Need info from Down Under

[GreyVF750F]

Good day mates! My daughter who is 23, is looking to take her nursing career on step farther and is interviewing(by phone 1st) at Sydney Children's Hospital - Home. She thinks it would be great to go to Australia. She has no idea what to expect if she moves to your country and city of Sydney. The only two things I told her was no swiming in the ocean and no outback unless she's with a Crocodile Dundee dude or a donk.

Ok for the info. What's your cost of living, taxes, car's, friendliness of people, things to do, not to do and anything else you can think someone moving there should know? You know the good, the bad and the ugly of it all.

Sure would appreciate some first hand info to pass on to her. If you need more info let me know. TIA

[Richard Thompson]

hmmmm....she should also consider NZ. plenty of oppurtunities here for nursing applications as all our ones want to head off overseas...leaving a giant vacum in the nursing profession here.

worth a thought as a back up option. if you need more on NZ let me know.

failing that PM 'john 451', he is a sensible aussie VFR'er... and should be able to fill you in on the current aussie set up

[dogman]

Originally Posted by GreyVF750F

Good day mates! My daughter who is 23, is looking to take her nursing career on step farther and is interviewing(by phone 1st) at Sydney Children's Hospital - Home. She thinks it would be great to go to Australia. She has no idea what to expect if she moves to your country and city of Sydney. The only two things I told her was no swiming in the ocean and no outback unless she's with a Crocodile Dundee dude or a donk.

Ok for the info. What's your cost of living, taxes, car's, friendliness of people, things to do, not to do and anything else you can think someone moving there should know? You know the good, the bad and the ugly of it all.

Sure would appreciate some first hand info to pass on to her. If you need more info let me know. TIA

Well as far as cost of living goes, Sydney would be the most expensive city in Aust for accommodation, and as far as we can see from prices of things on the net, most things are cheaper in the U.S than they are here in Oz.
For example, I have imported several exhaust sysyems from the US and saved a lot of $ over local prices.
We do however have a reasonable public healthcare system.
The lifestyle is fairly laid back here, Sydney can get hot in summer, especially the Western suburbs, over 40deg C.
The people are generally friendly, but people are people worldwide, and its hard to generalise. There are pockets of ethnic immigrants in certain areas which should be regarded with caution.
Sydney is a very busy city, bit of a rat race IMO but it depends on what she is used to.
Would it be possible for her to have a holiday visit first to check things out?
I dont live in Sydney I live about 1000 miles away, and I dont particularly like visiting there, but thats just me.
I would strongly encourage her to do some serious research regarding accomodation and commuting distances before she commits herself.
She may well love the experience. People from your country are generally fairly well regarded.
Hope it is some help.

[John451]

Originally Posted by GreyVF750F

Good day mates! My daughter who is 23, is looking to take her nursing career on step farther and is interviewing(by phone 1st) at Sydney Children's Hospital - Home. She thinks it would be great to go to Australia. She has no idea what to expect if she moves to your country and city of Sydney. The only two things I told her was no swiming in the ocean and no outback unless she's with a Crocodile Dundee dude or a donk.

Its great that shes thinking of Sydney as a place to work and think shes sure to make a positive contribution to the Country as Australia is going through a a bit of a Nursing shortage. Have also been with my youngest girl to the Sydney Childrens Hospital in Randwick, its a large busy working public Hospital but all the nursing staff I met in the Childrens ward were more than excellent so can only say good things about them. The General ( non children ) part of the Randwick Hospital is a bit dour in parts as money is tight in the public system but thats probably the same everywhere.

The good news is Randwick is not only near the coast but is quite close to our iconic Bondi beach with a number of just as excellent life guard patroled beaches nearby and a number of expat Brits and Americans first seem to live in that general area and are known to enjoy the local lifestyle and while the average Aussie should be helpful and mostly harmless being a "Yank" she may receive the odd bit of friendly teasing, sorry that can't be helped and I sometimes get a little embarrased about the silly carryons from some of the more colourful of our drunken Yobbo's.

Now the bad news, it is my understanding rent prices in the areas surrounding Randwick are quite high but being young without responsibilities it probably would work out fine for her to rent a single apartment nearby the hospital and use public transport to get around.

While I think of Australia as a very safe Country to live and explore like most countrys there are villans possible anywhere so she needs to keep her wits about her even in good areas after dark until she learns her surroundings, stay sceptical of over friendly strangers offering a lift home from a Bar and as expected with a city population of 4.5million there are a few easily avoided outer Suburbs in Sydney that I wouldn't venture.

Being a local I'm a bit oblivious to how hard moving here will be but working closely with a couple of Brits an American and Canadian guy who have made the move to Aus in recent years should be able to get an idea of their joys of living here tempered with the pitfalls when dealing with local authorities also if she gets the job and makes the move could pm you my contact numbers to use if ever she needs help noting I live about 35 minutes by car (less by VFR) due South of Randwick.

As I'm a shift worker it may take a week to catch up to them so in the meantime wish her good luck with the job and she might like to visit belows links:

Tourism site:
New South Wales and Sydney Holidays, Visit NSW

General Government Site:
About Australia - australia.gov.au

Government site about working in Australia:
Compliance - Securing Australia's Borders

[GreyVF750F]

Thanks guys for the info. I'll pass it on to her. John if she does decide to move I'll take you up on you offer. Thanks again all.