I've come to the conclusion...

Its the twelve hour shifts that get me. I know I feel I've had it after a 10 and a half hour night duty! I don't think I could work a late after a night shift. We work lates before nights, but that is like having a full day off!

12 hour shifts are wonderful. You work almost exclusively for 3 days straight and have no life, but the pay off is the 4, sometimes even 5 or 6 days off in a row. You can travel or have a mini holiday without using all your annual leave. 5

If you have little ones it doesn't work as well, especially if you don't have good day care.

So there are 12 hour shifts in Australia? I must admit, working 3 - 4 days a week is rather tempting...

You sure can! I work ten hour nights but can't do the days. We have ten hour morning and afternoon shifts as well as the eights and it's up to us if we want to work them. The problem is that we are so short staffed that you don't end up having the time off.