Getting Down under » FAQ

Occupations Lists – Everything you need to know

Mark — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:53:20 +0000

Getting your SOL’s mixed up with your MODL’s? Alan Collette at Go Matilda has written a a great article summarising the myriad of occupations lists currently doing the rounds.

The Skilled Occupations List, or SOL

The SOL is a threshold list of skilled occupations – if your occupation is not on this list you do not meet one of the basic requirements of a skilled visa application, and as such cannot migrate to Australia under the general skilled program.

This list does not vary very often, but with a reclassification of skilled occupations having taken place in Australia in the last few months there is an expectation that the SOL will be subject to fairly significant amendment within the next year => as ever, if you are an intending migrant and you have an occupation that appears on the SOL as presently constituted it would be prudent to lodge your application sooner rather than later, just in case your occupation is omitted from a new SOL.

The Skilled Occupations List is published in DIAC booklet 1121i.

Note also that a migration skills assessment from the appointed assessing body for the nominated skilled occupation must be obtained before you lodge your application for an offshore general skilled visa.

The Migration Occupations in Demand List, or MODL

In times past the MODL was a key list, in that those who nominated an occupation that appeared on the MODL could claim additional points towards the skilled visa points pass mark, and could anticipate that their visa application would be processed as a priority – occupations that appear on the MODL are likely to be in relative shortage in Australia and applications where a MODL occupation is nominated ought therefore reasonably be prioritised.

However, since the Immigration Minister published the Critical Skills List (see below), MODL occupations have been effectively demoted in the processing pecking order – the only real advantage to having a MODL occupation at the present time is an ability to claim additional points, as follows:

15 points
* nominated occupation is on the MODL
* employed in the nominated skilled occupation or a closely related skilled occupation for a period totalling at least one year in the four years immediately before the visa application is lodged with the Department of Immigration.

20 points
As above, plus the visa applicant has a job offer for full time employment in Australia in the nominated occupation from an organisation that has employed at least ten people on a full time basis for the two years immediately before the visa application is lodged.

The present MODL is available here.

The Critical Skills List, or CSL

The CSL was introduced by the Immigration Minister last December, as a means of prioritising skilled visa applications where the nominated occupation was identified by DIAC as being in “critical demand” in Australia. The Department of Immigration will therefore process applications where a CSL occupation is nominated as a priority over other skilled visa occupations, save for those occupations that have been sponsored by a State or Territory Government (see below).

The CSL can be viewed here.

A review is under way presently into the MODL which is likely to lead to the abolition of the CSL => as above, if you are an intending skilled visa applicant and have an occupation on the CSL it would be prudent to prepare and lodge a visa application now, while you have comfort that your visa application will be processed as a priority.

Wanted Skills Lists Published by State and Territory Governments

All of Australia’s State and Territory Governments participate in Australia’s skilled migration program to the extent that they are given the ability to sponsor or nominate individuals who have occupations that are wanted in their State or Territory for the grant of a visa under the skilled migration program.

This sponsorship can be for the grant of a visa under one of the permanent visa subclasses, eg subclass number 176, or a provisional visa, eg subclass 475, which leads to permanent residency after the required period of living and working in a “regional area” of Australia.

In addition to having a skilled occupation the States and Territories each have additional requirements they will require applicants to satisfy prior to the sponsorship being granted.

The principal reason for seeking State or Territory Sponsorship is to facilitate the priority processing of a skilled visa application.

The lists of skilled occupations that are wanted in each State and Territory have been amended relatively frequently over the last 9 months, as have the additional details required of applicants for sponsorship. We believe this is in no small part due to the significant number of individuals that have been applying for State and Territory sponsorship since the Immigration Minister’s announcement as to skilled visa priority processing last December – we suspect that additional requirements are being introduced in an effort to reduce the large numbers of applicants; our preference would be for the State and Territory Governments to make available suitable resources to meet the demand for sponsorship.

The relevant wanted skills lists and asociated requirements to be met if sponsorship is to be approved are available at each State and Territory Government’s website.

Employer Sponsored Workers – Attestation FAQ

Mark — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:39:18 +0000

Frequently Asked Questions – Attestation

On 1 April 2009, the Minster for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans announced a requirement for sponsors to attest in writing that they have a strong record of, or a demonstrated commitment to employing local labour and non-discriminatory employment practices.

What the heck is an attestation?

Attestation is the witnessing of the execution by the method that is appropriate to the situation.

Attestation of a document is certification that the document has been executed correctly and is signed by the witness or witnesses to the execution.

Who has to make an attestation?

This requirement applies to all new and existing un-finalised sponsorship applications for a Subclass 457 – Business (Long Stay) visa from 27 June 2009.

What happens to my sponsorship application if it was not finalised by 27 June 2009?

You will be required to make an attestation before your application can be processed. Your case officer will notify you in writing on how and when you can make the attestation.

I have applied to be a Subclass 457 – Business (Long Stay) sponsor. How do I make my attestation?

Application lodged prior to 27 June 2009:
Your case officer will notify you in writing on how and when you can make the attestation.

Applications lodged on or after 27 June 2009:
eVisa lodgement

You will be required to look up an online statement as part of the eVisa application process and select if you make the attestation or not.

Paper application

From 27 June until mid September a separate attestation attachment will be available for submission with your application.

See: Attestation letter (20KB PDF file)

From 14 September onwards the paper application form 1196S will include an attestation section.

If you submit an application without the attestation attached, processing on the application will cease until the document is provided.

Is there a fee payable to make an attestation?

No additional fees will apply.

If I have a Labour Agreement am I required to make an attestation?

No. Given that the attestation will be a sponsorship approval criterion, employers who are party to a labour agreement will not be required to make an attestation. This is because Labour Agreement sponsors do not have to satisfy the sponsorship approval criteria in the Regulations.

I want to be a Standard Business Sponsor but if I do not want to make the attestation what are my options?

If you decide not to make an attestation then you will need to advise your case officer. You will be unable to meet the criteria for sponsorship under the Subclass 457 – Business (Long Stay) visa and you will be unable to sponsor applicants for the visa.

If I am applying for a Subclass 457 – Business (Long Stay) visa do I need to provide an attestation?

No. Only sponsors of Subclass 457 – Business (Long Stay) visa applicants need to provide attestations, not visa applicants themselves.

Source : http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/faq-attestation.htm

Baby born in Australia – What is my babies Australian residency and Citizenship status?

Mark — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:10:52 +0000

Since giving birth to our own baby girl since migrating down under we’ve had a number of comments made on this associated post asking what the immigration status, residency or citizenship status of their own baby will be following the birth.

With this in mind I thought I’d write up a quick article to summarise the residency and citizenship status of your baby should you be blessed with the birth of a new child whilst spending your time down under.

On the assumption that you applied for your Permanent Residency visa before your baby was born the following circumstances will normally apply.

If your baby is born in Australia, and at least one parent is an Australian permanent visa holder or Australian citizen, your baby is an Australian citizen by birth. No Australian visa is required for this baby.

If your baby is born in Australia and neither parent is an Australian citizen or permanent visa holder, your baby will generally automatically acquire the visa of either parent dependent on whichever visa is more “beneficial”.

If your baby is born outside Australia, and at least one parent is an Australian citizen otherwise than by descent, your baby is eligible for Australian citizenship by descent.

If your baby is born outside Australia and at least one parent is an Australian citizen by descent and that parent was present in Australia lawfully for at least 2 years before your baby’s citizenship registration, your baby is eligible for Australian citizenship by descent.

If your baby is born outside Australia, and neither parent is an Australian citizen, your baby has no immigration status in Australia and will need a visa to enter Australia.

What happens if I have my Australian visa, but not validated it, and my child is born outside Australia?

If your Australian Visa has already been granted to you but you’ve not been to Australia to validate the Visa then you’re newborn child will not automatically be granted a visa as part of your own application.

You will have to advise the DIAC about the new addition to your family, as a change of circumstances before you validate your own Visa as your baby will have to be sponsored on a child visa in its own right.

This is normally a straight forward process however you should add at least 10 – 12 weeks for the new baby to be added.

More Useful Reading:

Other articles tagged : baby
Forum Posts tagged : baby

Where do I start? The Visa Wizard is here to help

Mark — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 02:36:23 +0000

Where do I start is one of the most common questions asked by many of those looking to start a new life down under.

The answer to this question is usually decide which Visa option you’ll utilise to get yourself here, however there are so many visa options available for wannabee Aussies that deciding which one is the most suitable is often one of the trickiest parts of the whole process.

The process may now be a slightly more straight forward one as the Australian Department of Immigration has introduced a new tool to help guide users through the tricky process of choosing the most appropriate visa path.

The “Visa Wizard” is designed to help you find the Australian visa most likely to meet your specific circumstances and having had a play around with the wizard this morning it appears to be a pretty useful and user friendly tool

To begin with the wizard asks 5 key questions:

1) Why do you want an Australian visa?
2) What is the country of nationality on your passport?
3) Where do you expect to be when you apply for a visa?
4) What is your date of birth?
5) How long do you intend to stay in Australia?

Additional questions will then be asked based on your responses to these first five with each question designed to further narrow down the number of Visa’s that would be appropriate to your circumstances.

It’s all pretty good stuff but use the wizard as a guide only.

James Gordon, a registered Migration agent and regular poster on our forums commented:

It is a good ‘General’ guide,but does not take into account all the questions you would like answered! To ‘fine tune’ all your visa pathways your really must undertake a detailed assessment of your circumstances . The wizard is a helpful tool, but use it as a means of narrowing down options to particular visa groups. Do not rule out other visa groups because the questioning may not have fitted your personal circumstances! Treat it as a starting point upon which to build..

Valid points all round but it’s great to see that the DIAC are trying to make the process that little bit more straight forward. I commend them on taking this initiative.

Link: Click Here to view the Visa Wizard (web page opens in new window).

High risk or low risk country? Which are you?

Mark — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:10:58 +0000

When migrating to Australia your country of Origin can have a significant impact on the speed in which your Visa application is processed. The Australian Department of immigration classify certain countries as either a low risk or high risk country.

If your country is a high risk country then it’s nothing to be offended about. The factors which make your country of origin a low or high risk country are not really understood either.

As the Electronic Travel Authority (ETA) Visa list is utilised It’s been suggested that high risk countries are those whose citizens have an historic high rate of visa over staying in Australia, whilst low risk countries are those countries whose citizens are good boys and girls and normally leave before their visas have expired.

If your country falls into the high risk category then additional checks will be undertaken prior to your visa being approved and different service levels are applied by the department for the time to process your application.

Trawling through our forums I see that folks often struggle to ascertain whether or not their country of origin is classed as a high or low risk country. Finding the answer to this question is a little easier then you might have thought.

In the eyes of the Australian Immigration department Low risk countries are ETA eligible. High risk countries are those not on the ETA list.

At time of typing the current low risk countries are:

Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Brunei
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong SAR
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Malta
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
San Marino
Singapore
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States Of America
Vatican City

If your country isn’t listed here then it means your living in a high risk country i’m afraid. To be absolutely sure though I’d suggest that you check the ETA site for the most current list.

You see. not that hard is it

How to Apply for your Australian Driving License

Mark — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:02:00 +0000

Applying for my Australian Driving License is something I have been meaning to do for some time it’s just that I haven’t had chance to get around to it.

The timing thing was starting to worry me though. If you are a just a visitor to Western Australia then your allowed to drive for a period of 12 months.

If you intend on becoming or are already a permanent resident of WA (like me) then your supposed to obtain your WA drivers license within 3 months!

So 15 months later I thought it was time for me to get myself sorted! If I got stopped by the police then I think I’d probably get the book thrown at me.

What implications not having a valid license had on the validity of my car insurance goodness knows but if I wrote my car off I’m sure the news wouldn’t be good.

So, I trundled on down to my local licensing centre and got myself sorted.

Now before I go any further, this process relates to Western Australia only, if your moving to another state in Australia the process may be different so check with your local authority. You’ll find details and links for these at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Anyway, as a current holder of a UK driving license, obtaining my Western Australian License was a pretty straight forward process.

In Western Australia there are a number of ‘recognised countries‘ where the holders of driving licenses for these countries are exempt from taking the computerised theory test and may be also exempt from the requirement to undertake a practical driving assessment.

Applicants who hold motorcycle class equivalents are also exempt from the motorcycle theory test.

At time of typing the full list of recognised countries is as follows:

Austria
Belgium
Canada
Croatia
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Guernsey
Ireland
Isle of Man
Italy
Japan
Jersey

Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States of America

Note that driver’s licenses issued by Malta and the Isle of Man are only â€˜recognised’ where:

Isle of Man – the license was issued on or after 1 November 1991; and
Malta – the license was issued on or after 2 January 2004.

Proving your identity:

As part of the application process you’ll need to prove both your residency status and your identity.

In my case I took a bank statement which confirmed my address and my passport to prove my ID (it also confirmed that I’ve lost far to much hair in the last 6 years since my passport photo was taken)!

If your driving license has your photograph on it then that should also suffice however me being me I never got around to getting one of those back in blighty either!

As a rule though, the licensing folks in Western Australia require both primary and secondary proof of your identity as well as proof of your residency in WA. At least one of the documents must include your signature.

Primary proof of identity can be such documents as your current license (if it has a photograph), a current passport or a birth certificate.

Secondary proof of identity can be such documents as an automatic teller machine (ATM) card issued by a finance institute, a credit card or a Medicare card.

If one of the documents that you use for your proof of identity has your WA address on it, then this will also satisfy the proof of residency requirements.

If not, you can use other documents that have your WA address on them to prove your residency. Examples would be a house rental agreement, a council rate notice or a bank statement. A place of employment cannot be used as a residential address.

Once you’ve confirmed you are who you say you are and not some foreign terrorist then you’ll then need to complete the application form.

The application form is a pretty straight forward document where you complete your address details, details about your current driving license (Driving license number, Classes of vehicles you’re able to drive etc), details of any medical conditions which might prevent you from driving, that kind of thing.

Once you’ve got this part sorted you then need to do a quick eyesight test.

Eyesight Test:

Having the ability to see where your driving is considered a good thing here in Australia so although the process of applying for your Australian driving license is an easy one you still need to take an eye test.

It’s not hard though. Taking the test is just like going to the opticians. You simply need to cover each eye up in turn with one hand whilst reading the bottom row of letters with your uncovered eye.

I’d say at a guess the letters aren’t as small as the bottom row of letters you’d read to prove that you have 20:20 vision at your opticians so if you struggle with this bottom line like I do then don’t worry

Say Cheese!

The next thing you need to do to complete your application is to have your photograph taken. This photo will appear on your driving license and the folks at the licenses office do this for you so there’s no need to turn up with your own photo’s.

I have no idea what my photo looks like now. The lady at the licensing office said ‘You can smile when the light comes on’. I smiled but it was one of those half smiles which will probably leave me looking like some kind of serial killer. Still, most folks driving licenses have dodgy pictures on don’t they?

Show me the money

Now for the sad part. Yep the process is oh so straight forward but you still need to pay some of your hard earned cash to get your Australian Driving License.

It’s not to expensive though. Australian driving licenses are renewed on either an annual or 5 yearly basis. If you go for the five year license it works out a little cheaper. At time of typing the cost of a five year license is $116. There are concessions available with a five year license for the more ’senior’ folks coming in at about $58.00.

So there you go. Once you’ve completed the application process your issued with a temporary license until your permanent license arrives. I was told by the lady in the licensing office that this should be with me in about two weeks.

It feels so good to be legal again

Useful Links (open in new window)

ACT. Road Transport Authority

Rego.act is your gateway to the Australian Capital Territory Road Transport Authority. Allows you to complete tasks related to vehicle registration, pay infringements, change your address and find information on driver licensing, parking and vehicle inspections.
www.rego.act.gov.au

International Driving Permits
An International Driving Permit (IDP) is proof that you hold a valid driver licence in your home country. IDPs are issued through state and territory motoring clubs. This page on the Smartraveller site links to relevant IDP authorities in each state.
www.smartraveller.gov.au

Licensing & registration (Qld)
Queensland Transport’s driver licensing and vehicle registration information.
www.transport.qld.gov.au

Licensing Services (WA)
Licensing Services manages a wide range of licensing functions for vehicles and drivers licences. You can make licensing payments via this site and change your details online.
www.dpi.wa.gov.au

Motor Vehicle Registry (MVR) (NT)
Provides motor vehicle inspection and registration, and driving licensing services throughout the Northern Territory.
www.nt.gov.au

Overseas Driver Licences
Austroads page containing information for overseas drivers on licences and driving while in Australia. Includes information regarding international licences
www.austroads.com.au

Roads and Traffic Authority, NSW
The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is responsible for promoting road safety and traffic management, driver licensing and vehicle registration in News South Wales. It is also responsible for the maintenance and development of the National Highway and State Road network in NSW. It provides funding assistance to Local Councils for Regional Roads and to a limited extent, for Local Roads.
www.rta.nsw.gov.au

Transport (SA)
Transport SA services all areas of transport, including air, rail, marine, freight, vehicle registration and driver licensing, and roads for South Australia.
www.transport.sa.gov.au

Transport, DIER (Tas)
Transport is part of the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources. The transport index page links to a range of transport related information including licence and registration information, concessions, safety, and roads and public transport information which is primarily concerned with roads, bridges, passenger and freight transport services.
www.transport.tas.gov.au

VicRoads
VicRoads manages the Victorian road network and its use as an integral part of the overall transport system. This site includes links to information about licensing and registrations, road rules, road projects and road traffic information. From this site you can change your address, pay your registration, get a vehicle security certificate, check your driver history and check if land is affected by a road proposal.
www.vicroads.vic.gov.au

Migration Agents – How to find a registered Australian Migration Agent

Mark — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:05:16 +0000

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?

Let me introduce you to the Migration Agents Registration Authority Website.

From the site:

The Register of Migration Agents provides a comprehensive list of individuals who are registered with the Migration Agents Registration Authority to provide immigration assistance.

In Australia, only those registered with the Migration Agents Registration Authority (and listed on the Register of Migration Agents) can provide immigration assistance, except where an exemption is provided for by the Migration Act 1958 and or the Migration Agents Regulations 1998.

A company or business cannot be registered, only an individual can.

The Register of Migration Agents is a public record of all registered migration agents under the scheme. The online version is provided for your convenience.

I’ve had a good dig around the site and to be honest it’s pretty good.

It provides the option to Search the Register for registered agents using various criteria such as their name, company name, registration number etc.

You can also search for agents by country.

Another pretty nifty feature is you can search for those Migration agents whose registration has recently lapsed.

The site also displays the dodgy agents who have been sanctioned or crossed off the list.

All in all this is a very valuable resource and should be one of your first ports of call if the Migration agent route is the right route for you.

Can you get SKY Satellite TV in Australia?

Mark — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:27:21 +0000

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?

Well, for those interested, unfortunately you cannot get SKY TV here in Australia (boooo!). If you think about it, your SKY Satellite dish might be pointing skywards in the UK at the Sky Satellite deep in Space but down under, around the other side of the world we can’t even see this Satellite.

Thankfully though we are not only limited to the 5 terrestrial channels here in Australia. We have a Sky equivalent here in Aus called Foxtel.

Foxtel was formed through a joint venture between Telstra and News Corporation (Rupert Murdochs mates). With the Foxtel service you’ll find many of the same features you’ll be familiar with as a Sky user such as IQ (aka Sky+), the EPG and Red Button Active.

So What will you be able to Watch on TV here in Australia?

At time of typing the current channel line up is as follows:

News and Documentaries

Animal Planet
BBC World
Bloomberg Television
CNBC
CNN
Crime & Investigation
Discovery Channel
Discovery Health
Discovery Science
Discovery Travel
FOX News
National Geographic
Sky News Australia
The History Channel
The Weather Channel

Sport

ESPN
Eurosportnews
FOX SPORTS 1
FOX SPORTS 2
FOX SPORTS 3
FOX SPORTS News
FUEL TV
Nat Geo Adventure
Sky Racing
TVN

Movies

FOXTEL Box Office
MOVIE EXTRA
MOVIE GREATS
MOVIE ONE
MOVIE TWO
SHOWTIME
SHOWTIME Greats
SHOWTIME+2
TCM
WORLD MOVIES

Kids Stuff

Boomerang
Cartoon Network
Disney Channel
Nick Jr.
Nickelodeon
Playhouse Disney

Entertainment

ACC
ARENA TV
ARENA TV+2
Aurora
Bio.
E! Entertainment
EXPO
Fashion TV
FOX Classics
FOX Classics+2
FOX8
FOX8+2
Hallmark
HOW TO Channel
Lifestyle Channel+2
LifeStyle FOOD
Ovation
SCI FI
THE COMEDY CHANNEL
THE COMEDY CHANNEL+2
The LifeStyle Channel
TV1
TV1+ 2
TVSN
UKTV
UKTV+2
W.
W. +2

Music

Channel [V]
Channel [V]2
Country Music Channel
MAX
MTV
VH1

And last but not least *cough*

Special Interests

Adults Only 960 / 961
Antenna Pacific
FOXTEL Gamesworld
Main Event
RAI International

How much does it cost?

The packages start at $37.95 per month (approx £16) Rising to $64 (£27) for the full lot.

For those big Sky Sports fans who like their UK premiership games, you’ll find many of the big games on both the terrestrial channels and also on Foxtel.

However, don’t expect the full on Premiership coverage that you’d get in the UK. Here in Australia this precious airtime is handed over to sports such as AFL or similar.

So there you go.

Finally; remember the ‘Sky’ here in Australia has this big thing called Sunshine in it, so you won’t miss it that much

Useful Resources : Foxtel Website (Opens in new window)

Australian Salary Survey – How much will I earn in Australia?

Mark — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 01:46:22 +0000

When moving out to Australia the question around Australian Salary’s and how these compare to those paid in your current country are often one of those frequently asked questions which will be important to everyone.

The consensus is that due to Australia’s ‘Cheaper’ cost of living, the average salary can often be 10 – 20% less then those paid in your home country.

I know when we moved from the UK to Australia I was told to expect to take a big pay cut if I was applying for a similar job, having said that I think it really comes down to the case of supply and demand and thankfully I was able to secure a job paying a similar kind of salary to the one I was paid in the UK.

Thankfully, there are a number of Australian based recruitment companies who regularly Review and publish Salary Survey information. These are a really helpful resource for you to review if you want to get an indication of the kind of Salaries being paid within a specific region.

Michael Page International has recently published the results of its most recent survey.

The surveys are broken down into a number of areas and include:

Banking (.pdf 149KB)
Accounting (.pdf 149KB)
Chartered Accounting Profession (.pdf 149KB)
Engineering (.pdf 135KB)
Procurement & Supply Chain (.pdf 121KB)
Human Resources (.pdf 123KB)
Legal (.pdf 127KB)
Sales (.pdf 143KB)
Marketing (.pdf 147KB)
Technology (.pdf 138KB)

You’ll need the Adobe’s acrobat reader to open these files. It’s a free application and if your not one of the 98% of computer users who already have this you can download it by clicking here.

Another of the large recruitment companies; Hays, also publish a similar survey on an annual basis.

The Hays Survey is compiled from information collected from their 42 locations throughout Australia and New Zealand and are based on the average salary paid on over 12,000 jobs advertised by Hays in the previous 12 months.

Similarly to the Michael Page Salary Surveys, the Hays Surveys are broken down into a number of key areas including Accountancy and Finance, Insurance, Contact Centres, Resourcing and Mining and Legal to name just a few.

Surveys are great but sometimes are so generic they may not give you all of the information you need to get a true idea of the kind of money you might end up earning within Australia.

Prior to moving to Australia I found the best way to get an idea of the Salary I could expect to be paid was by simply searching for a role similar to my current role on a number of the Aussie based recruitment websites.

Seek.com.au is touted as being Australia’s No 1 Employment site, however I also found that sites such as Jobserve.com.au and Mycareer.com.au also presented some decent information.

You’ll quickly find that there is some duplication of the roles advertised on these sites so the site you decide to settle on will really come down to your own personal preferences I guess.

Australian Spiders – Should I Worry?

Mark — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:24:40 +0000

Many people are worried about living in, or visiting, Australia all because of its poisonous spiders. Is there really a reason for you to be worried? Could you be killed after being bitten by a spider if you visit, or move to, Australia? Should the possibility stop you from going to Australia?

In case you did not know it, Australia has only two spiders that should be of a major concern for anyone visiting, or living there. The two spiders that you need to be most concerned with are the funnel-web spider and the red-back spider. These spiders have caused deaths in the past.

But, with a little common sense and caution these spiders are not the major concern that they used to be. There now is anti-venom for both and neither one has caused any reported deaths for many years.

Funnel-Web Spiders Where are they found?

These hazardous funnel web spiders are found most often in the Brisbane and Sydney area. There have been a few isolated funnel web spider bites in the Adelaide area. The are not usually found in Perth or Melbourne area.

How big are they? The females are usually bigger than males and they are most often found to be around 6 or 7 cm long when including their legs. If you put this into perspective you will realize that a female funnel web spider is found to be about the same width as the palm of a person’s hand.

The funnel web spider is not like the timid red-back spider. The funnel web spiders are aggressive creatures. They will not hesitate to attack if they feel that they have been provoked at all. What’s more, their venom is very quick acting and if they are not promptly treated their bite can end in a rapid death. This can happen within an hour so that quick action is a must.

Even though the funnel-web spiders are much more aggressive than the red-back spiders, their bites are not near as common because the funnel-web spiders are much bigger and so they are easy to see. As far as how many people fall prey to the funnel-web spider? The average seems to be around 5 or 6 bites requiring anti-venom treatment each year in Australia.

Some people wonder if funnel-web spiders can jump? No, they cannot jump. What they do is they back up when disturbed then they will bite you with a fast downward stroke. When they are provoked they may rush toward you aggressively, but they are not actually able to propel themselves up off the ground.

The funnel-web spider burrows holes in the ground. They are usually found in moist, shady areas like dense shrubs, rockeries, logs and in leaf debris..

Red-Back Spiders can be found in every area of Australia and is usually around 2 to 3 cm long including their legs. The red-back spider is a relative of the familiar black-widow spider. Red back spiders are Australia’s best-known spiders. They have songs written about them and they even have a brand of beer named after them.

Red back spiders flourish in populated areas. Every year there are hundreds of bites reported but fewer than 30 percent of them require the anti-venom treatment; for the most part only the female Red-back spiders will bite as the males are usually too small to.

The venom of the red-back spider is much slower acting than the funnel web spider and the anti-venom is quite effective. The majority of victims of red-back spider bites do not turn out to be ill. The possibility of death from a red-back spider bite is possible but it is quite rare. Since the anti-venom became available in 1956 there has not been any deaths from red-back spider bites. As far as how many people fall victim to the red-back spider? The average seems to be around 250 anti-venom treatments being administered every year in Australia.

The red-back spiders are usually shy and they will pretend to be dead rather than bite someone. They will usually only bite if they are forced into contact with someone that is putting on their gardening gloves, boots, shoes or similar clothing.

So, if you are contemplating visiting or moving to Australia do not let your worry about being bitten by a poisonous spider keep from going. With a little caution you should not need to worry about getting bit. But, if you are bitten a quick trip to the closest hospital should fix you right up.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Australia

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