Moving to Brisbane

[EricaJane]

Me and my best friend are moving to Brisbane for (at least) 6 months. I will be working as a nurse, hopefully at the Royal Children's Hospital, and my friend will likely be working in the CBD. Any suggestions on the best community/suburb to look for a place to rent? What about insurance. do we just get travel insurance or arrange for some type of insurance when we arrive? Is it easy to buy a cheap used car?

[IMissTheFlames]

To add to my friend's post.personally I need some help finding a job. Not like my nurse best friend who could get a job anywhere

I am a recently graduated Bachelor of Commerce graduate with my concentration in Petroleum Land Management. I have worked here in Calgary in the industry for almost 5 years now but have experience in everything from HR, Accounting, Auditing, Purchasing and of course Land Management.

I would love to work in the Aussie Oil Industry (preferably in the Landholder Advisor type role.but I'll take anything) but I dont know where to start.can anyone give me some advice?

[comet555]

First off what kind of visa are you both coming on? If you're coming on a working holiday visa it may be difficult to find good professional employment since you can only work for someone for at most 6 months, and would definitely be gone by the end of the year. Employers for professional occupations generally look for their employees to stay for a while. If you have difficulty finding work then you might want to look at temping for agencies.

The nurse however could find sponsorship for a 457 temp visa quite easily, if she/he doesn't already.

There aren't that many oil companies here, so finding work in that specific industry might be tough. You might want to just start looking for mining related work.

My husband does however work in Brisbane for a company in oil shale exploration. No idea what they need for employees though because he's in the mining department.
http://www.qer.com.au/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=53

It's worth checking though. Other than that you'll just have to look in the papers.
http://www.seek.com.au
http://www.careerone.com.au/

You'd be unlikely to find a job before you arrive because you're out of the country. Even with a permanent visa and a job in demand (mining engineer) no one would look at my husband until we arrived in the country.

As far as where to live goes it's hard to say. The closer you are to the city the more expensive it will be. Although commuting to work would be easier and shorter from closer in.

You can find an rentals here. Prices are quoted by the week.
http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rs ... &t=ren&cu=
There's also a tab for shared accomadation. Most rentals seem to want a term of 1 year, although occassionaly they do have shorter terms. Then you'd need furniture as well, we do have ikea though!

So if you're only staying for 6 months then I'd probably look for shared accomadation, it'd be cheaper and there's a better chance of finding a furnished place. I would also suggest checking with Backpacker places or other backpacker related info sites as they quite often have notices for people looking for roomates, etc.

You can see all the suburbs on here, just search for Brisbane and then have a look at all the suburbs surrounding it.
www.whereis.com.au

If you choose to live farther out then try to be near a train line, or look up the bus routes. You haven't really mentioned how far you're prepared to commute or how much you want to spend. Also what kind of area do you want to be in, city or farther out?

As far as health coverage that again depends on the visa. If you have permanent resident visa you'd be covered for free by Medicare. If you are on a temp or holiday visa then you'd have nothing. I'd arrange for travel cover before you leave Canada (for about a month), and then try and arrange visitors cover once you get here through one of the private health care companies (like Medibak Private). It is expensive though!


For car rentals there are lots of used care places, same as Canada. Finding a cheap car would be tougher, although as long as you expect an older more used car then you should be fine.

Here's just one link for a used car site. It should give you a good idea of what to expect for your money. Remember to convert your money as well so you know what you have to spend in AU dollars not CDN.
http://carsguide.news.com.au/

Here are some Backpacker sites as well (just the top few I found on a Google search)
http://www.backpackaround.com.au/
http://www.backpackersworld.com.au/