Where to stay when Immigrating to Sydney

Hi,

well almost everyone immigrating to Australia needs a place to stay for a short period or short stay. It leads on from this to say that almost everyone would then be looking for cheap or reasonable accommodation rental prices. I don't want to put anyone off, but Sydney is a huge tourist destination. They actually have a shortage of long term rentals! - so you may as well just resign yourself to it being pricey! It will save you time in the end.

Sydney Hotels

There are various hotels in Sydney and Greater Sydney, which normally cost a minimum of 700 - 1500 a week! ouch). The Greater Sydney area has numerous Hotels and resorts but they are all pricey. Don't even waste your time scouring for something cheap hotel wise - it aint gonna happen!

There are a few backpacker hotels, but these involve dodgy characters, room sharing, bathroom sharing and kitchen sharing... hmm only for the young and hardy?

Furnished Short term apartment or flats

There are a few companies that manage blocks of flats with serviced apartments, but these are usually well booked in advance. A two or three bedroom flat that is furnished will set you back from about $750.00 to $1300.00 per week. Believe me, I looked! These are normally situated near the larger cities and suburbs in the Greater Sydney area. These are good for people who are on a look see and need easy access to transport etc.
Sydney short term Accommodation.

You can find short term Sydney accommodation such as rooms to rent, flat shares etc. if you know where to look.

Gumtree Australia has a lot of people advertising for room-mates. This will set you back from $150 to 400 a week which is more reasonable than the hotels. Please watch out for con artists though.

There are various websites dedicated to shared accommodation etc in Sydney and Australia. They are useful, but they are watched continuously by scam artists, who try to get scan of your passports, your address details and so on. You will even get a whole montage apartment in pictures sent to you. These people must be dummies as they advertise flats with pool rooms combined with 2 metre square images. I once even googled the image names and found some of the "advertised" rooms and lounges on google images where they had copied them from.... You have been WARNED!

Cheaper accommodation - Further out from Sydney - makes it slightly cheaper.

If you need a cheaper long term rental you can try renting in a rough neighbourhood or you can stay about one to two hours travel out of Sydney. This does reduce the costs, but you are effected by travel limitations. If you are planning on exploring Sydney or its suburbs and you are one hour South, it will logically take you an hour before you even hit North Sydney in order to explore. I am talking Car travel here.

Sydney is the largest City in Australia and it will tale anyone immigrating to Sydney at least six months to a year to partially figure out where everything is.

In terms of driving Sydney is one hour north and South, and at least 2 hours West. Its huge!

Don't get me wrong its definitely not all CBD as Sydney is quite small with some satellite CBD's like Parramatta. The Suburbs just seem to be endless.

You might want to look at a few of my earlier posts about Scotland Island, Sydney which is cheaper, but has some cons in terms of easy access.
Alternatives.

Try house sitting - I have seen a number of adverts for house sitters,

Join a few immigrating to Australia forums and advertise the fact you are looking for somewhere to stay - you might find a family who are going home on holiday from Australia who need someone to look after their house or flat and maybe make some cash at the same time.

Good luck on finding your cheap accommodation in Sydney Folks. Or, if you have accommodation to list, let me know - I'll put it up here :)

Later you'all


Hi,  Immigrating to Australia?, why not use our community forum - all about living, working, playing, moving and studying in Australia.



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There is a shortage of senior java programmers in Sydney

Well, thought I would comment on the state of the IT market in in Sydney, and in particular the Java programming market.

My Large Bank has about 20 -30 open positions - no candidates. I am currently looking for a Senior Java developer with Direct Market Access and or FIX Protocol experience. Hmm no luck.

We have put the brief out to five agencies, dumbed down the spec to just Senior Java developer and have only received ONE CV in two weeks.

The global recession seems to have passed java developer by....

We are now searching globally for people----and can organize a visa for the right people.

Apparently there is only a small core of senior java developers in Banking in Sydney, with an even smaller core of people that know the FIX protocol (something like less than 20).

Man, if I had know this a year ago.

If your looking... contact me - serious contenders only, bright sparks. I work in a high class Bank capiche?

Later people.


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Getting a cell or mobile phone in Sydney - my experiences

Vodafone

First off, on arrival at the airport I purchased a Sim plus airtime pack in the airport lobby from some reseller.

It did not work - $33.00 gone. Was informed by Vodafone that this happens and it would be easier to buy a new one - "only $2.00" she said. Well, $10 later plus airtime purchase, plus half an hour of form filling I had a prepaid from a Vodafone shop. Meh - not really impressed so far.

But, I now can't buy prepaid time online as my credit card is already registered to the other one. "phone 1555" they helpfully put on the website where you get one irritating virtual person called "Lara", who tries to ask you questions and after 5-10 minute of to-ing and fro-ing puts you through to an operator, which then informs you of office hours (of course as all hardworking, busy people want to faff on the phone (with dumb Lara) during work hours right?... WRONG!)

I had prepaid data with usb modem from them too, same hassles - cant recharge online, their vodafone websites does not really work and on the northern line only about 50% of the line has coverage from Gordon to Sydney - quite slow too.

Crazy Johns - really really suck!

Where do I start? Totally unhappy with them. Bought a 24 month contract with them as it was a phone plus modem package (for my laptop). Well they assured me it was through vodafone anyway and the modem speeds would be the same. Guess what? Its not. Less coverage, slower and very bad software surrounding it. It always took twice as long as the Vodafone software to get me online. meh. Looks like old windows 95 type software too!

Ok so I have a 24 month contract right? I also have a vodafone prepaid. So I phone vodafone to get he prepaid number onto the Crazy John contract as its the number everyone knows.. they say - "no problem" - phone Crazy Johns (but wait,  they are both vodafone - oh well no problem). I'll phone Crazy.. (oh yeah forgot to mention the Lara and the Crazy automated hell before the operator finally).

Ok I explain to the operator what I want, who then says "um we cant do this - you could do it when you started but not now". Well I want to know what the difference is - "policy" is the reply. Hmm not happy - you have lost a customer.

I then get the following helpful options. "You can get another prepaid with us, sir, it wont be the same number though?" ..... "Huh, I already have one lady...... gnnnn"

ok,

"What about buying another contract" she says, "then we can use your old number"... wtf pay another 24 months on top of that? "I'm just helping you sir" -------- gnnnn "click"

Crazy Johns - you have lost a customer. Your policies are stupid and your customer support is not too bright.

Oh also, Crazy Johns website offers credit credit cards payment - also does not work online - also a phone run a round until you get told to phone Mon - Friday during office hours. MEH this feels like 10 year old service. The long and short - I have to phone them to pay via credit card.

Anyway sorry about the rant everyone..
be warned.


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Reporting in from somewhere near the South Pole well, actually Sydney, Australia.

Its cold here in Sydney, very cold(its winter). Australia is not cold enough for indoor heating in the houses so you just buy heaters to warm the house and basically freeze your ass off. Be careful of renting large multi-level wooden houses with lots of glass...They are COLD in winter and frikkin sauna's in summer. You may as well go outside and put the heater on...

My immune system is down and its a dog to get up in the morning as its nippy. hmm.. Pity the puppy! Sleeping in the washroom. Must have been quite a shock for it to learn to sleep away from its warm clan. But hey, where-else do you put the little poopers?

No-one told me when I moved to Sydney that it would be so cold here. I guess, like most outsiders, we see Australia as warm and toasty.

Well its not really cold to nature I guess, we are in July and there are trees with flowers(heavens knows why - its freezing). We found a lemon tree in our garden, with ONE massive lemon. One, whats up with that?

The birds are back - especially the Kookaburra's and also the parrots. Can't imagine why I used to moan at the whining puppy. The parrots are worse than cocks(the chicken species). On the plus side the puppy is only whining from 6:15 in the morning...

The winter rain has brought in a rasher of car accidents - note too self, never, ever, live in a house that is on the outside bend at the bottom of a long hill. Seriously, about 25 accidents in 6 months and all when it rains. All slipping off the road and losing wheels, axels, hubcaps, licence points and money. Geez people, its says SIXTY, "danger", "slippery when wet", what more do you want. I am really tired of cleaning the grass and dirt off of my driveway every time. And my neigbour is quite tired of having cars removed from his front lawn!

I also believe Australia is way behind South Africa on enforcing cell phones in car rules. I have seen so many people careering along talking openly on their mobiles... Quite a surprize as Australia is so strict on its speed limits.

Did I mention its cold? - and dark by 5:30! oh well summer will come one day but as they say in South Africa - I am now "gatvol" of winter (had enough)

later peeps


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Our journey to Australia

I was asked in a recent comment about my journey to Australia and decided to raise it to a proper blog post.

Hi,

we left South africa Originally to go the USA as we felt it had a lot of racism (as we are a mixed couple). Also we felt we had a better future in country with less internal problems etc. We came back from the USA as we were taken over on a visa which only allowed us to work at one company for three years and the salary was quite low - so we struggled and on top of that we missed home very much. it was the first time we left South Africa and it was the hardest. When we got back to South Africa we were there for three years and the old problems cropped up. The south African economy was crashing a bit due to various factors. The interest rates went up to about 19% at one stage and I watched the price of things in the shops double in about 2 Months. - My mortgage more than doubled in about 3 4 months. This and various other factors made us look to find a better future elsewhere. The only place I could go was the UK. We spent 5 years there and it was a shock to us as the UK was definitely very strange in many ways. The culture, the cold weather, the lack of warmth and sunlight. We were then able to get a australian visa which came through at about the time of the global credit crunch and as I was a contractor and on a visa which gives no support I had to find work elsewhere. Believe me I tried hard to get work in the UK, but at the time the market was flooded with several thousand out of work computer professionals. It was like a door closed and a door opened in Australia. This is a greatly simplified version but really we could and we did.


hope this helps a bit?

I think australia has less help for its citizens than the UK on the whole. ATM the UK feels like home. Australia is too expensive for me. If you are both working, willing to live cheap then you will make it in Australia. The UK is in a recession atm, Australia is not. I cant comment on New Zealand apart from the fact I like the the few New Zealanders I have met so far.

I have met people here from Europe who work as drivers etc and they complain bitterly and in fact relate the same stories as every where else - if you are a labourer your life sucks :)


Anyway hope that helps?

If you  go somewhere it will take 5 years minimum for it to become home.

Or go somewhere really light -take little get a job and have the mindseet that you are trying it out - so you can go home with feeling like your trip has failed. moving coutnry is ok for some, others its not.

Thanks for reading! - please leave a comment on your experience too - let me know about your life here plz

My most commented post on the blog is here - Why do immigrants leave Australia?




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Cheap medical costs in Australia - what a nice surprise for a change

Well my son did something to his foot and ended up limping around for weeks.

We took him to a foot specialist on a Saturday(take note UK), expecting to pay through the roof. He only charged us $20 over the medicare limit. Sent us for x-rays (the place was modern and in line with private hospitals), which were charged on the medicare rate.(so free).

Holy crap, all I needed to pay was 20 dollars for the whole morning!

Where I come from you pay for everything as there is not government medical aid so its quite a nice surprise.

later peeps


How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney

Australian medicare - easy easy

Hi all,


Well, we finally got listed on medicare. We found it really easy. Just go to your nearest medicare office with your forms filled in. (damn dog keeps licking my fingers,how am I supposed to type?)

Anyway, make sure you bring the proofs of address and identity and so on with you, your valid passports (you cant do them with expired passports).

You also need to bring everyone with you (ie your spouse and kids if you have them).

Its quick and its free. I was shocked because everytime I go anywher near anything in Australia it costs money..

The cards came in the post a week later and sorted.

Now to find all those old doctors bills for claiming. Wohoo money back!!!

later peeps

How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney

Bonus letter day

Not sure if this is a Sydney thing but there seems to be a big excitment and festivity around bonus time where I work.  Along with bonus's come promotions and everyone is congratulating each other. I guess this only happens in large institutions like banks.

I think its called "letter lunch" or "letter dinner" or "letter day"

All of sudden there were lunches, gatherings, drinks, restaurant bookings and so on.

Seems quite nice, I never saw this is the UK or South Africa.

How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney

Sydney, Australia, What the hell are FlyBuys or Fly Buys

Ok,

I finally got sick of people asking me for FlyBuys every time I go shopping, its "FlyBuys sir?". So I looked it up. Google'd it ne'.

In Australia they have a long running loyalty awards program where you currently get 1 or 2 points for every $5, five dollers you spend. And when you have spent about $2500 you are eligible for some rewards. Ok thats the minimum award...

There are a couple of Australian banks and chain stores in this so purchases on credit cards and shopping get you these points.

There are apparently over 10 million people using FlyBuys and its card. Similiar to the tescos card, etc.

There are all types of rewards (over a thousand) apparently such as flights, accommodation, credit card payments, merchandise- you get it I think. Points are only valid for three years. 

Some major shops participate on this - eg Coles, Kmart, Target, Bi-Lo and some others.

So there you have it, just another loyalty scheme..

later peeps


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Sydney outing - Aquarium - very nice.

Hi All,

well we went to the Sydney aquarium. Cost me $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids. I enjoyed it as it was not too busy and the Sydney waterfront was very mellow for a change(and this on a Saturday Afternoon). It must be because Winter is almost here. Took us about an hour and a half to go through everything and it covers sharks, doguns, coral reef and the various river regions in Australia.

I liked it, it was quite a bit bigger than the Cape Town one and there are some nice underwater walkways.

Its in Darling Harbour and can be reached by all the usual transports - car, bus, train, ferry etc. We took the car and parked in a parking garage in Sydney for a $10 flat rate. You just walk to the waterfront which is 2 blocks.

Watch out for the gift shop you go through when you leave, My wife and two eleven year old girls were oohing and aahing and there was a another til-kaching on the way out :)

But good fun, with some restaurants on the waterfront or just double scoop ice-creams all round etc.

Regards
Byron

How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney

Australia at 8 months and counting

Well, we have been here in Sydney since June 2009. What a roller coaster it has been. We almost left to go back to the UK. I resigned twice from my work and left them for a two week period before we settled down again. Hats off to my management for their patience and they have really earned my loyalty. 120% effort from now on.

From my first day in Sydney its been a ride, I have stayed own my own in shared accommodation for a month in Baulkham Hills, On Scotland Island for a month, enduring the long bus ride, the ferries and uphill trudges(It's a paradise though). And now we have been in St Ives for seven months. We are coming up for our first Winter. Yup, Autumn is here and I have desperately been swimming in the pool before it gets too cold. I will probably stop when I get the flu like in Cape Town.

The kids are settling, one is at TAFE, the other at school and boy it took long for the teens to settle and get happy. Now for grind of pushing on.

We have a puppy now, so thats pretty permanent. A cute little girl mini Daschund called Lulu, she is very intelligent and actually is allowing us to train her at eight weeks.

We have explored suburbs like Rouse Hill and beaches like Bongin Bay and seen Tiger sharks at Manly Beach.

My blog has jumped from page rank of 0/10 to 3/10 which is totally awesome. Three out of ten is a pretty good for a little blog, but I just wish people would click on the sponsored links a bit more. Ah well, one day!!

I have also passed 6500 page hits on my site which is quite good so its ticking over nicely! Not bad for four months hey?  (its now at 60000)

My most commented post on the blog is here - Why do immigrants leave Australia?

Anyway thanks so far to everyone that has read this site and I vow to add to it more often as I have been quite slack.

Thanks also to those kind people who have subscribed for my posts. This is quite novel. Hopefully I can build a nice subscribed base.

And people, good luck with your visa's et al and wherever you get to, I hope it brings joy.

Oh yeah, for some reason, I am missing the UK and Bedford? And the few work colleagues I made there.

Later peeps!


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Australia, Sydney, St Ives - Leeches after the rain

Hi,

This leach is from the short grass next to our driveway! We were living in St Ives in Sydney Australia at them time.

I found this little present on my daughters leg some time back, The bulge is all her blood. Thanks goodness it attached itself to her sock and not her leg. As it is she had a traumatic experience over this. She just got out the car to get the post and it somehow got onto her leg.

See the video below.

Ok, here I bashed it and all the blood came out. But it would not die. They are not harmful and inject a slight anesthetic so you don't feel them. Nice huh?

People who have grown up in Australia seem to be used to them, I mentioned them to someone at work and he cheerfully told me of his wife who found about 20 on her leg after a walk in the local forest....

They are like little terminators, I tried hitting it with a piece of wood about 10 times but it just kept going. They are like living pieces of rubber. Apparently viniger kills them. I just bagged it and put it in the bin in the end.

Here's a blurry video of it trying to find some flesh to suck on.

Go on, please leave a comment. Later peeps.

My most commented post on the blog is here - Why do immigrants leave Australia?

Hi,  Immigrating to Australia?, why not use our community forum - all about living, working, playing, moving and studying in Australia.

How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney

Parrots in St Ives, Sydney

Ok, after being woken up at 4am for the frikken umpteenth time, I decided to show the world what the worst sounding bird in the world looks like. Seriously these guys have no whistle, they make crows sound like canaries. They flock in clumps of 3 to 15 and when they wake up all hell breaks loose.

Come to think of it they do it it at dusk when they settle in the trees around our house at night. (Little fu**ers). They are all over and will commonly be on the ground as I walk to my car from the station and are less perturbed by me than doves. I reckon their beaks can do some serious damage too.

Here is a video I took of two parents feeding their baby in the trees above where we park our car at night. The light was very bad so the colour is a little washed.

Here are some othere parrots. I have even seen a flock of budgies !?

I was warned by a lady on scotland island NOT to feed them, otherwise they hang out at your house or verandah and chew everything to bits..

How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney




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Our Puppy - our first pet in Sydney, Australia

I know this does not have much to do with immigrating to Sydney but hey, what the heck.

Well, one of the ways to create roots in a  new country is get a pet.

Without much further ado, here's Lulu our little girl pup who is a mini -daschund. This picture is of her just after we came back from fetching her all the way in Wollongong.

Here are some videos, excuse the crazy South African accent... :)

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Rouse Hill - schools

Hi,

this is a quick follow up on my excursions to Rouse Hill as we wer quite interested in it as a place to settle.

It has a bullet bus that takes 40 minutes to Sydney CBD.

There are two Rouse Hill area, the "Old" and the  "New". We were looking at the old area.
We have since found out that it has primary school and a high school. The high school is new though and is currently on years 8 and 9 - year 10 next year only. Its growing year by year.
The catchement area for the old Rouse Hill (where we wanted to be) is Riverstone and a few of the local people were negative about the school. Driving through Riverstone confirmed this as it looks very rural. So although we would love to be in Rouse hill, the high school is not too favourable for us.

The "Rouse Hill" which is on the east side of the huge shopping centre is in the catchement for Kellyville high.. but this is very new with a lot of building going on. Perhaps the right time to get in?

Kellyville high school is a better option.

We really loved Rouse Hill as it had lots of easy shops and  parking, was not hugeley built up, all the houses were new but, it really is for young families. If you have big money this is not for you...;)


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St Ives, Sydney - general tips about schools, trains and shops

Hi,

I was asked about schools, parking and trains in St Ives.

In general, you can't go to Sydney by bike or car as parking in Sydney is $60 plus a day.

Most people use the busses and trains which are safe and good and numerous.
Yes, you can park at the stations - you dont pay to park even with cars. Everyone fills up the station car park and then parks all around the station. The later you arrive, the more blocks away etc.

St Ives primary is great. Excellent Headmaster and teachers - I have a lot of time for them.

The high school is not bad and is safe. I dont think there are enough teens in St Ives so a lot of kids arrive by bus and train. LOTS of kids take trains to school.

One of the best schools in the WHOLE of Sydney is Killara High School. St Ives is just out of the catchment though.

The nearest train station in St Ives is Gordon. It has lots of parking, although it fills up quick. It is right next to a main Rd or High Street called Pacific Highway. There are numerous shops, banks, a Woolworths, a couple of food places (Curry, chicken, fish 'n chips, news agent, Thai etc)

There are other stations near by which are literally 5 minutes each way from Gordon. We shop at Coles near Lindfield station as its not busy and is the cheapest of ALL the super stores. Its not getting enough customers so its prices are always better than even other Coles stores.

The St Ives Village Mall is good, but we found it a little too expensive and also very busy but it has everything you can ask for.

Oh yeah my wife just put our new(we got him today) 7 week old Daschund girl pup on my shoulder.

Anyway hope that helps.

Oh yeah, There is an excellent barber on the Gordon main rd near the station...

Don't forget to leave some tips or experiences about St Ives or nearby in the comments section!


Hi,  Immigrating to Australia?, why not use our community forum - all about living, working, playing, moving and studying in Australia.



My most commented post on the blog is here - Why do immigrants leave Australia?


How I got my visa, Life, Lumps and spirit, Hate your new country? Your not alone! A good Furniture Rental company in Sydney,Why do immigrants leave Australia?, Sydney - Scotland island - hidden gem, Malls in Sydney, Living in St Ives, Arriving in Sydney, Driving through Sydney - first day, How expensive is Sydney

The biggest favour you can do for yourself when Immigrating - A TomTom or similiar

Hi,

For a while now I have been wanting to express my feelings about my Tom Tom GPS system. I know that to most people this is a normal piece of daily life, but for me it was slightly different. I had always looked down on them. I finally caved in about 2 years ago in the UK and bought my self the cheapest TomTom I could find.

I tell you what, genuinely, this is a stupendously under-rated piece of equipment.

I never have to check a map, I never have to squabble in the car on missed turn-offs. I never have to actually concentrate on every turn-off to see if its the one I need to take. I NEVER have to remember the way home. I can explore, and it just re-adjusts. When I came to Australia I just pre-downloaded the Australian maps and bam, it worked off the plane in Sydney.

The UK opened up to me immediately. Sydney opened up for me immediately. If I need a nearby shopping mall, garage, beach or tourist point of interest, I can just click it up.

They give speed limit, warn you when your speeding, tell you by voice about your next turn, tell you how far the next turn is, tell you how far you must go on the current road and also estimate the time of your arrival at the destination. Some even monitor traffic build up.

If you have a car you really need to get one of these.

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