring veg prices, housing crisis - worst ever, and also set to get worse thanks to interest rate rise... And as I read all that, I wonder if I'm moving us into a vicious mess, if we shouldn't be considering pulling the plug and looking elsewhere.

Anyway, sorry to go on so... assuming you've made it this far. I just wish I was reading a better negative/positive ratio. But then I think maybe a lot of the people who are posting the negative are the ones who are sitting in front of a screen by themselves on a Friday night, and not to cast aspersions on them, but if they're at home in front of the computer alone at that time, and feeling dissatisfied, maybe they're not putting quite enough into making things work out. I also think a lot of the things that concern them aren't going to affect us so much.

Still, I worry when I see something like the housing crisis reported an ABC as worst ever, and despite my thinking that we could get around that by moving rural, they say it's terrible right across Queensland and WA.

Basically, it's really important to me to give her a better life (and wouldn't mind one for myself, while I'm at it). If it was just me, I'd head off to Africa or South America to ramble about and squander my savings, but it's not. So we'll be moving to a more expensive place and I'll be putting off the squandeirng, for a while yet.

And that's where I am just now, as I sort through belongings...

And if you're still with me, thanks for getting this far.

ozzieeagle

Wow what a post.... you seem like a very thoughtful person, which to me means you will approach any given situation with a lot of pre planning, which can only help matters. I'd say instinctively, that you should be fine. Australia and Australians really does appreciate people that put effort in, it can be a very forgiving place as well.

No such thing as a crystal ball though, so sorry no guarantees. However I dare say a move here would probably from a job point of view be as risky as putting a pin in a map of the UK and sticking it in at random. If you could cope with that risk...then take the next step and do it 12,000 miles away or without a safety net. .

Sorry for my brief reply, will try and come back more comprehensively tomorrow.

Congrats on scoring a Parisian btw....Very impressive

chloe

Thanks. I think I really needed to put it all down where I could look at it, then tell myself it in't so bad, then tell myself it is so bad after all, then it ...

It comes in waves: Are we doing something incredibly stupid, are we doing something bold and brilliant...

The usual factor of having told everyone what we're doing comes into it. Hard to sheepishly show up and have everyone wonder why you're still around.

Which is why I try to blank all that out and just try to decide whether this is still what we want.

I know there's no gaurantees. That's precisely why it's important to know was much as possible beforehand. I was OK with everything until I read that ABC story about people having to live in tents. (If I want to do that, there's not much reason to fly all the way to Oz.) That's what set me off, really.

So, yes, needed to write all down. Which calmed and focused me. Even moreso having someone read it over and comment a bit. Thanks for that, I owe you one.

P.S. As for the Parisian in question, this particular Parisian came along when I passing through the city en route from Madrid back to the US. Passed me in the park with her Dalmatian. Hmmm, I thought, my dog would sure like to play with that Dalmatian. (It didn't occur to me at all, of course, that my pup's pop wouldn't mind playing with that Dalmatian's owner. Not at all. Course not.)

JaneandJim

So now do you have 99 puppies?

Seriously, some of the problems you've been reading about don't have so much of an impact on day to day living. Sure, there's a drought so you use less water. (I now time my showers so I don't waste so much ) House prices aren't increasing as much as they used to be and are still comparitively cheaper than the UK. (Ie. a 3 bedroom in centre of Brisbane is cheaper than the same in the centre of Manchester) Its only when people come from a suburban semi to a 4 bed with pool by the sea and want it mortgage free when you have a problem.

With your attitude, you'll be fine here.

Good luck,
Jane