Hi, The www dot immi dot gov dot au website has info re skills assessment, you can download an information booklet and the form. We are probably going to do things ourselves as well and we looked at the general skilled visa but will get sponsorship for temporary business visa with my partners job. Anyway it said that for the permanent one if you hadn't been doing the job in Australia for at least 2 years prior to applying then you had to get the skills assessment done. My partner is a mechanic and the he would have to complete a form to send to the TRA (I think that is the Trades Recognition Agency). It has to detail all the qualifications, trainging, tasks done and machines/tools used so that they can decide if the skills held are of an equivalent standard. It is only supposed to take 10 days to process and you get a letter back confirming that your skills are of a high enough standard to work in Australia.