Life In Australia

When they begin planning their move, a lot of people from the UK think they should move here in December or January. The idea is to escape the worst of the British winter. In my opinion, it’s not the best time to arrive.

When you arrive, you’re going to need to find a house to rent, buy furniture and household goods, buy a car and do all sorts of other things. Even though there is air-conditioning in many areas, you’ll find all of these activities are tougher if you’re melting in summer heat that you haven’t adjusted to.

To make things worse, this time of year is a bit like August in France. It’s the time when lots of people take holidays. You often can’t find people as easily as at other times of the year.

In my opinion, the best time to move here is in April or May. Then the hottest, wettest, stickiest weather is over. In April and May, the sun isn’t as strong as in summer so, with a bit of care, you won’t have to worry as much about getting sunburnt.

Coming in April or May, you will be greeted on many days with perfect weather – blue skies, moderate humidity and daily maximum temperatures somewhere around 25 degrees C. Perfect weather, giving you lots of time to acclimatise before the heat of next summer comes along.

I was reading some gloomy jobs news in The Age today.

Apparently employment in Australia fell in the last three months – including in Queensland.

Funnily enough, figures from the ANZ Bank are showing that, at the same time as employment is meant to be falling, the number of jobs advertised in Queensland is actually increasing. More and more of the jobs being advertised are appearing on the internet – good news for anyone thinking of moving here.

I know for a fact that businesses all over Australia, not just in Queensland, are crying out for skilled workers in all fields – just a couple of days ago there was a report that Queensland was short of around 500 aged-care nurses.

It seems that unskilled jobs may be being lost, leading to the decreasing employment figures. At the same time there is increasing demand for skilled people, leading to more internet job ads.

The skills shortage is very good news for skilled people who want to live in Australia.

A word of caution though. An employer who advertises on the Net may not be interested in hiring someone from overseas. Most newspapers here circulate in only one State – they don’t have Australia-wide coverage. The Net is a convenient way for employers to get their vacancies in front of readers all over Australia.

Australia works hard at attracting British people to move here. There is sometimes an element of over-projecting an image of Australia as the land of milk and honey but most Poms who move here don’t regret it. The quality of life is better here for most of us.

If there’s one thing the Aussies love to crow about, it’s their sporting success. Beating the Poms is their greatest ambition. Reading a press release from the Minister of Immigration (Senator Amanda Vanstone) a few days ago made me smile. She said:

“People arrived from more than 200 countries, with the largest influx coming from the United Kingdom. A total of 18 220 now call Australia home – maybe keen to be part of a successful sporting nation!”

http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media_releases/media05/v05164.htm

I hope the minister and her advisors are more on the ball with immigration matters than they are with sport because – whisper it- The Poms beat Australia in Sydney to take the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and we’ve just won back the Ashes.