As a part foreigner living in Australia and about to get belted by the 
real Australians here Id' say.....

For jobs you are really needing to look at either New South Wales 
(NSW) or Victoria (Vic), these two states tend to have the most 
electronic jobs advertised, Queensland (land of humidity and heat) 
does have a very small (compared to the above mentioned states) though 
there are some bespoke places on the Gold Coast and in suburban 
Brisbane. Here is where I get shot - my impression is that for it's 
size NZ fights far above it's weight in the electronic industry 
compared to Qld - I know that from job hunting.

I can't really comment on the schools here apart to tell you that 
there are public schools (for the British - that's a state school) and 
private schools, most private schools are either denominational or not 
exactly attached but still proclaim certain a form of 
denominationality - most private schools are subsidised by the  
federal government - so most aren't that expensive (thinking of UK 
private schools here).

Healthcare (I'll try not to get political) is a bit of a mixed bunch, 
it consists of a bias towards private insurance, but there is a 
medicare funded health system - but it isn't always free (coming from 
a land of state benefited health I find many thinks strange).

House prices are ridiculous in NSW and Melbourne, Gold Coast, Sunshine 
Coast - rest of Qld is reasonable (average 3-4 bdr = AU$300 - 500K) 
Western Australia is too far away to worry about (apologies to WA'ers) 
weather is nicer than Qld (my opinion) dry, but the mining boom has 
seen WA become very expensive.

Cars are cheap so long as you don't want to buy European models (my 
Peugeot 207 just cost me AU$36K compared to a Hyuandai and similar 
which are about $16-20K).

Australia has a bit of a water shortage - though it's been raining 
here in Brisbane since just before Christmas almost constantly - not 
today the sun was out = hot and humid (have I mentioned I don't like 
hot or humid? - that's why I want to move to NZ South Island).

Australia has just tightened it's immigration rules, so you'd need to 
double check that you can reach the required number of points AND  the 
family have no current health problems - you'll need to pay a health 
bond which I think lasts 2 years before you are allowed to start using 
state health - you also have to have a certain amount of money to 
bring with you as you won't be allowed to access any state assistance 
for a certain period of time.

Colin
--
cdb, colin@btech-online.co.uk on 3/16/2010
 
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