a few questions about australia

Here are a couple of websites that may be of interest;

http://www.portaloceania.com

http://www.realestate.com.au

Have you thought about doing agency work as well? All the Canadian RNs I know get a one year working visa and travel to different places with a Nursing Agency like WANA or Mediserve.

Can be quite expensive- and difficult- to get rental accomodation in Sydney. Some hospitals do have staff accomodation (although they are becoming few and far between).

That www.realestate.com.au website is good. Click rental, and type in sydney (also select surrounding suburbs) for an idea of what you'd be looking at. Can do the same for Perth I believe, I'm sure it is a national website.

good luck!

parko

The Royal Brisbane Hospital is the largest in the southern hemisphere. Brisbane is in the state of Queensland and is the cheapest of all capitol cities I believe and the weather is the best of them all.

You will be close to major tourist attractions, including the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. Lots of young people and nursing agencies.

Oxley nursing and Queenstate nursing agency were two that I used to work for.

Airfares to Sydney are cheap from Brisbane should you want to jump on a plane for the weekend to sightsee, it's a 45min flight.

Perth is on the other side of Australia and a long way away from everywhere so if you go there to work you may find your options restricted to just Perth. Hope this helps.

Jo

I think Adelaide, South Australia, is cheap to live in as well. Maybe South Ozzie nurses could chip in here

/Worked/lived in South Australia for 2.5 years in the 90's. Loved the city (Adelaide) and the country. Loved the people. Hated having to go back home to cold Scotland.

Found the cost of living very cheap in Aussie compared to the UK.

Found a lifetime love of all things Australian especially the wine.

If you do go over there you will love it.

Have worked for HealthStaff Recruitment and they can tell really help you make your decision. What I found was that all I had to do is tell them in what area I wanted to work and they would suggest possibilities.

I am so happy to have gone through this agency that I can recommend it to anyone.

Airfares to Sydney are cheap from Brisbane should you want to jump on a plane for the weekend to sightsee, it's a 45min flight.

Perth is on the other side of Australia and a long way away from everywhere so if you go there to work you may find your options restricted to just Perth. Hope this helps.

Jo

Well my rent at the moment is $280 per week for a two bedroom unit and i'm a $10 cab ride from the middle of the city.

You can also get cheap flights to melbourne and adelaide from brisbane too. As a Victorian now living in Brissie it's a really great place to live. The weather is faaaaaaaaaantastic, and the atmosphere is very relaxed, especially compared to sydney.

I'm a fan of Perth too, however the distance can prove to be a challenge. My advice? Come over and base yourself somewhere over here on the east coast. Get hooked up with one of the national agencies and you'll be knocking back the work - AND you'll be able to travel around everywhere!

GOOD LUCK!

Jayceee,

I'm in a similar boat as you. I've done quite a bit of research and am contemplating when I want to go to Australia. I'm from Ontario, currently working in the NWT. This forum is great and answered many of my inquiries.

A few things I want to share. I've been to Australia last year for a month and I fell in love with the country. I visited Brisbane. I personally feel as a nurse, it's more about lifestyle if you decide to go and work. Nurses do not earn as much as they should. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but starting wage is around 23/hr? I forget.. but there pay scale is also quite different from Canada and lower.

The cost of living is kind of high in comparison to Canada. Rent is kind of costly. I've seen anywhere from 250-400/week for rent for a nice one bedroom. Food is also quite more. I found several websites comparing the prices, but essentially stuff is 'almost' doubled the price.

It takes about 8 months (from what i've read) to obtain a temporary working visa.

I have yet to find a reputable agency, but several individuals from this thread seem to have suggested good ones. I've heard excellent things about the Royal Brisbane. I believe their shifts are only 8, compared to our standard 12's.

I hope that helped some.. maybe i'll bump into you one time

I have yet to find a reputable agency, but several individuals from this thread seem to have suggested good ones. I've heard excellent things about the Royal Brisbane. I believe their shifts are only 8, compared to our standard 12's.

Most standard shifts at hospitals in Australia are 8 hours. All of the shifts on my ward are. Other wards do have 10 hour night shifts and some do standard 12 hour shifts, however every ward and hospital are different.

What can I say such a big country so many great locations. I have been all over Australia and have worked in quiet a lot of locations from the country to the city in hospitals nursing posts and mine sites. If I was going to make a choice about what location and had limmited time. I would consider Perth, Darwin and or Melbourne. I would rule sydney out as it is too expensive and congested and the public transport system is a bit doggy. Melbourne, was voted as the second most popular city to live in, interestingly Toronto got first and Perth got thrid place. Melbourne, again is a big city lots of night life, cafe restuarants, shopping, museums, art gallaries etc etc, but the weather is lousy. So that leaves us to Perth and Darwin out my choices. Perth has fantastic beaches, good night life and cafes, Perth is a beautiful city on the Swan river, easy to get around, good public transport, and nurses get paid more in W.A then in Victoria! Darwin may be really worth considering, it is a very laid back city, and you just may get a better taste of Australia, certainly you will have a higher percentage of Aboriginal patients to look after, tourism is brilliant lots of great opportunities to go out to places like Kakadu national park etc. Back packers haven, lots of young people. There are plently of nursing agencies that all pay different rates and have various benefits so check out a few and have a fantastic time, once you make it over. You should find Australians very friendly and laid back. Have agreat time, and you never never know,:welcome: if you nver never go .

Cheers

Andrew

i think sydney is the most similar to vancouver. and then melbourne. perth, darwin, adelaide are very laid back and not as congested as sydney and melbourne. congestion in brisbane is in between the rate of sydney and perth... but every city in Oz is BEAUTIFUL. every part of this continent is stunning. the rural areas are untouched and really amazing. the people are down-to-earth, friendly, helpful and warm. australians are just great! the cultures in sydney and melbourne would probably be similar to vancouver, with huge chinatowns. brisbane is starting to turn into sydney/melbourne. perth also has big chinatowns but the pace is much slower than sydney/melbourne/brisbane.

hobart is spectacular but its more countryside style. darwin and adelaide are pretty relaxed as well. adelaide has great restaurants and never-ending vineyards! cairns is really pretty too, and there are a lot of tourists/young people there. you get access to all the sunny islands around the region from cairns. i think there are hundreds of islands around...

party central can be found in sydney, melbourne, gold coast and adelaide. brisbane has smaller clubs. i guess young people would congregate at party central districts. so if you want to meet them, you'll probably go to sydney/melbourne/gold coast. the costs of living in these 3 are similar, depending on how far off the city you live in. rent's pretty steep from AU$270 per week to AU$650 per week for city centre 1 or 2 bedroom places.

every city is unique and every region makes you want to stay longer!

Ahem. Our weather is not lousy, thank you very much. Okay, I grant you, it's a little fickle but you don't need to wait long for it to change And I myself prefer variety to the unchangingness of Brissy (hot and wet, hot and dry) or the bland mildness of Sydney weather.

The best place really depends on what you want your home city to be - a springboard to explore the country (Sydney has more flights to more destinations than any other city), a fun place with cultural festivals, a slower pace and relatively low cost of living (Adelaide), variety in close proximity (Victoria's the smallest mainland state, no more than an hours drive from surf beaches, mountain country, or spectacular coastal roads, the Spring Racing Carnival, Grand Prix, International Comedy Festival...) etc.

Keep in mind that terms and conditions vary from state to state - Victoria, for example, is the only place with nurse/patient ratios. At least for the rest of the week...