I want to emigrate to Australia
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We wanted you guys in the 50s. Blame your parents for not coming out then. The industry where I live is dead, but I am in the country. It's still the best bloody country to live in on the earth.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
Christian Graus wrote:
It's still the best bloody country to live in on the earth.
Oh I quite agree! After South Africa it is the best. ;P ;P
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Yeah, and they are all crap. Ice cold and fizzy. Fosters, Castlemain, KB, Tooheys, Swan...All suck. You can't beat a nice Speckled Hen or an Abbot.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
To paraphrase the ads we have here in the US... "Fosters, ... Australian for Urine' Seriously - they hardly drink it there as it's so weak.
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I've always wanted to visit NZ... Looks like a beautiful country. Australia too, but NZ even more so... But it's just so far away! Isn't it like a 20+ hour flight from the US? Lewis Black said it best... "If the people of New Zealand want to be a part of OUR world, then they should all step off their little island and push it closer!"
Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)"Isn't it like a 20+ hour flight from the US" 12 from LA to Auckland, 13 LA to Christchurch. Totally worth it.
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Yeah, if I'm honest it's a downside. I don't like the idea of my little boy playing in the back garden and coming across a poisonous {insert dangerous animal here}. However, it's pretty rare so it's a risk worth taking I think.
Joan Murt wrote:
Good luck if you travel there...
Thanks!
No snakes in New Zealand. In fact - no native predators to speak of since Haast's Eagle^ went extinct. Even the introduced ones aren't those that would go after a human.
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To paraphrase the ads we have here in the US... "Fosters, ... Australian for Urine' Seriously - they hardly drink it there as it's so weak.
To quote (or at least paraphrase) an Australian that was on a mailing list with me: "VB - best bloody beer on Earth". Victoria Bitters. I've never had it, so can't speak to it, but he made me want to try it. And he bristled at the thought of Fosters too. It's their Budweiser - that's all.
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
any tips? Perhaps have your sanity checked ;) Hmm, perhaps moving to the other side of the planet is a little extreme. We lived in Birmingham for 18 months (just came back last year) and would have stayed if it weren't for aging family back here. You have a beautiful rich heritage - you can drive anywhere and see buildings 1000+ years old. You can pop over to Europe for a few pounds. It's hard to justify encouraging you to come to this country when you are certainly not trading up. I can assure you that any reprieve from the crowding or perceived expensive cost of living is only temporary given the huge influxes of people in recent years. And the Govt are aiming to get us up to 35+million. While that may sound modest given the size of Australia, bear in mind that only a small percentage of Australia is desirable as residential area and there is less and less of that left. Most new estates are horrible. Small blocks, high fences - in our heat, they are just stifling so need air conditioning - and the govt is asking us to not switch our air conditioners on as the power suppliers are struggling to cope with the demand. Please be under no illusion concerning standard of living, it's very expensive and over crowded here as well and rapidly getting worse. In the major cities the peak hour traffic well exceeds the carrying capacity of the roads and this is even true of some of the toll roads. Housing has been all but priced out of reach of a single income earner on a decent wage. Public transport is overcrowded for the most part and expensive. It is also crowded here in the cities and if you're looking for IT work, that's where you'd need to go. Further, if my experience is any indication, trying to migrate here on a skilled visa is not easy particularly in fields such as IT and understandably, most employers/recruiters won't even look at you unless you are on Australian soil and have permission to work - still the number of CVs that cross desks from people pretending to reside in Australia boggles the mind. Having said all that, do your home work and definitely crunch the numbers and don't come here if you're trying to get away from over-crowding or escaping a high cost of living. Lastly, it's hot here for most of the year. It's not a nice oh let's go out in the sun heat, it's damned hot. If you recall the heatwave you had a couple of years ago - that's a relatively moderate day here. In summer you can expect weeks on end of hotter days than that.
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any tips? Perhaps have your sanity checked ;) Hmm, perhaps moving to the other side of the planet is a little extreme. We lived in Birmingham for 18 months (just came back last year) and would have stayed if it weren't for aging family back here. You have a beautiful rich heritage - you can drive anywhere and see buildings 1000+ years old. You can pop over to Europe for a few pounds. It's hard to justify encouraging you to come to this country when you are certainly not trading up. I can assure you that any reprieve from the crowding or perceived expensive cost of living is only temporary given the huge influxes of people in recent years. And the Govt are aiming to get us up to 35+million. While that may sound modest given the size of Australia, bear in mind that only a small percentage of Australia is desirable as residential area and there is less and less of that left. Most new estates are horrible. Small blocks, high fences - in our heat, they are just stifling so need air conditioning - and the govt is asking us to not switch our air conditioners on as the power suppliers are struggling to cope with the demand. Please be under no illusion concerning standard of living, it's very expensive and over crowded here as well and rapidly getting worse. In the major cities the peak hour traffic well exceeds the carrying capacity of the roads and this is even true of some of the toll roads. Housing has been all but priced out of reach of a single income earner on a decent wage. Public transport is overcrowded for the most part and expensive. It is also crowded here in the cities and if you're looking for IT work, that's where you'd need to go. Further, if my experience is any indication, trying to migrate here on a skilled visa is not easy particularly in fields such as IT and understandably, most employers/recruiters won't even look at you unless you are on Australian soil and have permission to work - still the number of CVs that cross desks from people pretending to reside in Australia boggles the mind. Having said all that, do your home work and definitely crunch the numbers and don't come here if you're trying to get away from over-crowding or escaping a high cost of living. Lastly, it's hot here for most of the year. It's not a nice oh let's go out in the sun heat, it's damned hot. If you recall the heatwave you had a couple of years ago - that's a relatively moderate day here. In summer you can expect weeks on end of hotter days than that.
Thanks for your input. It's quite interesting to hear a native Oz's perspective that has lived in England for a while, especially when he's been living in Birmingham! I have to say that most people in England would agree that Birmingham is probably one of the least desirable places to live in this country so it makes your argument for staying put even more compelling, particularly as I live in the South West which is much nicer than many other parts of England!
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Christian Graus wrote:
It's still the best bloody country to live in on the earth.
Except the Telstra part, right ;) ?
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary Wheeler wrote:
Christian Graus wrote: It's still the best bloody country to live in on the earth.
As a Canadian I feel a little honour-bound to dispute this. Although, while we're in the same part of the globe (and the Commonwealth), what's New Zealand like? Five minutes of looking at web sites seems to indicate that it has quite a good climate, and both my wife and I are interested in visiting. Comments?
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
Me too!!! I wanna surf the Superbank!!! lol :cool: By the way, I think Sidney is not that bad, and there are a lot of nice beaches there to.:thumbsup:
"Go for it!"
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
There is a small and growing software industry in the Gold Coast. The question is do you want to form a friendship base? If you do then the gold coast is a holiday destination and will go from 50,000 to 150,000 overnight (or something like that). I live in South Australia at the moment but have lived in various parts of Australia. It is a big move for you and I have seen others move back because they have missed things in England so I would encourage you to move because you want to not because England is bad as once you have moved the brain will tell you it was not that bad where you were because it will be hard to break into the social network where ever you move. Stephen .999 is not 1 There is an absolute!
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Sydney is definitely a great city, almost as good as Melbourne ;)
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
Sadly, I have to agree with the beer comments - the bad news is that you can only get lager :( The good news is you get used to it - when it's over 30 degrees even lager is good :) Unfortunately, software development only exists in the rat race so don't imagine you're going to get away from it and still develop software - not here, not anywhere :( Most development is in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra in that order with very little anywhere else. I left the UK in 1994 and have lived in Sydney ever since and you're right that in some regards it's just like there only hotter. Sydney/Australia ain't Utopia but there's no way I'm going back to the UK. Like you I was fed up with the naff weather and there's plenty here to satisfy your cravings. Food for thought: Do you know if it's hotter weather or drier weather you really want? Do you like to feel the sun burning your skin or do you simply want to escape the miserable grey wet weather of the UK? Australia is a great place to live but I'm not sure anything is 'all it's cracked up to be' - mainly because we hear good things and we develop a defect free perception. If you accept that fact that there isn't a perfect place on the planet then you must look for a place that most suits your needs. At the end of the day, life is what you make of it. If you arrive in Australia expecting a charmed life just because you are here then you are likely to be disappointed. On the other hand there is great opportunity here just waiting for you to make something of it. Good luck with whatever you choose.
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Yeah, and they are all crap. Ice cold and fizzy. Fosters, Castlemain, KB, Tooheys, Swan...All suck. You can't beat a nice Speckled Hen or an Abbot.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
Dalek Dave wrote:
Yeah, and they are all crap.
A mate of mine often said - "There are good beers, and less-good beers, but there's no such thing as a bad beer." I can't comment on Aussie beers, but the only beer I've tried that was a "bad beer" (definition - a beer that you don't finish, even though it cost you packet in the pub) was a german weissbier (wheat-based beer, I think) I bought in Sweden.
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Yeah, and they are all crap. Ice cold and fizzy. Fosters, Castlemain, KB, Tooheys, Swan...All suck. You can't beat a nice Speckled Hen or an Abbot.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
Fosters, Castlemain, KB, Tooheys, Swan - are produced for export purposes only. Locals don't drink that stuff. BTW warm beer is used to make batter for the fish and fizzy drinks are for the kids. If you want to live in Queensland you will need three thumbs, but if you want to live in Tasmania, cut two off then you will fit right in. If you are still not happy sit on the remaining thumb and move to Canberra and become leader of one of the political parties.
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and the crap football teams
¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! SELECT * FROM User WHERE Clue > 0 0 rows returned Save an Orange - Use the VCF! Personal 3D projects Just Say No to Web 2 Point Blow
Yeah, they never make the Super Bowl.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
I was born in Australia and love it here. I wouldn't recommend living on the Gold Coast though - it's mainly for tourists or young people who love the party lifestyle, not those looking for a career in IT, although you could get lucky. The major cities are your best bet (Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra), although Melbourne and Canberra can be bloody freezing at times. You could live on the Gold Coast and commute to Brisbane as it's about 1 hour drive away. Most people fly between major cities as it's too far to drive (I wouldn't think about driving from Perth to Sydney, unless you like looking at dirt and rocks).
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To quote (or at least paraphrase) an Australian that was on a mailing list with me: "VB - best bloody beer on Earth". Victoria Bitters. I've never had it, so can't speak to it, but he made me want to try it. And he bristled at the thought of Fosters too. It's their Budweiser - that's all.
Hi, An interesting post and equally interesting answers. I've lived in Melbourne and Sydney, but moved to South East Queendland in 1960. (Yes, I am 68 and trying to learn programming!!). While this place isn't perfect, it's as close as I've been able to find anywhere in the world. Snow ? What's snow ?? The downside for people moving here is a couple of months of high humidity in summer, but the rest of the year is pretty good. Daytime, Winter around 15-18 degrees C, Summer mid 20's and up to early 30's. Accepting the weather is pretty much in the mind. I hate the cold, so don't want to live in it. Beers. VB (Victoria Bitter) known here as vomit bombs, but a lot of people like it. Australia has moved to a lot of mid strength beer around 3.5% the local favourite being XXXX Gold. I had an English friend here a couple of times and he loved it, so it can't be too bad. Fosters, don't know anyone who likes the stuff. My pathetic programming is only used in house so I'm not familiar with the IT possibilities here, sorry.
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
As an Aussie that lived in London for 3 years I would accept the opinions and advice of the people here and then make your own decision :) Everyone has different things they want. I live in Brisbane (have all my life except for the 3 years in London) and I like it. The things I miss about London ... the proximity to Europe, the pounds sterling :) and a decently large market that makes lots of things very cheap (public transport, broadband, mobile phones etc). Australia IS a long way away from almost everywhere ... but there is lots to see here too (including NZ) The IT market in Brisbane is not too shabby - I've always found that those that complain about not getting jobs are the people you wouldn't want to employ. The money won't be as much as other places but the cost of living here is cheaper than Sydney, Melbourne (for example) - but still expensive overall. In general a lot of the jobs are state government so sometimes you have to role with the budget cycle but there are also lots of private companies with development roles. I've known people who lived on the Gold Coast (poms out on work visas) who loved it - surf in the morning, party at night but have never found any locals that love it year round for the tourist invasion aspect. The Sunshine Coast is my pick (personally) but the daily commute to Brissie would be torturous (there is a train but ... well ...). I prefer to live in the suburbs and go to the beaches on the weekend if that is what I want to do. You really don't have to be too paranoid about the creepy crawlies. Teach your kids young not to play with snakes and spiders and generally suburban Brisbane will be just fine. There are 2 types of spiders in my mind ... ones that run AT you and ones that sit there waiting for the thong (of the shoe kind) to come down on its head. The running ones are the ones to beware of - usually they don't bite (huntsmen) but they DO run, REALLY fast and they are REALLY big and hairy! A good pair of thongs that don't leave black marks on the paintwork (important consideration) are to be handy at all times ... and check the kickboards in the kitchen and anywhere dark and out of the rain outside (lawnmower, outdoor tables/chairs) - red backs love to set up house there. The cockies can be the size of volkswagons too - you'll get used to running screaming from them ... especially when they fly *shivers*. The thongs are effective against them too ... although a can of Mortein doesn't go astray ... snow coning is effective in slowing them down order to ap
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
We emigrated from Preston to Brisbane 2 1/2 years ago. Best move we could ever make. As for the temperature, if you're in IT then you'll be working in an office with air-con, so no worries :) As for a Visa, my wife's a nurse so we were welcomed with open arms. We also know at least 5 other families that have moved here and none have any regrets. In fact our only regret is that we didn't come sooner.
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Any tips? I'm fed up with England - it's cold, overcrowded and expensive. I crave a warm climate, the outdoor life and great beaches. Is Australia all it's cracked up to be? I have a wife and a small baby and I'd like to make the break in the next year or two, has anyone here made the move? What's the software development industry like out there?
Hi, I'm Australian and work as a software developer in Brisbane for a medium sized company (around 800 employees nationwide) and there are not many IT job opportunities available on the Gold Coast and as previously mentioned, IT developer jobs are predominantly centralised around the capital cities. Brisbane has a great climate - very mild winters by comparison, is close to the Gold and Sunshine coasts (about an hour drive either south or north) - however it is growing quite a lot with many people moving to the area. Problems include over-crowded (at peak times) and sometimes unreliable public transport, traffic congestion, public health system etc..the government is slowly putting the infrastructure in place to handle the increasing population but still a way to go. Housing affordability is also an issue but you may not find it a problem coming from England with the currency exchange advantage. Sydney and Melbourne would have more IT jobs and higher salaries but both are likely to have higher costs of living compared to Brisbane (although this is changing). I can't really comment on what it's like to live in these two cities as I've never lived in either long term. If you're craving a warm climate, outdoor life and great beaches along with a range of software development opportunities I reckon Brisbane would definitely be a place to consider. Cheers, James.