Calling all Australians/New Zealanders

[ArchCenturion]

I live in Southern California, US and am nearing the end of my Educational Program at UCI.

I will soon have a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and would like to move out and live in australia with a couple of my friends one of wich is an Electrical Engineer (Master), the other does not yet have a degree.

Me and a couple friends are interested in moving to the Land down Under for a few years. I have never been to Australia/New Zealand, and would like to know

My questions are

What does anybody know if there are many jobs avaliable to Engineers.
Where these jobs would most likely be located.

Cost of living
ie How much does a gallon of Milk cost
How much does a gallon of gas approximately cost
whats the average cost of a midsized home or condo
how much is car insurance on a 2003 ford explorer approx

If you respond, please mention which region you are from and the city name ie coastal, desert etc.

Thanks

 

[MisterJackson]

Dug's your man...errrrr (wo)man

 

[jmcoreymv]

You planning to ship your explorer over? That's gotta be decently expensive.

 

[compnovice]

Somehow I aways think of the Crocodile Hunter and Kangroo's whenever I hear Australia....

 

[ArchCenturion]

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv
You planning to ship your explorer over? That's gotta be decently expensive.

Naw, i would probably just buy another one when i got there.

 

[jmcoreymv]

Originally posted by: ArchCenturion

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv
You planning to ship your explorer over? That's gotta be decently expensive.

Naw, i would probably just buy another one when i got there.

Damn you must be loaded.

 

[ArchCenturion]

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv

Originally posted by: ArchCenturion

Originally posted by: jmcoreymv
You planning to ship your explorer over? That's gotta be decently expensive.

Naw, i would probably just buy another one when i got there.

Damn you must be loaded.

Or we could just share a car, if we got jobs at the same Co. only casey would have to buy his own probably if he ends up with another crappy job.

 

[ArchCenturion]

Originally posted by: compnovice
Somehow I aways think of the Crocodile Hunter and Kangroo's whenever I hear Australia....

Thank you for the incredibly useful information, your response has been enormously helpful :thumbsup: :beer:

 

[jmcoreymv]

^

 

[EagleKeeper]

dug777, Stumps and two others (one Aussie & Kiwi) seem to post upside down from that area.

The other Aussie may be FrancesBeansRevenge (based on profile)

Contact them

 

[dotcom173]

Or we could just share a car, if we got jobs at the same Co. only casey would have to buy his own probably if he ends up with another crappy job.

are you all moving to australia? are you going to take me?

 

[Stumps]

Ummm your best for for work would be Sydney or Melbourne, they are the largest cities and most work is on the east coast of Australia and there is currently a massive shortage of skilled workers in those cities.

cost of living wise well I give you the average NSW prices for the following

2 litres of milk(average milk carton size) AU$3.00

Fuel is AU$1.35 to $1.55 per litre for regular Unleaded (91 octane), AU$1.45 to $1.60 per litre for PULP (95 - 98 octane), AU$1.45 to AU$1.70 per litre for Desiel (lower prices are city prices, higher are rural prices).

An Average 3 bedroom home in Sydney can set you back anywhere from AU$250 to AU$500 per week depending on what suburb you live in.

you won't be able to drive your car in the east coast states unless it has had the steering wheel swapped to the right hand side,plus full compliance with Australian design laws, most US cars pass this once the steering is converted...left hand side steering is prohibited...not sure about the west coast but probably the same.

I'm from the mid southwest NSW, but I work in Sydney for most of the year.

 

[noluckjim]

First, get used to metric

Second, there should be a fair amount of jobs in Aus especially for engineers. Can't quite say the same for NZ though, might be why a fair number of kiwis leave to work in Australia.

 

[Finality]

I used to live in NZ, in fact I carry an NZ passport now however the job opportunities in NZ suck badly, they have a severe brain drain program people get better paid jobs in Aussie and the cost of living is about the same plus it has a lower tax rate.

Besides that NZ is dead boring............ Go to aussie most of my friends from NZ have moved somewhere in Aus.

 

[PizzaDude]

I took an economics of Australia course when I studied abroad in Australia last January so I am familiar with some of these issues:

Engineers/Business/Finance people won't have any trouble finding a job, at least in Sydney or Melbourne. (Sydney is AWESOME, I highly recommend it.)

Housing is very expensive. expect to pay 350-500k for a house if you plan on buying one. I'm not familiar with rental rates, but I'm sure it's bad, too.

The general cost of living in Australia is expensive. When I was there, $1 American = $1.25 Australian, and it was still expensive. You can easily spend $20 on a very simple lunch(Burger, fries, pop) that would cost $10-12 here.

This is obviously from a tourist's perspective, but I hope it helps anyway.