? canadians in Adelaide

Hi there I am an adelaide girl with a Canadian husband, living in Ottawa. We are thinking of moving back to Adelaide next year. Just wondering what the Canadian community is like in adelaide. So any info would be much appreciated. How did you find the transition was work hard to find etc. Any input would be great and maybe we will see you next year

Hi there! We're new members to this site and I find we're going through a lot of the same issues as we plan to move to Adelaide in late June 2009. My husband and I are both nurses and looking for a new adventure with our 11-year-old son who is so excited at the prospect of Australia. We are currently just trying to get all the initial things started including doing whatever it takes to get our 2-year-old Golden Retriever ready. So....just wondering if anyone has any further tips for us about anything. Every bit of information would be appreciated!!bmxbuds
New Member


Posts: 1
Joined: 19 Dec 2008
Private message

Hi bmxbuds, welcome to the site.

The best source of information I've found is the British Expats website, it is mostly british people moving but the advice is still relevant. There are a few Canadian posters on there, most notably one named Dorothy. She actually moved from to Adelaide in 2006 I think and spent a year or so there before moving to Perth for work reasons. So she'd probably be able to answer a lot of your questions.

Here's the link for the British Expats site:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=54

Here's the link for Dorothy's information:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/member.php?u=47522
Dorothy's very helpful and I'm sure she'd love to answer any questions you have. Tell her comet555 sent you (Haley).

Here are a couple of discussions that might be of interest:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthre ... +Australia
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthre ... +Australia
There's a poster on this one from Nova Scotia moving to Adelaide in 2009.

There's a lot more information on Adelaide in there if you just look around for it.

On another note, have you got your visa situation sorted out? I only ask because you'd be surprised at how many people make plans only to find out they're not eligible for a working visa.

There's also a nursing forum on the British Expats website. It does cover the whole site so not everything on it applies to Australia. But you might find a bit of information in there.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=72

Also a quick search turned up these other two forums, never checked them out though.
http://adelaidebrits.net/
http://www.adelaide-brits.com/forum/index.php

Good luck with the move. We moved from Fort McMurray to Brisbane in May 2007, so far so good! I did notice your question regarding shipping pets, unfortunately I can't help out there. I didn't ship over anything at all actually, Dorothy did though so she could help you with that.

Haley

Haley,
Thanks so much for the links! I grew up in Fort Mac from the age of 12. My best friend is still there and it has changed a lot from when we were kids. What a small world... How do you like Brisbane? We could essentially go anywhere but have narrowed it down to Adelaide because our son is a big BMX racer and he has qualified to race in the Worlds there in late July.

As far as the VISA goes we're working on that currently and have been assured that all will go fine. I guess you never know until you get it though. We're thinking positive. It seems a lot easier than when we moved to San Diego for 5 years!

I really hope to keep in touch and I'll let you know how things go. Thanks again for replying and Happy New Year!

Kerrie

Are you going for an permanent 175 visa? That's pretty much the best one to go on because you can do whatever you like when you get here.

We really like Brisbane. There's lots to do for the kids and it's in a great location to be able to travel elsewhere if we want. We've already been to Cairns a couple times (2 hour flight) and Melbourne once (2 hours also). For us we ended up here because of jobs. My husband is a mining engineer and he managed to get a job in the city which is pretty good. So here we are. Because of his profession we were a lot more limited to where we could move.

I see your son is only 11, he'll probably make the move very well. I realize it's very tempting to move to Adelaide because of the bmx but I hope you consider a lot of other factors as well. I'm sure there were lots of factors going into your decision though.

When did you apply for your visa? Do you think you'll have it by the time you want to go?

Hi Haley,
Sorry for the delay - so much going on right now. We are just in the process of applying right now with our nursing licenses etc. Lots of verification needed from out west and from California. We have been told that our initial Visa (a 457?) can be "pushed through" rather quickly because of our profession. We can simultaneously apply for the permanent residency visa but come over on the 457 apparently.

We have considered other areas but keep coming back to Adelaide...the affordability, the climate. What were your options and how did you choose Brisbane?

I am pretty sure I found your Blog...very interesting stuff.

Besides the bacon what do you really miss about Canada? Will you come back do you think? Were you just looking for an adventure?

I'll check back! Cheers!

Well, we pretty much chose Brisbane because that's where my husband found a job. Being a mining engineer he was pretty limited to where he went, and we didn't really want to end up in another mining community. So when we arrived he had job a offer in the Hunter Valley area and one in Brisbane. We like the how close everything was in Brisbane if the kids wanted to do stuff, there was more selection on where to live and the job offer itself was a lot better. That was pretty much it.

I had actually spent a whole year planning on moving to Hunter Valley. There's a lot of open pit mines there and it was in the most reasonable location. However once we arrived he was offered a job in Brisbane. I had never even though of moving to a bigger city because I didn't think he'd get an office job (except for maybe Perth, and we didn't want to go there). So the decision was made after a brief trip up for the job interview and 3 days later he took the job. So there was a lot of very very quick planning happening!

As for your visa situation, yes you can do what you're planning. You just have to make sure that you the 457 is granted before your permanent one. The 175 will take a while so that shouldn't be a problem. The bonus to that is that if you arrive on a temp 457 visa and you've already applied for the permanent 175 then you would be eligible for Medicare. Just being on the temp visa won't allow you to get Medicare but as soon as you apply for a permanent visa (while on a temp one) then you can get Medicare. That should save you a bit of money on private health care.

You probably did find out blog. Here it is again to be sure:
http://haleyculver.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?lc=4105

I guess my post was too long & half of it got cut off. Luckily I always copy my text before I post a message. So here's the rest.


We first moved over in May 2007 so most of my chit chat about Australia is in the first few months, although I do through the odd thing in now and again.

So far we really love Brisbane. I love the climate, I was never fond of the cold so that was never going to be an issue for me. I love that there's so much to do within an hour's drive (Gold Coast & Sunshine Coast). We have passes at the Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin one) and at a Dreamworld/Whitewater World (theme parks on the gold coast). Plus, being so close to the city we can always drive in to different parks and things. Being in Brisbane is also great for travelling. We're trying to see quite a bit while we're here so it's great that a flight to Cairns is only 2 hours, Sydney 2.5, Melbourne 2.5 I think. Domestic flight here are pretty cheap too (unless it's Perth) so travel isn't so bad. So far I've been to Cairns 3 times and Melbourne once on trips. So next up is probably Perth area? Not sure at the moment.

When we moved over we decided to do something different for a couple of years. We knew it was time to leave Fort McMurray (we just didn't have a life outside work there) so we thought why not go to Australia. We'd never been here before but we though what the heck, we'll just go for a couple of years and then come back.

So we got a permanent visa because we wanted the security and the option of citizenship if we liked it. We arrived under the old 2 year rule, which was definitely appealing because we could stay for 2 years and then leave with citizenship if we wanted. That's still pretty much the plan, although our 2 years now looks like 4 because my husband is getting some big bonuses this year and next. We'd be stupid to leave before he got them. So we'll likely be here until Christmas 2010 now.

I love it here though and I have no issues with staying forever. For me the only downside is that family is so far away. We lived pretty far from family in Canada so we're used to not seeing them. Although we still want to see them at least once a year, and that gets expensive for a family of 4 ($10,000 a year). We keep buying our flights return from Canada and they're cheaper that way. We actually have half a return flight booked for August, so pretty soon I'll have to book a new round trip ticket so that we can get back to Oz. If we stayed forever though we could continue to go back every year but only if my husband stayed in his mining job, which he's unlikely to do beyond the next 2 years. So long term it would be tougher not being able to visit family all the time. Also, right now we have parents visiting once a year and that might not happen as often if we were here for good.

Anyway, the plan is still to go back. Not because we don't like it here, but rather because we still really like Canada and were never moving to get away from it. I'm hoping to move to my home town in Ontario, and if we do we can buy a nice house there for relatively cheap and be near my family. Not sure if I can convince my husband of that though.

I should mention that while I love it here my husband would still prefer Canada. Mostly because of the weather. He doesn't mind the warm weather but he really misses the snow and the cooler seasons. So it's definitley more of an adjustment for him.

Anyhow, I must go make breakfast for the kids!

Haley

Hey maybe you can help us out, Im in Australia right now, but my partner who is currently working Fort Mcmurray as an excavator operator is comming out to join me soon. Its a hard move that he is basically doing just for me and since the cost of living is pretty high in australia, we need to make comparable money as to what he was making on the oil fields- so that would be in the mines. We have a couple leads maybe with Hays but we are really worried about all the layoffs in the mines. Also he needs to get his HR license for australia and we dont how difficult that will be. Basically any advice you have for us is appreciated- or any ideas where we could be looking for work. We see there are lots of excavator positions out there but they all seem to pay quite low. Im in Brisbane right now.

Not really what sure to tell you. You'd think I'd have some idea because we moved here from Fort McMurray and my husband is in mining.

Unfortunately he's a mining engineer so they're fairly different job descriptions. I'd say the only things you can do is look for jobs on SEEK, and keep checking through Hays. Has he talked to Hays to get an idea of the salary he should expect? Also, where are you hoping to move to? You've posted in a thread about Adelaide so my first thought is that's where you're headed to. If you're looking to go elsewhere perhaps you should start a new thread (topic) to get more attention to your question.

If you're looking for jobs in Brisbane then your partner would either be looking at fly in fly out jobs in Northern Queensland, or perhaps a non mining job closer somewhere around the city.

For mining jobs you could try these sites:
http://www.miningjobs.com.au/
http://australia.infomine.com/careers/
Aside from that there's always SEEK.

As far as mines goes these are the major areas in Queensland: Mount Isa, Bowen Basin (around Blackwater).

In New South Wales there are lots of open pit coal mines in the Hunter Valley area (around Singleton). There are underground mines around Lake Macquarie and more around Wollongong I think.

In Western Australia there are lots of open pit mines but there are all out in the middle of nowhere, about the same as Fort McMurray. There's the Pilbara region (near Karratha) and Kalgoorlie.

There are some mines in Adelaide but there's probably not much going on there in comparision, and I really don't know much about them.

Now you haven't mentioned if your partner has any sort of visa that would allow him to work. At the moment he might have difficulty if he's hoping to get sponsored by an employer given the layoffs and the way the economy is at the moment. It is very difficult trying to get a job while overseas, especially right now. My husband applied for quite a few jobs while in Canada, some of them while waiting for the visa and some once it was granted. No one wanted to talk to him until he was in the country. So if he doesn't already have a visa don't be surprised if he has a very difficult time getting a job.

Aside from that I'm not sure what else you want to know. Unfortunatley finding people are in mining can be difficult. You can check out the British Expats website. I did a quick search and you might be able to find some info on one of the links:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/search.p ... chid=66725

Or here's the general board if you want to ask a question:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=54

The information you're looking for is pretty specific so you might need to go for a wider audience, there's not nearly as much traffic on this message board.