Wendy

Well done

s-jmelbournewannabe

Yeah, well done mate

Nizcac

well done on the ARTC

OzzieNurse

hi Wend, being as my OH was extremely concerned about jobs in Aus, he does similar work to your OH. He has no interest in wiring up houses or domestic work. He is currently mechanical and electrical engineer but works in maintenence of offices and buildings. He has listed the jobs in Oz as a negative point for not moving. I think he is making a moutain out of a molehill...what do you think? He thinks the pay will be worse and the jobs not as good for some reason. He also thinks he will be downgrading his skills as the ozzies arent as safety conscious and there wiring is more dangerous?????

Wendy

Hubby is working on PLC's and Seimens Step 7 here. He said it's very different to the UK, but not in a bad way. He is learning new stuff all the time and is really happy with the job.

The pay is less that what we got in the UK if we work on the exchange rate, but that means nothing. All I can tell you is that we have more disposable income here than we did in the UK, but I worked there as well and don't here. We don't have any credit cards or things like that here though, so that's probably most of the reason for it.

The wiring is different here, and hubby has said that it's not the best way of doing it, but millions of Australians live here and they don't get shocks off it every two minutes, so it can't be that bad

There is more work here, unemployment in South Australia is 4% so it's not as if there are many people applying for these jobs. Electricians are in demand here, and you can walk out of one job straight into another.

If I were in your position, I'd come out for a years working holiday and see how you feel after that. Keep your house over there so you've got something to go back to if it doesn't work out. The only downside to being a sparky here is that it is a pain to get licenced, but once you have it it's all done with.

If you don't come then you will regret it, probably when it's too late. Good luck with it all

steve`o

not bad advice at all

especially when its an unedumacated hooligan

andicee

Harsh, but funny.

Must check back here more often...thanks for the 'well dones' guys.

Will have my offishul permit to work by end of week...LOL

College, or should I say TAFE, went well on Saturday. Just sat there listening to the old boy rapping about health and safety. The real work starts this Staurday.

Anyone remember what Inductive reactance is...aaaaarghhh

Andy

steve`o

wait till you get on maximum demand and sizing of cables
its a complete shambles mate

for example as as 3006 adequate domestic installations
say max number of sockets on a 15 amp radial =8

as3018 domestic electrical installations says it 15
which is right

well both are apparently
in your answer you have to list the regulation that you used as there are loads and loads of inconsistancies like this

andicee

Makes me laugh...in the UK the 'get out clause' was, "where reasonably practical", here it's "fit for purpose!" The zoning in bathrooms never ceases to amaze me too. In my rental for example, the light switch actually TOUCHES the shower cubicle. I changed the switch mech for IP rated ones the day after we moved in. Nightmare

youngy73

would have do agree about the oz safety stuff but who gives a rats arse what they do.maintain your own standards and workmanship. as for wages, imagine you went back to the uk and had to start at the bottom again. just put it out of your mind. when i first came out i used to earn more in pounds than i did in dollars. such is life. how many of us actually come out here to advance our skill level or financial situation?

Wendy

Thanks But you're a lazy, uneducated hooligan too

etc

Hi All

I don't really belong here as I was born in Aus, my folks are brit expats though. Actually my Aussie husband and I are looking to go elsewhere in the world for a couple of years and I happened upon this site during my research.

Despite your 'high' opinion of the local electrical talent I have a few things to say that might give you some leads hopefully.

My husband is a sparky in the Goldfields of WA, working in underground mining. I just wanted to reply to say there is no myth - he is an A class sparky and is on 130,000ish PA salary plus packaging. He got that after a couple of years experience in mining. Prior to U/G mining, he did a bit of heavy industrial and a bit of construction, a bit of marine etc - not much domestic. However plenty of domestic sparkies cross over to U/G mining no probs.

Green people, newbies or whatever, including people fresh from the UK would probably start out on less than 100K but not much less and that doesn't include package benefits like perhaps accommodation, vehicle etc.

You can find jobs by going to www.seek.com.au and looking in "mining, oil and gas" for electrician jobs. Some actually state 'live and work in Australia' so are calling for O/S applicants.

A few people my husband has met who got their jobs straight from O/S started out onsite as trade assistants while their licence was sorted out - but that isn't bad money anyway and when you factor in the long days (most places are 12 hr days and rosters like 7 days on, 3 off then 7 days on,4 off) it is going to work out to good money. First year apprentices are apparently on 27p/h so an experienced sparky who just needs to get their license sorted can negotiate a decent wage even if their title is not yet A class sparky.

Umm, just some terms of reference in case you look into it and aren't sure what they are talking about in the job adverts.

FI/FO means fly-in/fly-out. In WA it means you (and family) can be based in Perth or another city and fly onto the minesite for your days on. You might do 2 weeks on and then fly back to perth for a week off. There are plenty of rosters going, 3 on/1 off, 6 on/2 off the hallowed 7on/7off. The company arranges/pays for your travel and accomodation while onsite, usually in single persons quatres with all food included.

MARCSTA - is a special ticket that is essential in WA to get on to mine sites. It costs (from memory) about 100-150 AU dollars. simple to get in Perth.

MHS - mine health surveillance (sp) is a physical you have to do before going onsite. It is pretty standard and in many cases the company will pay. In any event it is cheap and easy to get in WA.

NO DRUGS is the golden rule. Make sure you haven't even sat in a room with someone else smoking pot in a long leadup to the MHS examination. Urine tests before getting jobs and spot urine tests at any time when onsite mean no pot & pills ever (unless you can afford to loose you job) and no booze at 4am in the morning if your shift starts at 7am. You will get booted offsite and you can end up unable to get a job anywhere in the WA mining industry.

Aside from FI/FO there are also loads of in-situ jobs. Not sure about O/S relocation but if you are in perth, some companies will relocate you to their mining towns.

Here is a list of some to look at:
Goldfields towns (Central and south east part of WA. mainly gold and nickel mines, most underground but also there is the Kalgoorlie superpit which is a huge open pit gold mine):
Kalgoorlie (largest inland city in Aus, but small 30,000 people, plenty of expats)
Kambalda
Leinster

Pilbara Region (north west of WA)
Karratha (natural gas project, cushy work for sparkies, great town with lots of expats, great money, hot to tropical climate)
Newman (massive open cut Iron Ore mine)
Tom Price (iron ore)

anyway that is a start - this state is full of natural resources.

To get a start, go through a HR company like extraman hays or any labour hire company. They will help you get your foot in the door, get the MHS and MARCSTA and get a bit of experience. Of course once you have experience then you can dump the labour hire mob and negotiate with mine companies and contractors direct if you wish.

Another thing to consider if you want to stay in Domestic and Construction is that the shortage of sparkies and the lure of the big $$ in the mines means that sparkies in the city of Perth are commanding good $$ too. There is also a home building boom here so first fixing work is plentiful.

Okay - hope that helps.

For What It's Worth - Aussies DO say they have higher standards than the UK - maybe that is not true. However it is worth pointing out that QLD is considered an exception to that rule (by people living anywhere but QLD). In many industries peoples eyebrows are raised at the standard of work in QLD.

Rentals in Perth are affordable (average $275pw) - real estate is not (average $500,000+). Rentals in some mining towns esp karratha can run to 1000+ per week but you can get accommodation through companies as part of a package or in hotels/single persons quatres depending on the job. Kalgoorlie/goldfields isn't bad for rentals.

Hope it helps - there is PLENTY of work for sparkies in WA

stu:0

Thanks for that write up,made for good reading. I dont know what mining entails, can you give us some ideas of the sort of work your other half does? Is it mainly maintenance or instalation?

Thanks

Stu

etc

What the work entails - I am not a sparky and husband is working at the moment so I cant ask him to put it clearly.

There is a lot of maintenance and installation (and removal) of cable, boxes, water pumps etc. You get a list of jobs to do at the beginning of your shift, get in a 4wd and drive about underground doing your equipment checks, moving pumps, removing redundant cable and running new cable etc - whatever is on for that day.

There are also breakdowns of the special rigs (the vehicles used to drill holes for blasting, dig dirt and remove dirt from the hole) they use. Some are called boggers and jumbos if you want to google them - tamrock is one brand I have heard of. You get shown how to fault-find on them and if need be you do relevant short-courses. If there is a rig breakdown you stop your routine jobs and go deal with that as while the rigs aren't going - production is slowed or stopped.

In an underground hardrock mine (gold, nickel, etc - not coal) the production side is pretty much
drill holes in rock,
put in explosives and blast it,
dig out the dirt and send it away to extract the mineral they are after.

Your job is to deal in elec maint/install with the power needs underground and in the workshop on the surface and maintain the electrical side of the equipment. Apart from the rigs that drill holes and dig dirt, there are LOTS of pumps to stop the mine from flooding (you have to keep a check on their function and move them where they are needed and also sometimes service them), there are big fans to ventilate the mine via vent bags, there are sometimes things like big automatic doors that close off certain areas of the mine.

Sometimes you can work alone and sometimes with a crew or in constant contact with lots of the departments if it is a job that impacts production or requires other people to help. As a newbie you would take your lead from co-workers, then your leading hand and then also your electrical supervisor. Also you answer to a shift boss who is responsible for all the departments on that shift and knows what needs to be done and what is priority etc.

(some people work a combination of day and night shifts and others work all day shifts)

Sometimes the power is 13.8 kv.
Also some things are high voltage and if you don't have it there are courses to learn high voltage switching (but you don't need it, it just helps for some jobs).

There are communications and safety equipment, remote controlled vehicles and tv signals to get perfect underground (interesting and frustrating ) ummmm, some work is done on the spot and other work you do in a workshop on the surface.

Holes can be very short in new mines and kilometres deep with rabbit warrens of connecting roads underground in older operations. Most of them you drive down in 4wd vehicles.

From what I can gather the downsides (once you have been in the job long enough to loose the adrenalin rush of the environment) are the mundane things like regular maintenance checks and dealing with pumps (gets boring) and the hours. Also it can get a little stressful to fix the rigs under pressure (coz you know while the rigs are down the mine isn't making $$). There are options in that area though like people to call if you cant find or fix the fault and anyway, you soon get to know the rigs and people love you for solving their problems quickly .

The upsides are that there are usually challenges to overcome, there is lots of new things happening all the time and new areas being opened up. There is the money, the other benefits like vehicle and housing in some cases, and good rosters that mean you can have days or weeks off in a row instead of just weekends. Most people work about 6-8 months of the year (taking into account holidays and rostered days off). My husband works a little less than 6, for his $130,000+ .

Also, as the workforce on mines changes quickly (mainly due to people going to other jobs that pay better/offer better conditions), you are not the newbie for long and pretty soon find yourself one of the most senior people on the crew. It is common to go from newbie to leading hand and even supervisor inside 3-4 years.

Alternatively, move from mine to mine 'chasing the dollars', save up and quit to go spending all your dosh in asia or visiting the UK and then go back to work when the $$ run dry. That happens.

I am not sure what else to say except it is probably totally different to what you have seen before and that is half the fun of it. They are totally used to newbies, most people come from other electrical areas like construction or domestic. They need the workers and they are used to training new people continuously.

It is more physical work and can be dirtier than some other electrical jobs, but then sparkies don't get 100,000+ in most other industries. The upsides as a worker seem to outweigh the downsides.

My husband found the mining operation awesome at first. It is still awesome to have a geotech remind you that the rock you are leaning on 2 kms below the earth is some stupid billion years old without any prior human contact. He is not a rocket scientist and he picked it all up very fast despite having NO experience in almost all mining equipment and voltage used etc. 4-5 years on and he knows underground mining inside out and is quite senior. He has thought about taking a job internationally for close to AU$200,000 (as a newbie overseas, so those dollars would go up when experienced). So it is an industry that can pay dividends If you want a more guaranteed industry (one that is not so dependent on the price/demand for gold, nickel, whatever) look into the oil and gas industry or even the big open cut iron ore mines in the north west of our state. But that is not our area.

Oh, safety. People do die now and then (as they do in all industries, we hear of one or two deaths a year throughout the industry in this country, I think). It is rare and safety appears to be paramount. There is ongoing safety training/meetings/updates and elaborate safety drills, lots of inductions etc when you first go to a new site and there are courses that you can do through work to get more experience maintaining the different rigs and any specialised equipment. People get supervised till they are competent and dismissed for unsafe practices or even driving offenses on the companies property. That is our experience anyway.

Sorry for the essay no time to edit.

Hope that helps. It isn't all sunshine and happiness but for many people it is a brilliant industry to be in.

stu:0

Wow what a write up, very interesting and thank you for that.

Stu