General > General Technical Chat

Moving to Sydney soon! & asking for advice

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^_^:

--- Quote from: TerraHertz on August 06, 2017, 06:45:46 am ---[...] you mentioned wanting to see the night sky from the outback. (Which is indeed wonderful.) Does this mean you like wilderness, or are an amateur astronomer?

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Wilderness is TBE (to be experienced) ;D
GoPro amateur only ATM.
Wish I had a tele-scope. I could only afford half of it so far (a scope...).


--- Quote from: TerraHertz on August 06, 2017, 06:45:46 am ---Anyway, another good thing about Sydney is the wide variety of beautiful landscapes within easy [...]

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That's super-cool.


--- Quote from: TerraHertz on August 06, 2017, 06:45:46 am ---I do a few trips out each year. Once you are here and settled in, if you want to see some sights out of Sydney let me know.

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Sure, I'm down.
Will write later in this topic about my progress as well.


--- Quote from: TerraHertz on August 06, 2017, 06:45:46 am ---Hey, person whose name is a face

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Cheers,
Face


--- Quote from: Halcyon, cdev ---
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I'm watching the series, it's really funny and practical as well!
Now I know how to save $$$ on food!


--- Quote from: Brumby ---
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I hope the map took Earth's curvature into the account :)
Impressive nevertheless.


--- Quote from: GK on August 06, 2017, 07:33:04 am ---[...] If you walked into a pub dressed like Crocodile Dundee you'd be the biggest tool ever. [...]

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That could potentially work; it's called peacocking ;)


--- Quote from: NANDBlog on August 06, 2017, 07:59:00 am ---[...] Expect to spend a LOT of money in the first months. When moving here, I was spending more money in the first 3 months, than now in a year. Well, not exactly, but close. [...]

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Why was that?
I can only imagine spending extra money on stuff like moving (taxi/uber), house accessories (if they're not provided!), going far for job inverview/hunt etc.
Everything else should be periodic. That's my experience at least when I've moved (car distance though).


--- Quote from: NANDBlog on August 06, 2017, 07:59:00 am ---Dont take books, seriously, use the weight for something useful.

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Good thing about Kindle; it weights the same no matter how much you put in ;)

But really, hmm, I've got just 3 only-electronics books I was considering.
I will take your advice into the account and place them at the end of packing-queue.


--- Quote from: NANDBlog on August 06, 2017, 07:59:00 am ---[...] I had a job here waiting for me.

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Lucky!


--- Quote from: NANDBlog on August 06, 2017, 07:59:00 am ---Also, it will get lonely and hard sometimes. You need a thick skin, and keep pushing, no matter what.

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Got it!
Thank you.

tszaboo:
Lot of money: Well, I lived in a (cheap and rubbish, but still expensive) hotel for 1.5 months until I could find an appropriate housing. After, I had to place down 4 months of rent,  3 for the insurance, 1 as the first month. I had to buy a bunch of furniture. Only the student housings come with it. You also dont have kitchen stuff, you have to go out eating.

It also felt a lot, because the cost of living here is about twice as much as I was living before.

After moving with a plane, everything you have is in your bags. Suprising amount of money can be spent on simple items like duvet cover, kitchen knife, lamps, candy and beer, laundromat. Also, if you need something, you will need it fast. Usually you have the time and means to search for a good deal. For example, after a misunderstanding, I had to go out and buy a 140x200 mattress, otherwise I would have slept on the ground that night. I had about 1-2 hour to do it, and no car. I had to go to the local furniture shop, where they told me that they can deliver in two days, or I can go ahead and take it. All this for 350 EUR, the bottom shelf foam mattress. If I could go to IKEA, I would have gotten a much nicer one for half the price. And I had to "drag" the thing a kilometer with the help of a friend. You get the first phone subscription you can get, the bank account, which has an open office the closest, the car rental, which accepts your weird foreign debit card. mod:

That reminds me, if you can, get a credit card still at home, not to use the actual credit limit, but it has a better acceptance than debit cards. And look up, what is used there. Nothing is worse, than trying to pay with a Mastercard, while most of the shops only accepting Maestro, or Visa or something else. Get the right one while home.

There are just no time to look for a good deal, or walk away from a bad one, because you need the things.

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: ^_^ on August 03, 2017, 09:33:49 am ---
Actually, that'd gonna be one of the first things I do.
I was advised to bring money in cash and first working day go to the bank and load it all up on the account.


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Be very careful with this, as there is a limit on how much money in cash can be brought into Australia.
This applies to cash in any currency.
It's all to do with trying to stop money laundering.

The limit is reasonably generous, but find out what it is, & abide strictly to the rules, otherwise it may be confiscated, & you might also be fined.
Australia doesn't have many of the plant & stock diseases which occur in other countries, so you should also read up on quarantine, re foodstuffs, rawhide leather, etc.

The little card they give you on the plane is not for fun, it's a legal document.


Rerouter:
So far across aus, anywhere that takes a credit card will take a debit card for general purchases, however if your suss on a store, use the RFID option as it acts as a credit purchase (with surcharge to the store) which gives you protection against fraud.

There are a few outliers, e.g. around popular areas you may find coffee stores that only accept cash,

If your withdrawing money from an ATM, and its not branded with your bank, there will be an extra charge, this is where having a local account can make things easier.

For almost all of center, west and south Sydney, If your budget is small, get a cheap mountain bike with a item rack on the back. you can get them for under $200, and it will let you get yourself established much easier if you cannot afford a car straight up (expect about $900 a year for registration, insurance, etc, on a car) There are bicycle tracks all over the place, it may take you longer to get from A-B, but you can haul 30-50 kg on the item rack, which allows for things like groceries and small items of furniture

Buy anything you can at a supermarket rather than eating out if you dont yet have a job, the war between supermarkets means you can feed yourself for less than $10 a day with some variety, but it involves buying in bulk some items. which means surrendering some room for it.

For white goods like fridges, a washing machine, etc, look on gumtree, in some cases you can get them for under $10 a piece second hand, just leaving you to sort out the logistics of getting it back to your place. If you plan to get most of your furniture this way, and can find it in under 5km radius (without a car), go to a hardware store like bunnings and buy a tilt trolley, in my youth i moved a surprising amount of furniture between houses 7km away on one of them. in the end it meant i could furninsh an entire apartment for under $1200. just having to buy new mattress protectors, pillows. and things you dont want to reuse. (If you add up how much washing clothes in a laundramat costs you over 6 months vs what some detergent and a gumtree washer costs, you can save some moeny that way)

When you first arrive, you will be likley having to search online for a lot of things, many stores around sydney will have free wifi, avoid the fast food chains as they speed cap them to almost unuable levels, instead look for non chain coffee stores and the like, where it will be fast, unfiltered and generally have no usage caps.

Australia has free to use public bathrooms, after traveling to other parts of the world i felt i should point it out. applications like "Open Street Maps" will even point  them out to you, at the same time most fast food chains will have a toilet. the culture here frowns slightly on using them without buying something in store, but its not openly opposed if you find yourself in need.

If you enjoy alcohol, its not cheap here. your best bet would be looking at the liquor stores, and finding a price your willing to bear. I personally don't drink due to how much it would cost me per year. If your going out with people to drink, plan ahead, the furthur you are from city center, the cheaper they get.

Our train network is quite reliable, buses not so much, if your going to be using public transport, get an opal card at a newsagent, for trains, plan a 3 minute lead (sometimes a little early), for buses, the margin gets a lot wider towards the high traffice times of the day (7:30 - 8:40 am - 4:20 - 6pm)

Brumby:

--- Quote from: vk6zgo on August 12, 2017, 03:01:39 am ---
--- Quote from: ^_^ on August 03, 2017, 09:33:49 am ---
Actually, that'd gonna be one of the first things I do.
I was advised to bring money in cash and first working day go to the bank and load it all up on the account.


--- End quote ---

Be very careful with this, as there is a limit on how much money in cash can be brought into Australia.

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NO THERE IS NOT!!

You can bring as much as you like - but if the total value is $10,000 Australian Dollars or more,  YOU MUST DECLARE IT!  Expect the Customs officials to ask you about it - and, I would suggest, to have the means to explain and demonstrate you are NOT engaged in money laundering.

This is the big mistake that people make - is that they think there is a limit and DON'T declare anything.

Bad move.


Same with food, plant material and anything else on the passenger card - JUST BE HONEST and you won't get into trouble.  You might have some things confiscated if they are not allowed in, but just make sure you aren't seen to be trying to sneak something past them.

Edit: Cash limit is $AUD10,000 or more, not in excess of $10,000

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