UK RN with Diploma-would I be EN/RN in Australia?

Lisa if ur an RN over there and u have so many years of experience, I don't see why you couldn't work as a RN over here. HOWEVER having said that, if you don't have enough experience, they may get u to do a bridging year or something like that, as RNs only have degrees over here, or were hospital trained. Only ENs/EENs have diplomas through our TAFE system, or some go through the public hospital system for training.
Contact www.ahpra.gov.au/ (the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, where doctors, nurses, dentists, etc) are all registered.
Have u got work lined up? Your sponsor can help u with AHPRA as well.
If u only start off as a EN, you can always do your degree later externally at some of the universities. Try: www.unisa.edu.au and www.cdu.edu.au for external nursing courses, that way you can still work and study too.
What state r u moving to?
Caz

I'm guessing you trained in a 3 year university program in the UK and registered with the NMC as a first level nurse? If yes then you'll be an RN NOT EN. Simple.

AHPRA registers nurses from the UK that have only done disability nursing as general RN and there is no such nurse over here, with the priviso that they will only work in disability which is practically impossible as there are not any nurses in strictly disability areas, so if you have any nursing registration with Uk nurses board, you get registration as an RN with the hope that you only work in the area that you were educated in.
Pity it is not recipricated.

Thanks Ceridwyn that is what I meant. It depends on where you have worked, but I reckon with 8 years the OP will be OK, BUT I have known in some instances where people have to do a bridging year, just to get up to speed in general nursing, even with some years of experience.
Oldbean, the OP only qualified with a diploma - I don't know if that is the name for a degree over here?

Lisa,

I'd say you'd be grand. The UK DipHE is broadly accepted.

Carol,

In the UK training at present is either Dip or Degree both last 3 years, both have 50-50 split theory and practical and both register as RN's on completion.

The only way to know for sure is to apply to the nursing council and see, My friend has recently made the move, he is a UK trained RMN with an old school hospital training cert.

OB

I imagine that, like the psych qualification we used to have here, the disability-specialty-restricted nurses mentioned earlier had a heavy educational focus on disability and therefore insufficient general education to qualify for Australian general registration.

Your post-registration experience may have been all surgical but your education wasn't confined to surgery and you'll be fine for general registration. Welome (in anticipation) to AUs - good luck