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Springtime in Perth brings with it many great things. Beautiful spring flowers in the park, cleaner homes and warmer weather.

Unfortunately it also brings with it Flies; and lots of them.

Apparently there are millions of flies that hang out in the deserts during the cooler winter months, then as the temperatures begin to increase and the little buggers start to feel a little hot under the collar they fly west towards the coast where it’s cooler.

Unfortunately, the coast is also where 98% of the Western Australia population live, including me.

These little critters aren’t the type that just land on your bread roll whilst eating out at a restaurant either. Flying 100’s of miles from the desert to the coast is obviously thirsty work as most seem to be moisture seekers.

This means they make a beeline for places such as the inside of your ear, your mouth, nostrils, or eyes. This obviously gets a tad annoying after a while.

If they land on your leg or hand they’ll happily just stand there for minutes on end rubbing their front legs together like some manic chef sharpening his calving knives before cutting into a big joint of meat. Continue Reading

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OK, perhaps just pleasantly warm then!

Hmmm, sunshine. Probably one of the main attractions for many and one of the reasons why we choose Perth; officially the sunniest city in the world to be our home.

Speaking to some friends in the UK last night it was pretty wet and foggy. Late October is never a good time of year back in the UK but down under in Perth we are starting to venture into Spring and the weather is just starting to warm up.

Today we should be seeing temperatures touching just over 80F for the first time in a couple of months so I’m off out for some lunch now to enjoy the rays for a little while.

Remember, you can have a little look at the current weather in Perth by checking out ‘Shiela’ the weather chick on the bottom right of every page.

Having said that, if your reading this from somewhere else in the world there’s a good chance that it’ll be dark – Bugger!

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I read an interesting transcript from a speech made by a chap called Andrew Metcalf.

Andrew Metcalf is the Secretary for the department of Immigration and Citizenship and he made his speech during an address at the Migration Institute of Australia 2007 conference last Friday.

The national conference, held on the 19th of October brought together Migration agents from both inside and outside of Australia.

His speech highlights a number of concerns which everyone looking to utilise the services of a registered migration agent should be aware of whilst doing their homework.

I don’t want to make anyone paranoid when it comes to choosing an agent but being honest some of his comments left me feeling pretty perplexed by some of the ‘going-ons’ within the industry. Continue Reading

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So you’ve decided to move to Australia. The sun shines, the sky is blue and Aussies speak a Language that we can all understand!

Ok, the first two points in that last statement are accurate but the latter may be stretching the truth just a little. Welcome to the amazing world of Australian slang words.

You see, Aussies love slang words. If they can have a slang word for anything they will and unfortunately for us folks new to this wonderful country your time will often be spent with a baffled look on your face whilst you stand there wondering if you should smile or give the person your talking to a swift slap!

Unfortunately, there’s often little clue to what the slang word means either. Continue Reading

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I love barbecues, even in the UK, during the one or two sunny days we got each year I always made an effort to chuck a couple of sausages on the barbecue which were duly burnt beyond all recognition.

I wasn’t alone either; I think it’s fair to say that in the UK the popularity of barbecues really is on the increase.

Even last summer (in the UK) when we had a run of oh, about 7 days of good weather, charcoal was selling like hot cakes and the smell of barbecued meat, and minor food poisoning filled the air.

I always fancied a really nice gas barbecue but I could never really justify the cost of something so pricy just to have it sat in the garage for over 360 days of the year.

Now we live in Australia however it’s a completely different story! Continue Reading

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The Australian Immigration Website reports news of a new Australian Values Statement which will need to be signed as part of the Visa Application in certain Categories.

From 15 October 2007, all applicants aged 18 years and over are required to sign the values statement. The statement requires applicants to confirm that they will respect the Australian way of life and obey the laws of Australia before being granted a visa.

Who does it apply to?

For most visa applicants the Australian Values Statement is included in the application form. There are two different values statements. The statement applicants will be required to sign depends on the visa they are applying for.

All provisional, permanent and a small number of temporary visa applicants are required to have read or had explained to them information provided by the Australian government before signing the values statement. This information is contained in the Life in Australia book. Continue Reading

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I’ve noticed recently that quite a few folks have been hitting getting down under via search engines  using search terms such as Sky TV in Australia and How do I get SKY TV in Australia?

The only reason why I’d imagine Google and co are presenting  GDU in these results is because of the the article I wrote whilst back in the UK titled ‘How to cut your SKY TV costs in half’?

Within this article I basically wrote about how willing the folks at SKY were to offer us great deals when we told them we were going to cancel our subscription.

In hindsight there wasn’t  a lot the poor buggers could do really as we were moving to Australia for good, still it shows that they are willing to drop their proverbial pants to try and keep the business.

Anyway, to provide a slightly more useful article for those looking I thought I’d write an entry to really answer the question: Can you get SKY Satellite TV in Australia? Continue Reading

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I like beer! Ok, that’s it. I’ve admitted it!

Australia’s climate is very conducive to drinking vast quantities of alcohol and I have to say I’ve been downing litres of the stuff.

Centuries ago when I first started seeing the missus I was happy to have 1 or 2 bottles of Becks. Gee chuck in half a bottle of wine and I’d be legless.

Fast forward 10 years and I’m happy to drink between 4 – 6 bottles of beer a night. It’s not the weak stuff either, since arriving in Australia I’ve developed a taste for a pale ale called ‘Coopers‘. This stuff contains 6.3% alcohol so it’s fair to say it hits the spot!

I can’t actually remember the last time I didn’t have a drink. Chuck in the odd work do or the odd night the missus decides to have a glass of wine and I’m drinking to much. Continue Reading

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Since the birth of our little girl the missus has been busy (thanks honey ) completing all the necessary paper work to make sure she was legal.

This has included registering the birth and also completing the appropriate paperwork to apply for our baby bonus.

In Australia, parents of new babies born in Australia are paid a baby bonus. I’m not 100% to sure why the bonus is paid but I think in essence its there to encourage Aussies to ‘go forth and multiply’

Australia is probably as far removed from those countries suffering high population issues as you can get.

Unlike other developed countries, Australia’s population is still very low. At time of typing it stands at approx 20.4 Million and due to the mammoth size of the country theres plenty of room for many more.

Australia’s population density is only 2.6 people to each square kilometer. Compare this to the 246 per kilometer that the UK manages to squeeze in or China’s 636 people per square kilometer and you’ll get the idea. Continue Reading

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A little while ago I added a poll (which is displayed on the left hand side of every page) to the site to try and get an indication of where folks would be heading to once they move down under.

I’m not sure if the poll is a little bias towards Western Australia because that’s what I’m writing about most of the time and will therefore be the kind of stuff people might stumble upon when searching for Western Australia on the internet.

Still, at time of typing its good to see that its not all about Western Australia.

The rankings for most popular Australia destinations for new migrants (according to our extensive poll of 84 people ) are as follows:

1. Western Australia (yay!)
2. South Australia (that’ll be Adelaide then).
3. Queensland (aka Brisbane)
4. Victoria (Melbourne)
5. New South Wales (aka Sydney)
6. Northern Territory

Ok! Its only a bit of fun but the results are still kinda interesting. I’m surprised to see New South Wales down in fifth Spot but its good to see the West and South taking some healthy pickings of new migrants.

If you’ve not taken our poll yet then go ahead You’ll find it in the side bar to the left of this post. Continue Reading

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I’ve written quite a bit about the state of the Western Australian housing market of late.

According to a recent report published by the Real Estate Institute of Australia, paying weekly rent was now a major financial headache for many WA renters.

According to the report the average median rent for a three bedroom property in Perth during the June 2007 quarter was $300.00 per week.

Personally, compared to the $450 a week we’re paying for our four bedroom house in Kinross, I don’t think that’s bad, however this figure does account for 25.7% of the average earnings in Western Australia during the same period so it’s obviously going to be hitting some folks pretty hard.

The report goes onto say that weekly rents are now increasing at a much faster rate than the average weekly earnings in WA which isn’t going to make the whole housing situation any better. Continue Reading

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Back in January I casually noted that you won’t find a red-back spider or similar deadly critter hidden around every corner.

Now we’re into October I thought I’d never get around to meeting anything that could potentially kill me and if I’m being honest I was acting a little to laid back when I was sweeping out the dead fly carcases from the shed in our new house with my hand!

Well, I can now safely say it’s time to reset the deadly creature encounter counter as yesterday I came face to face with my first Australia red-back spider.

We’ve still not moved into our new house yet as we’ve decided to get ducted air conditioning and a new alarm system fitted before we move in. We’ve still been doing the odd job here and there though and yesterday I was up there with Junior watering the plants and cleaning the swimming pool filter (which I can assure you will be the subject of many future entries).

So, I’m stood there looking at the cleaning instructions for the filter and junior comes running on over me.

“Daddy, daddy, come here. You need to look at this!”

Now, being a 4 year old Junior is very good at really ‘bigging up’ things that he’s seen. I remember once I was up to my eyes in flat packed furniture when Junior came running up to me as he had to show me something amazing and it turned out to be a ……. moth! Continue Reading

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The folks over at immi have announced this month an amendment to both the Sponsorship and Nomination Criteria and the Temporary Business (Long Stay) Subclass 457 visa Time of Decision Criteria.

From 1 October 2007, the Migration Regulations are amended to:

• Clarify that a business which proposes to hire out the services of a Subclass 457 visa holder to an unrelated business cannot apply to be approved as a Standard Business Sponsor
• Clarify that a Standard Business Sponsor cannot nominate an activity where the activity involves hiring out the visa holder’s services to another unrelated business
• Clarify that an application for a Subclass 457 visa, on the basis of sponsorship by a Standard Business Sponsor, cannot be approved where the activity involves hiring out the visa holder’s services to another unrelated business, unless the nomination that was approved in relation to the activity, was made before October 1 2007

Continue Reading

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Latest time lines from the ASPC. Any comments or questions then please post them in the thread posted in our forums here

As of 2 October 2007 the ASPC admin section is processing as follows:

Onshore Applications: receipting applications received on 31 August 2007 and acknowledging applications received on 31 August 2007.

Offshore Applications: receipting applications received on 23 July 2007 and acknowledging applications received on 27 June 2007.

Applicants and representatives who have not authorised e-mail communication will not receive separate advice that the ASPC has received and receipted an application and will receive the standard acknowledgement letter and receipt details in due course.

Please note that any delay in acknowledging an application does not affect the date on which a valid application is recorded as having been received and does not delay processing of the application.

Once an application has been acknowledged a case officer is appointed to assess each application as soon as possible, however, the ASPC receives a large number of applications and you will not be contacted immediately. Continue Reading

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A number of annoucements from the ASPC which may be of interest to applicants currently going through the application process.

Delays in receipting applications

The Department has implemented major reforms to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) programme on 1 September 2007 to further improve the effectiveness of the skilled migration programme.

Prior to the implementation of these changes there has been a significant increase in the volume of applications received by the ASPC ahead of the changes.

The surge in applications in recent months has resulted in delays in getting all of these applications receipted and acknowledged. Every effort is being made to clear these applications as quickly as possible however; it may take up to 12 weeks before a full acknowledgement is received.

Providing evidence of commencing health, character and IELTS requirements

Applicants requested to provide health, character, or IELTS testing results to support their application do not need to provide copies of receipts unless specifically asked to do so; however, you do need to advise this office:
1. The examination dates for medical checks;
2. The police clearances applied for and the date the application was made;
3. The details of any IELTS test/s booked including test dates and the name and location of the test centre.

Provided that you do this before the due date in any request letter from the department you do not need to request an extension of time if you are waiting to receive police clearances or IELTS results.

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I’ve been writing blog entries and articles on this site since January 2006 and its getting to the stage where some of the more useful articles are getting buried deep in the archives.

To try and address this I’ve written a new popular articles page.

Within this page I’ve provided links to a number of articles which may prove particularly useful to folks at various stages of their journey down under.

The popular articles can also be accessed via the popular articles link on our main menu.

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