[celticboy39]

We arrived 6 mths ago in SA,Adelaide to be exact on a perm 5 yr 176 visa. Things where great at first i suppose it was a bit like an extended holiday,we got a beautiful rental house in a nice suburb and things seemed great....but....then reality started to set in,hubby took 9 long weeks to find work and when he did it was'nt in a job he was used to doing,he couldnt get work at his normal job,before we came we looked into it and everything seemed ok but a different story once we arrived.My son who is 23 also came with us and 6 mths down the road and hundreds of job applications later he still has not found work!! We have met lots of other Irish and english families whom we meet on a regular basis and some are here since november and still cant find work (all of them tradesmen) they are in a dilema now as money is running out and they have to make a discision to stay or go! The SA goverment do not help in anyway if you cannot find work,and Adelaide is all about who you know rather than what work you have expierence in,the building sites that we know of and have some friends working on them have slowed down and lots of men been let go too.The nice climate is great but you cant live on sunshine alone and for me its an every day struggle to get up and get through the day. I miss my family so so much it hurts,its like been in mourning and I just cannot settle here,apart from the sun there is nothing different.Its so exspensive to live here that we still have to watch every penny or cent ...lol...groceries are unbelievable...my grocery bill has almost trebled from home,clothes,shoes,cinema,any chilldrens places all very very dear!! So my journey has been hard and lonely...i dont regret coming but its not for me,ive made some lovely friends but they will never be like the ones i left behind,its been a great expierence and i will go home with a different attitude to life and my home country now and its true the grass isnt always greener...

 

[renita]

Way to go celticboy..it is most of the time very depressing here.We are a family in Perth who feel the same..but thinking about our child's education we are here.Aussieland boasts about its education system and thats why we are pulling on here..but deep inside our hearts we are not happy here.wish u all the best..and remember most importantly u wil be happier..

 

[Guest]

I feel for you. We only lasted 4 months! Some may preach that Australia is not expensive etc but when you have no income or you dont get a super high wage that some professions do the extra living cost is the difference between eating or paying rent!

It can be lonely in a new country, finding work helps but it is so hard to meet new people when you have other stresses of finding work and paying bills.

At least you can say you tried and wont be full of regrets in the future for not having done so.

 

[stormgal]

amazing story, Celticboy.

I can imagine that for many people it will not be as easy to go back home even though they want to go back. For instance, will it be hard to find work once back home? People may be stuck in an unemployed loop - especially with the way the UK, EU and the US are with unemployment. But you're so right - nothing can take the place of family, friends and the feelings of being home.

 

[lifeisgood]

Sorry to hear about your unpleasant experience. Can only hope that mine turns out to be a bit better...

 

[Guest]

Yes do actually think about the job situation over here. I've applied for 50+ jobs since I got back and had 2 interviews. More than 100 applicants for each post. There are triple that many for lower paid and trade jobs
I'd still rather be unemployed here than there but its really not rosy here!

 

[Chewn]

What area of work is everyone in. Just curious?

I'm headed there in 2 months to work in mining but my partner is a pharmacist so I hope the health field is not as bad.

Cheers. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

 

[Guest]

If you are working in the mines where about will you be working/living. Makes all the difference as to how hard it will be be for your partner to find work.

As you can imagine some of the mining towns are tiny, very small infrastructure with most of the work being in the mine.

 

[Chewn]

Yeah. I'll be working in Olympic Dam fly in fly out. We will be living in Adelaide.

Should be okay.

 

[celticboy39]

We are lucky that my hubby has a job to go back to in Ireland,he only took leave of absence from his job as a Fire-fighter/paramedic so even though we have no house at least he has a job! I know most of the families we have met here came because they had no work back home and to be honest a lot cant find work here either,in hindshight Adelaide or SA was the wrong place to come but it was the easiest state to get sponsered....now we know why...lol..that said im not sure i would have settled any place else either,im just too home sick and talking to my sis and my 3 neices last nite (well as much as u can to 3 two yrs olds) only confirms that im doing the right thing,ill never get these months here back and dont want to miss out on any more time with them.My hubby luvs it here and would stay,or so he says,i know he misses the brigade and "his family" of mates there and he misses been a fire-fighter just wont admit it to me,think he sees it as a defeat having to go home,we dont have to I want to,big difference and ill hold my head high and say at least we gave it a shot and people cant begin to imagine what its like unless they expierence what we all have!!

 

[Guest]

Funny but we we're in the same situation. Hubby took a career break, best thing he could've done. I don't have work & we had to find somewhere to live but best at least one of us in work than both unemployed over there with no one to fall back on to moan about it!

 

[Weeney]

We arrived in QLD 6 months ago on a temp. long stay visa. My hubby is a tradesman and was sponsored before we came out. Unfortunately his new boss turned out to be terrible and deliberately took Irish families over knowing the situation at home just to take advantage. We spent months and all our savings getting a new visa to get away from this guy. My husband then started working for another company which started out well with conditions much improved - he was getting paid! He has now worked over 3 weeks without being paid and they are not answering phones. He's now out of work and I've sent out over 200 cvs without no response. We're here with our 3 young children and we can't even afford flights home. We walked away from our house back home so we've nothing to go back to. I don't want to leave but we can't continue like this either. We jumped from the frying pan into the fire. We've worked so hard here and my hubby has worked 80 hour weeks and we still have nothing. I'm so ashamed to go home already. I feel such a failure. I wish I'd known the truth before I left home and pulled the kids away from everyone they love. The stories about the mines although may be true - we have tried everything and everyone we can to get in but it just is impossible to get in.

 

[stormgal]

Weeney, I am so sorry that this is happening to you. These are the kind of stories that no one here likes to read about. I hope things go so much better for you and your family.

Try this site - someone sent it to a group of us for oil and gas careers.

miningoilandgasjobs.com

You can even create your own profile and let them look for you. I hope it works out ~

 

[Weeney]

Thanks Stormgal. I've done as you suggested and registered our interest with that website. I have no doubt that people don't like to read about situations like ours but the fact is it is happening and from speaking to others, there are plenty more people out here in similar circumstances.

 

[celticboy39]

Hi weeny...my heart breaks for you,it really does! And i so agree about not knowing the full story before we came.We are in Adelaide,SA and from all the research we done there was plenty of work for my hubbys profession,alas when we arrived this was not the case,he is now working in a job he has,nt done in 16 yrs and is paid lower than everyone else because of this,so financially we are worse off here,its sooooooooooooooo exspensive to live here and we use our savings every week to subsidise my hubbys wages!! living the dream my arse...the only people who live the dream here are the ones with tons of money,even if we stayed another 20 yrs i doubt if we would ever live the dream!! Ok we have sunshine but we cant live on that...even thats beginning to annoy me..lol..we are lucky that my hubby has a decent job to go home too,we sold our house but have none of the tiny profit left we made cos of the cost of living here,so we dont have a home to go back to either,we can rent,we do it here.The car we bought when we arrived will now be sold to fund our container and flights back home,we have no savings so no deposit for new mortage :-(...but i will be HAPPY and thats worth more than its weight in gold,i will be back with my parents and my sister,brother and all my friends that i miss so much.I dont feel ashamed or a failure at least we can say we gave it a shot,so if anyone back home says this i wont be long telling them at least we had the guts to try it,so never feel a failure!!!! if you could sell some stuff here to pay for flights home go for it,life is too short to have regrets...plez keep in touch with me

 

[Weeney]

That's us - living the Australian dream! Hope I wake up soon

 

[vickey1]

That's us - living the Australian dream! Hope I wake up soon

I am sorry to hear about your situation. The only thing I can do is pray for you. I hope that the best part of life will come to you as soon as possible.

 

[Guest]

I really feel for you, your situation sounds terrible. Have you spoken to anyone re the wages? He's breaking the law and DIAC won't be happy, if they find out he won't be sponsoring anyone else. You need to contact the ombudsman who will kick his ass re wages. I'll also do some research on centrelink etc for you. There must be provisions for people in your situation as its happening more & more

Also if you are really desperate to get home contact your embassy. They might offer loans for flights etc. Has to be paid back but not under the same conditions as paying a bank loan back.

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/services/social_worker.htm Might know of charities etc that could help.

 

[Weeney]

Hi. Thanks everyone for the support. As we're not residents we aren't entitled to any centrelink payments. We are still hoping that we will get paid by the last employer. My husband still has no work though and even if he does get paid, he needs an income to support our family.
Fingers crossed we can sort something out even if it's just to buy some time.
Celticboy - good luck with your move. Might see you at the airport!!

 

[atsurti]

We are lucky that my hubby has a job to go back to in Ireland,he only took leave of absence from his job as a Fire-fighter/paramedic so even though we have no house at least he has a job! I know most of the families we have met here came because they had no work back home and to be honest a lot cant find work here either,in hindshight Adelaide or SA was the wrong place to come but it was the easiest state to get sponsered....now we know why...lol..that said im not sure i would have settled any place else either,im just too home sick and talking to my sis and my 3 neices last nite (well as much as u can to 3 two yrs olds) only confirms that im doing the right thing,ill never get these months here back and dont want to miss out on any more time with them.My hubby luvs it here and would stay,or so he says,i know he misses the brigade and "his family" of mates there and he misses been a fire-fighter just wont admit it to me,think he sees it as a defeat having to go home,we dont have to I want to,big difference and ill hold my head high and say at least we gave it a shot and people cant begin to imagine what its like unless they expierence what we all have!!

Sad to read your story and perhaps gives a sense of defeat to go back home. But at least you tried! You hoped and tried to make your life better. You will be a better person with more experiences that most people back home.

Most successful people have failed many times over before hitting the jackpot of success.

If there is someone who makes fun of your oz stint then you can surely shoot back saying that you tried at least.