Apologies for the delay - but thank you all for your welcomes and especially for your reply Rach.
What seems to be happening is that the Nursing agency, Health Staff Recruitment based in Melbourne, having checked Nic's references for their own records is now putting his CV round on his behalf. It did cross my mind that we could just send it off directly to the Sydney area hospitals which I have found on the net, but having started with the agency, we'll stick with them at least for the time being. If anybody has any feed back on the Agency, we'd be grateful for it. We just felt that with Nic being older than the usual applicant, they might push a bit more on our behalf. After all, if they don't find him a job, they get no money! They seemed quite optimistic.

It would seem that we apply for the Visa when they have a job offer for him. I'm not even sure that I know what "sponsorship" really is! All we need is an offer of somewhere to work - well for him to work! Depending on his shifts, we won't really want to be tied down because I have to go to work. The idea is to explore Australia and really meet the people - mind you, there's probably more of them here!

Can I ask my question about where to steer clear of again. I don't want to end up in the Peckham of Sydney! I really like the sound of Hornsby Kuring-gai and Nepean - but only because they sound antipodean!

Look forward to hearing from anybody who feels like responding.

Bye for now.
Carol