Well, there is a fair bit of work around but remember that some are still trying to con employees to fill out the "AWA" or Australian Worker's Agreement" introduced under the 'coalition of the willing's' "I will do anything including mass murdering Arabs to be a baron in the new world order and call myself "Australia" 's John Howard. This was knocked out by the new Labour Government so keep an eye out...There are industrial award systems here but to be paid "award" money you have to be desperate, a very average electrician or on probation...and I wouldn't accept 3 months probation on lousy money. The basic wage is about $520.00 as I recall but few electricians would earn under $20/hour and overtime exists also. From a 'bodyhire company' I was often earning around $2000 perweek but you are treated as piece workers by the employers quite often and they will bad mouth you if you have principles...better" head down mouth shut, do the job and go". The calls for overseas electricians is not because we do not have enough sparkies...but because many employers want younger workers...think they work harder and have less principles...Some employers here are "smartie" scumbags so use your wits. Joining a union is fair and wise BUT if you join a union they will claim money from you for years after you think just not paying means you don't have to pay anymore..like any normal organisation.

I'd look in Western Australia as it and Queensland are the boomers. There seems to be work around for guys with mining experience too....and UK certainly has those. Auto electricians with experience seem to be in demand.

The second reason for saying Australia is desperate for electricians is that there is a great advantage to employers in keeping wages down through the AWA's and pretending we cannot supply the workers needed and thus openly promoting the using of asian labour and korean labour in particular and also mid eurpoean..., though the latter are not government promoted as for some political reason we have moved away from Europe and into Asia...

These are disadvantaged countries in wages terms for whom Australia seems like Nirvana. I don't know about Asians and Koreans doing short term tiling courses and so on but I do know that whilst Aussies were traditionally the best trained tradesmen on the planet that the mid and East Europeans I have worked -with are extremely competent and very widely experienced...pity they become wire jerkers here instead of having to use their experience but...Voila!!...Unfortunatey their own countrymen tend to keep them to themselves, away from other local workers at lunch and so they often get screwed...also (and it has its pluses) many Koreans are involved with religious groups and pay rent and sandwich money (not a small amount) but then, they seem to be happy enough.A lot of workers on B'hai temple were deported a couple of years ago and had been paid pathetically low sums. Just keep these things in mind...don't make an issue of it here. A pommie I worked with on a new Bunnings site was sent to another job because of his strong union stance to the boss, just in the lunch room and speaking about principles and nothing more......the boss not nice person....but he fell on his feet as that job, unbeknown to them was much closer to his home...an unforseen advantage for a union member ..LOL!!

So...you will probably have to do a year's familiarity course...do it with enthusiasm...you may learn important details. AS 3000 is the book of regulations here (in part) and is about as decipherable as "Black Mischief". One wonder how 'experts' can be so unclear but that's the book..Some of it is on the Internet. Important parts are regarding earthing and testing.

The job finder called "seek" holds a lot of job information (as in employment) but you can just go in and type say "Electricians wanted Australia". Now in the past you can only work on your visa length. Some employers would tell lies about the scottish or London or whatever electrician being "essential" and "unreplaceable, though we have tried" because these guys worked for jam and were reasonably competent. ...if you want to stay longer than Visa then get the facts before you leave and if possible get employed before you leave...but have a contract that will last at least your visa duration and include probation. Your system IS different from our system though similr voltages so be prepared to learn it as quickly as possible....for just one example we don't have fused plug tops.

I have noticed that the brits and scots in particular can be quite pugnacious....soccer hooligans are only one example. Few things are worse than a pissed aussie who is a racist at heart and a disgruntled trouble maker looking for a blue...except a Scot ot a Brit...when "on the turps". Alf Garnett moved here on retiring!!...I laugh uproariously...does that tell us anything..?
Sadly groups of pissy and pugnacious expats tend to beat up guys in expat groups when they do it....and have no compunction about putting in the boot and doing serious damage.It wasn't the Australian way, I can assure you and is frowned -upon. Expats have many things to live down including ducking back home rather than paying debts or car damage costs so when you do come here...try to bring the best virutes you can with you and remember that nothing really matters a toss including bleeding heat nationalism or who wins the soccer...that's all bull**** stuff for introverts who want to be apart of a crowd and then feel justified in becoming aggro. Just bear in mind the dispassionate way Aussies are about the rugby for example!!...and remember Kylie Minogue and Dame Edna are both stirling examples of Australian, ahem...womanhood.

Finally, as you probably know England suffered a brain drain in 1789 onwards, exporting its finest minds to Australia. These people turned Australia into a country overshadowing England in a hundred years. We welcome anyone but the "whinging pomme"..or the one who knows everything...is not so welcomed. We periodically read in the women's magazines about "why I was disenchanted with Australia and returned home a broke and broken man/woman/child/family...Brit tells all". I spen a lot of time in Europe and really love England, and that's what I talk about..not about paying $21.50 for fish and chips....now this is said for a point. According to my inquiries in England, a typical electrician might get a base 600 quid a week. A typical Aussie a base of $600 a week...and so it goes on in the world...the NWO charges much the same in most countries, numerically. If I work in the UK and save say 200 quid a week, that's about $500 Aussie..if you save $200 Aussie perweek you are saving about 75 quid so think carefully about what you want to achieve by leaving UK and Ireland and Scotland and Wales to come here. If you return you will probably be culturally improved (ahem!) but may not be advantaged financially. This is why I suggest you look for well paid work with overtime....$20 to 28 per hour plus superannuation should be achievable readily. Building sites have allowances and typically overtime..

You may need to invest the money here..buy a flat or a house if here long enough or some good shares if you have the brain for it...or some small antiques you can definitely make a profit from on returning home. Remeber any property purchase brings a stamp duty payment..so consider all that if doing it as an investment.

If here a short time it probably isn't so important. I'd think about saving my Aussie dollars and bringing a thousand or two UK quids to buy a good second hand car (if you want one, they are a bottomless money pit and there is reasonable public transport here) as cars may be dearer here and you conversion rate will be a benefit in the early days. Bank with ING or heritage Bank S26 account where you get something in interest. Forget bank cards...work your life around cash. It isn't cold here so often so don't bring many clothes..buy them here and jeans and shirts and Yakka work boots can be bought cheaply at K-Mart and Target...and even more cheaply in some Melbourne stores...I buy jeans for $16 in Melbourne which outlast $70 Levis 10 times over. If you want to keep your blood circulating though, keep away from sparrow legged chginse sox!!..as a tradesman..look for the wider type of
hiking sox..I find those ankle chokers quite a nuisance when working and leave one scratching the area for a while after returning home and taking them off.

Remember too that this is a huge country compared with Britain and you will have lots of great places to visit...not much history but a lot of beauty, lots of pubs with entertainment on a Saturday afternoon and some with excellent meals. The truckies are as bad as Italians in France and as you venture down the highway and come to a reduction in lanes you'll find that's where these self proclaimed "best drivers on the road" might over take you (unlawfully/dangrously) causing you to brake or go off the road...It's a lot hillier here than in England so don't encourage these dangerous morons by slowing them down when they accellerate to get up the next hill....If brains were dynamite most wouldn't have enough to blow their hatsoff...but they can still cause you a lot of stress and grief.

You'll buy fish and chips here for $4.50 to $7.00 which is about 2 to 3 quid!!...so you'll find eating even if numerically similar to be actually cheaper...but then always remember that whatever you save here, when you go back, will become about a third of its value in Britain, but your prices will ne numerically similar to ours...so your Aussie dollar will buy you less in UK...get my drift.

Finally stay away from our girlfriends...you may catch something you can't protect yourself from........

See how we care for you up and coming vege-mites.......??

Cheers Tony