Hi everyone

We're (wife, myself and two young kids) are planning to move over to Melbourne probably mid 2006. We're coming over on a STNI 137. In an ideal world I'd love to have a job lined up and ready to walk into but in failing this I was just wondering and trying to touch base with any other brickies already out there. Whats the current work situation like and are Oz builders ok with the idea of setting British tradesmen on ?

Any info (or job offers greatly welcome )

Thanx

BRICKY ADE

dont know about melbourne ,i have never worked there and they build mainly brick veneer there if your a brickie perth is the place to be as they build traditionally [brick inside and out ].There is heaps of jobs here and you can expect 250 -280 a day on wages which is ok for starters untill you find your feet and decide to approach builders for your own work then anything upto 400-500 per day on a price is easily attainable .I have found australian builders willing to give you a chance ,but be aware they like the setting out of the wall to be in the correct place ,especially in kitchens and bathrooms as a lot are designed to certain sizes for tiling etc ,and the supervisor will check it for parallel and diagonal .You will find you will go through a steep learning curve here and i found they work a lot quicker here and if you are working in a team doing houses and not on one of those poncy union jobs you will be working in extreme tempretures which are energy sapping .I have just done 6 months working in bournemouth and found it like a holiday camp compared to here .Inregards to work it isnt a problem and if you pm me i can give you a few numbers to try ,i have worked for myself and others and am at the moment i am working for someone elae as it suits me and i know he would give you a job if you want one ,so why dont you come out for a few months give it a try and see if you can handle it before migrating as there are a lot who cant

Thanx for taking the time out to reply mate, problem is, the family and I are getting into Oz by STNI and we're governed to go to Victoria where they're supposed to be short on specific trades (ie bricklayers) so I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass on your Perth job offer (very much appreciated by the way). If, however, after two years in Victoria, I'm almost sure we're able to move to just about anywhere in Oz, so you never know....I might just be jumping on the "line" with ya mate

Thanx again

ADE

no probs ,i dont fully understand that STNI stuff ,so what happens in if there is no work in victoria and theres heaps in perth do they make u stay in victoria .you will find here each state seems to have different cycles of work .

I am a brickie from sheffield applying for a 136 skilled independant visa (submitted Jan 06) waiting for meds to be requested. We, thats the wife and 2 kids (4 & 2) are off to victoria like you and looking to move over as soon as poss. Working for Castle construction at the moment in Wakefield but have worked in barnsley in the past. Would be good to keep in touch and exchange info, we are off to oz in may on a reccie to get as much info as poss so will let you know what we find out if you want?

Hi ya ems

Thanx for reply, we're going for our meds this coming Monday (6th March) in Huddersfield so fingers crossed and all that. :scared:
Where abouts in Victoria are you heading and for what purposes are you wanting to get over there. As it stands now, we don't know whether to do the reccie trip this year to get our visa's validated or go the whole hog and just do the move permanent.

Anyway like you say, lets keep in touch and pass info.

BRICKY ADE

Thanks for the reply, good luck for monday meds im sure you will all be fine.

We are not sure where in victoria we will be going yet hence the reccie to go and have a look around. We have friends in melton and we also know someone (fellow brickie) from mornington so we are gonna look around everywhere and see some schools/homes/shops etc and just try and get a feel for where the work is, althought dont mind traveling to work as its what we do here!!!

will keep in touch, if you want to email me [email protected] will keep in touch that way might be easier.

Good luck again for monday!!!!