Australia, january 2009 - september 2009

[hacksterbator]

G'Day Mates,
Had some recent changes on my side of the world and so i'm considering a move to australia for a few months in the fall of 2008. It would likely be from september to january. Any way, i had a few preliminary questions i wanted to ask the locals:

-What is housing like in sydney, melborne, gold coast. Like an entry level batchelor or 1 bedroom apt?

-Does any one know what the job market like? Especially for cooks? Are they needed/ valued?

-What are typical wages like for cooks?

-is any one willing to let me crash out on their couch for a couple week's, or is any one gonna need a room mate around then?

-what's the easiest/ most economical mode of transportation within oz? Train, Bus, Kangaroo?

-How frequent are shred sessions in the major footbag centers?

-Are there any tournaments usually held around those dates?

-What's the resale value on a good surfboard?

i just kind of came up with this plan 10 minutes ago, but i like to travel and i follow through on these types of plans.
Cheers!

[King Monkey]

Mr Grant! This is the kinda topic i like to see hehe
Ill try and answer a couple of Q's now, but some i might be able to find out more about from the Chefs at my work...

Couch-crashing shouldnt be a problem however as far as Sydney goes, id probably be the only one who would have room. Our house has a spare room which should be available. Unfortunately i live 1 hour from the centre of Sydney by train so this could be a pain in the arse for you, unless you got a job midway between or something. If i were you i would live near the city however, my area sucks!

The other footbaggers in Sydney dont have the same luxury of space as me but their situations could change next year...

Train is probably the most economical transport, the Sydney system reaches pretty much everywhere and is reasonably good (although everyone here complains how shit it is) and regular, even to outlying areas such as where i live. Buses are cheaper but slower and more crowded.

Sydney at the moment only has 3 regular players: one working full-time, and two studying full-time. So sessions arent regular, they tend to happen every second or third week at the moment. This changes during summer to be more regular, and at least one of us will be finished study by next year. Of course by having an international visitor we would be extra motivated to make regular sessions

Tournaments are also few and far between given how small our shred scene is. Nationals are normally held early in the year, January/February time. But if you were coming to Aus we would probably hold a jam or two in your honour and get everyone together

Sorry for only answering a few but i dont have all the facts.. maybe another Sydneysider can help me? Ill see what the Chefs can tell me about employment...

[hacksterbator]

Ian, thanks for the info.
As to cooking, I don't have my red seal, or a culinary education or any thing like that. Just 5 years of job experience as a prep and line cook, good knife skills and a strong work ethic
Any way, thanks again for the info, looks like i have some research to do this winter.

[gatapia]

Cool, another clima player in Oz.

Firstly, fall is an unknown american/canadian way of saying some season I don't know, also that season is actually almost middle of summer here.

Secondly, In sydney you can get a job doing whatever you want to do in a second. We are currently in our worst skills shortage ever.

Public transport sux, so if your staying for a while get a shitty car and sell before you leave make very little loss.

I have a couch for you for a few weeks, however I'm getting married in Oct so youll have to be out by then or the boss will kick my ass, she still turns all sour sour when she remember Ken S here for 2 months (just kidding Ken, she loves ya).

Sessions are few and far between, Sydney is bigger than an elephants c$%k, this and the fact that transport sux makes sessions hard. Having said that, whenever players such as Ales, Phil M have come over we have organised events and they usually get a good oz wide (even NZ) gathering.

Housing in sydney is super expensive, having said that due to skills shortage any job pays a small fortune so as long as you get a job soon you'll be fine. Melbourne is alot cheaper. Melbourne also has a much large footbag scene, it is however a small little country town that gets pretty old pretty fast, just kidding, its not THAT small.

If you want to find out wages for cooks, check out www.seek.com.au, this our main recruitment site.

Anyways, all in all Oz is a great place, expensive especially if you plan on travelling around, however having players in most major cities will mean costs are reduced significantly during travels. Renting is expensive, however work is lucrative. And us ozzies are pretty pretty cool.

Anyways, thats my 2 cents.

Guido

[james_dean]

Sweet action!

Melbourne has a good scene at the moment. Dan ednie will be back by then, alex uranos is back into the game and janis and dan boyle are around as per usual. Lots of newer players... james yip, andrew macca (not sure how often he comes), janis has a couple of guys from his uni club that can do some tiltless stuff that are coming sunday, are they likely to be regulars janis? JP (canada) is living in melbourne at the moment but I suppose he could pack up and leave at any moment After a mostly non-shredding year I'm back into it, and hope to come down fairly regular, going down tomorrow and was there a fortnight ago. Would def come down if you were around! (I live about an hour and a half north of melbourne) As far as I can tell, there are sessions almost every sunday... clarify janis?

[hacksterbator]

sweet, thanks for all the info guys. i'll definately be checking out that website. I was thinking about getting my motorcycle license and buy a used bike for transport while i was down there (failing that, perhaps a scooter withone of those funny surboard holder attachments), but i guess i'd have to check out the insurance rates, because up here they are murder for motorcycles.
again, thanks to every on for the info. looks like i have alot to consider.

[hacksterbator]

are any footbaggers in australia also surfers? or have an interest in surfing? i'm really looking forward to getting on a board again, infact it's one of the reasons for the vaycay, so it would be great to go out with some one who knows the local breaks well. if not, anyone interested in learning?

[acxel22]

I'm planning a 1 year trip around the world starting next summer in europe.

I don't know when I'll be in australia, but it's one of my destinations.

I like this thread, good infos! I'll probably have some questions when the time comes as well.

[quadgun]

Hey Andrew ... when moving to another country like you are planning to, do you need to get some kind of work visa ... or can you just go there and work?

[hacksterbator]

do you need to get some kind of work visa ... or can you just go there and work?

you bet your ass you need a work visa. you can work under the counter, but you can get really screwed over in more ways than one. A bunch of my friends have worked in australia and said getting a work visa was easy, it only took about a week to get their pass ports back. Might be easier because canada and australia are both common wealth countries. Beats me.

[Iron Clad Ben]

do you need to get some kind of work visa ... or can you just go there and work?

you bet your ass you need a work visa. you can work under the counter, but you can get really screwed over in more ways than one. A bunch of my friends have worked in australia and said getting a work visa was easy, it only took about a week to get their pass ports back. Might be easier because canada and australia are both common wealth countries. Beats me.

Yes this is true. It is MUCH harder for Americans to get work visas in Aus/NZ than Canadians. They've done a very good job of preventing Americans from immigrating there, and I don't blame them for it one bit.

[gatapia]

Getting work visas should be no problems, but yeah definatelly get them if intending to work.

Andrew, I don't really think any of the sydney guys are surfers at least I haven't heard of them surfing. But you'll be able to get a board cheap on ebay.com.au, just order it and have it shipped to one of the syd addresses before you come (or we can pick it up before you arrive). I'm sure you'll make surfing buddies pretty quick tho.

[King Monkey]

lol ive surfed a couple of times but with very minimal skill... i think its only cos im so light-weight that i can stand up haha
But yeh Ebay is the best bet probably, unless you move-in to a crib that is near the beach, in which case you might pick one up at a garage sale or surf-shop second hand.
As Guido said if you want to order it and we pick it up for you then thats no problem.

If i lived closer to the beach id probably take up surfing but i cant be arsed driving everywhere lol. I know Dyalan doesnt mind a bodysurf down Coogee so id tag along lol

[Jeremy]

I don't surf, but hang around a bunch of surfers. Tasmania is good for surfing, but also icy icy cold (which is why I don't surf).

edit; although my brother and I both have long standing plans to take it up one day; probably when we move to Thailand to escape the law.

[Jeremy]

G\'Day Mates,
Had some recent changes on my side of the world and so i\'m considering a move to australia for a few months in the fall of 2008. It would likely be from september to january. Any way, i had a few preliminary questions i wanted to ask the locals:

-What is housing like in sydney, melborne, gold coast. Like an entry level batchelor or 1 bedroom apt?[/quotes]

Obviously there is a lot of variability but you could definitely find places for $100 a week in Melbourne (not sure about the others) - and even cheaper places if you\'re lucky. The first place I lived in in Melbourne was a 4 bedroom share house about 20 minutes walk from the middle of city and that was $75 a week; which was pretty awesome. Prices are trending up, but not that fast.

-Does any one know what the job market like? Especially for cooks? Are they needed/ valued?

Australia has low unemployment at the moment. Finding jobs is very easy (at least in my experience). My impression is that cooks are always looked for, although I don\'t work in hospitality, so that\'s just from talking to people who are, I could be wrong.

-What are typical wages like for cooks?

It would depend on your qualifications obviously, but it would be illegal to get paid less than around $16 an hour and you could certainly find many jobs that pay over $20 an hour.

-is any one willing to let me crash out on their couch for a couple week\'s, or is any one gonna need a room mate around then?

September 2008 is a long way away. I would always be happy to have any footbagger stay with me, but I couldn\'t guarantee any degree of luxury.

-what\'s the easiest/ most economical mode of transportation within oz? Train, Bus, Kangaroo?

Depends where you are and where you\'re going. Living in Hobart, I walk everywhere. Public transport is pretty good in most cities.

-How frequent are shred sessions in the major footbag centers?

Weekly+ in Hobart. My impression is irregular in other cities, although we played twice a week when I lived in Melbourne, and I\'m sure if you were happy to be the organiser, you could arrange that too.

-Are there any tournaments usually held around those dates?

Nationals are usually held around the start of the calendar year. They have been in Jan or Feb every time I think, but next year will be in March or April. Nothing is planned for 2009 (as far as I\'m aware). We often have minor events during the year, but they are sporadic and planned closish to the dates. I\'m sure something could be organised if somebody wanted to be the organiser. The footbag scene in Australia is fairly "organic."

-What\'s the resale value on a good surfboard?

If you buy a board new and are looking to sell it when you leave, you could generally expect about 75% if you keep it in good condition. There are a lot of variables of course, but a board in new condition would sell for the same price as you bought it for (or so I\'m told by one of my surfer friends).

If you want to surf and play footbag, I\'d advise somewhere like Newcastle; which is close enough to Sydney to be able to catch a train and play once a week, but also much better for surfing etc. Also cheaper to live there than Sydney and a touristy town these days, so would have plenty of hospitality jobs. Anywhere on the East Coast would probably be good though.

Hobart, you\'d need a car if you wanted to go surfing, as the good surf beaches are really only accessible by car. Unless you wanted to live in a little town like Strahan, which would certainly be an experience. It might be difficult finding work somewhere like that, but the cost of living would be ridiculously cheap, and you\'d be able to surf some of the biggest beach waves in Australia.

[hacksterbator]

every thing jeremy said

fucking awesome info jeremy! thanks heaps! Numbers help out alot, so i can get an idea of how much it's gonna run me to live there.

i did some preliminary job research and found that cooking jobs range anywhere from $17 - $28 for casual work. there were lots of salary postings too, upwards of 45K, but i wouldn't be looking for more than 32 hours per week. Any way, even the base line of $17 when converted to canadian is still 3 bucks an hour more than i'm making here. unless rent is gonna be crazy expensive, i'm likely gonna head home with a bit of profit.

...and you\'d be able to surf some of the biggest beach waves in Australia.

uhh, dunno about that . I'm still very much in the beginner category, having only been a hand full of times. I value my life, so i'd rather not die yet.

[max]

do you need to get some kind of work visa ... or can you just go there and work?

you bet your ass you need a work visa. you can work under the counter, but you can get really screwed over in more ways than one. A bunch of my friends have worked in australia and said getting a work visa was easy, it only took about a week to get their pass ports back. Might be easier because canada and australia are both common wealth countries. Beats me.

Yes this is true. It is MUCH harder for Americans to get work visas in Aus/NZ than Canadians. They've done a very good job of preventing Americans from immigrating there, and I don't blame them for it one bit.

They've done a fantastic job at making the Visa application process as lengthy and expensive as can be (yes i have looked into this at length). Australia has a very tight immigration policy. Getting a work visa is not something that takes a week and you certainly have to fill in a LOT of criteria to be applicable for said VISA.

Of course I'm talking from the European pov which is not one from the Common-Wealth. I'd imagine it's trivial getting such a visa if you're from Canada or the U.K for example.

Best of luk to Andrew, hopefully we'll be able to grab a beer together in sunny Sydney in 2008!

[Jeremy]

Yeah it depends what kind of work visa you're looking for as well.

You can get 2 year travel/work visas; which most back packers etc. get - which aren't apparently easy to get - especially for Canadians (commonwealth), but also probably for Americans.

There are also more extensive work visas and processes if you're looking to move hear permanently etc. (and you need residency). Of course you can come on one visa and then apply for a different one once your hear if your situation changes.

To immigrate to Australia you either need to be highly qualified (although that can include trades qualifications), or you need to marry an Australian, or you need to be a refugee.

[King Monkey]

or you need to be a refugee.

At least then you would have your accommodations sorted for you, free of charge. A secluded, sunny locale...

[hacksterbator]

been thinking this over a bit. it makes more sense to come in january and stay 6 or 7 months. i'll be able to make more money, stay longer, and i'll still only miss one semester of school. so many choices...argh. oh well, still a long way off...