If you're new here, you may be interested to know that you can receive all of our latest articles directly to your inbox. Click Here for more info. We promise to keep your email safe and will use it for only this purpose

This has been our second Australia Day since moving down under and I have to say I really wanted to get to see the Lotterywest Skyworks this year.

Last year we were in North Perth and although we got a half decent view we were on the city side as opposed to the River side so only managed to get the views from behind the Bankwest Tower (the triangular shaped building in this picture (click thumbnail for a bigger picture).

Apparently the 2008 Lotterywest Skyworks were a massive success again this year although we decided in the end not to make the journey into the CBD.

Traveling into the CBD to see a firework show which doesn’t start until 9pm with a 5 year old, 5 month old and 500,000 other folks trying to leave the CBD at the same time didn’t sound like to much fun so we decided to give it a miss.

Maybe next year

Article Popularity: 29%

Australian Migration Agents and whether or not to utilise one as part of your migration process is a question that will be at the forefront of many people’s minds when they decide that they want to make a better life for themselves down under.

Where the hell do you start is often the very first question though and having a migration agent guide you through the complexities of moving to Australia might be seen as a must have for some.

Although when we made our own move down under we organised everything ourselves, for some the Australian Migration agent path may be a preferred option.

What is important though is that if you go down this path then you are strongly advised to use a Migration Agent that is registered.

Outside of Australia not all agents are registered. If they are not registered they are not accountable. Some call themselves Migration consultants or similar!

Back in October I wrote about a paper I’d read which detailed some of the antics of some of the more dodgy migration agents out there. It’s fair to say that you need to be careful when choosing your agent as choosing a bad one will waste both your time and your money!

So, if you’re looking for a Migration Agent how do you find an agent who’s officially recognised and registered? Continue Reading

Article Popularity: 40%

 It’s been a little while since my Bunnings Warehouse post but I’ve been pretty busy of late :-/

My folks have been over from the UK for the last couple of weeks and it’s been really good to catch up with them after not seeing them now for well over a year.

I have really missed my folks but as our regular readers will probably know it’s been a damn busy year. Time literally has flown by in the last twelve months or so. Still it’s really nice for them to visit us here in our new home.

Living in Australia you’ll always have people that want to visit. It’s actually pretty amazing how many ‘friends’ creep out of the woodwork when you migrate down under. Continue Reading

Article Popularity: 30%

Bunnings Warehouse may be a name which will not ring many bells with folks living outside of Australia but be rest assured anyone (OK, any Bloke) who likes a good poke around their local DIY store will soon come to love their local Bunnings!

Bunnings is a pretty big part of DIY life down under and is the southern hemisphere’s largest hardware chain store, with more than 249 (155 Warehouse, 65 smaller format stores at time of typing) all over Australia and New Zealand.

On average a new store is opened every three months and it’s probably mad people like me spending stupid amounts of cash on stuff I don’t really need that’s helping this aggressive rate of growth.

These guys have a slogan; “Lowest prices are just the beginning” and they aren’t half wrong.

When you multiply lots of ‘lowest priced’ items you start seeing some big big bills!

You see Bunnings is one of those stores that you can’t help spend to much money in.

Every time I go there, even with the best intentions in the world I tend to come out with tons of stuff I had no intention of buying in the first place! :-/ Continue Reading

Article Popularity: 29%

BBC’s wanted down under seems to be drawing in the crowds to getting down under as of late.

I actually remembered that last year when the first series was on the TV our visitor volumes spiked as people jumped onto the web to find a little more information about the show.

This last week its been a little crazy, within two days of the first show airing on TV we’ve been seeing over 2000 unique visitors to the site every day with ‘wanted down under’ and ‘wanted down under BBC’ being the main search terms used to find our site

With this kind of interest I’m still slightly bemused by the fact that the BBC chooses to air the show at such a daft time.   9am in the morning when most people are at work isn’t the best time to show a program like this and I really hope the folks at the BEEB are receiving similar kinda feedback.

If your found us looking for info on the show then make sure you say hi

Article Popularity: 29%

During the run up to the recent changes which were made to the Australian Skilled Migration system, it seems that some of the stories circulating in the media were a little misleading.

We’ve already written about the International English Language Testing System IELTS and the points you get for speaking and writing English at a high level.

We’ve also written about the fact that the English Language Threshold had been raised making it harder for those who don’t hold English as a first language to gain the necessary points.

However, does this mean (as announced in some media outlets) that the the English language requirements for English speaking applicants have been ‘relaxed’, therefore making it easier for Brits to score more points towards their application? Continue Reading

Article Popularity: 28%

Quite interesting to see that the ASPC are now promoting the front loading of Meds and Police Checks as part of the visa application process stating that Offshore Applicants can now initiate Health and Character Checks (Police Checks) before being allocated a case officer.

The inclusion of health forms on the department’s of immigrations website means that applicants can reduce the time taken to finalise the application by commencing health and character checking before their application is allocated to a case officer, however, applicants and migration agents should be aware that:

• Applicants are responsible for all costs associated with medical examinations and providing police clearances;
• Health examinations and police clearances have limited validity periods, generally for a period of 12 months;
• If clearances expire before the application is finalised they may be requested again, and must be provided at the applicant’s cost;
• The ASPC may need to undertake other checking in respect of the application that can delay a decision; and
• Undertaking health examinations and providing police clearances does not guarantee an application will be successful.

Before deciding when to undertake Health and Police Checks, applicants and Agents can monitor which applications are currently being allocated for assessing by utilising the aspc.processing@immi.gov.au e-mail service. Sending a blank email to this address will result in an auto response being issued by the ASPC detailing the current processing timelines in a similar format to that detailed here Continue Reading

Article Popularity: 23%

Well, we’re into 2008 so let’s look at the current Processing timelines for January.

To discuss this post, please use the appropriate thread in our forums here

The Australia Immigration Department put into operation major reforms to the General Skilled Migration (GSM) programme with effect from 1 September 2007.

Prior to the introduction of these changes there was a significant increase in the volume of applications received by the department.

The surge in applications resulted in delays in getting all of these applications receipted and acknowledged.

All applications lodged prior to 1 September 2007 have now been processed and receipted. While every effort is being made to acknowledge these applications as quickly as possible there will be
a delay before a full acknowledgement is made.

As of 1st January 2008 the ASPC Admin Section is processing applications as follows: Continue Reading

Article Popularity: 29%