My experience moving to Western Australia
Hi there, Having made the move to western australia and circumnavigated there bureaucracy here are a few pointers from my personal experience. WA actually stands for "wait a while". Don't expect things to happen quickly. The wheels of govt turn very slowly! Do not use ANZ as your preferred bank. 4 weeks in and they still haven't sent me a debit card, despite several "serves" at the local branch! They send stuff to NZ despite having a WA address to send it to. I have not come up against this level of incompetence before. Apply for a Medicare card, and open a bank account immediately you arrive. If you are a truck driver you will need to convert your license before you can work and you will need a debit card and a Medicare card before you can do this. You will also need a bill to confirm your address. Easiest would be a letter from the bank. Make sure you have a birth certificate as well as your passport. You will need to do forklift and DGs again as they won't accept a NZ qual. Your class 5 will convert toHC (heavy combination) with a 25 tonne restriction. If you want to drive road trains you will need to get your MC (multi combination) license. You will need a laptop for applying for jobs. If you need to use mobile broadband be aware that it is twice as expensive as NZ. If you buy an aust sim card and use it on a NZ phone the email facility won't work. Cost of calls is very cheap tho.: You really need to buy a car to get around to do all these things as public transport is slow and inconvenient. The process is not complete for me yet but getting closer. Hope these pointers are of some help. Good luck.
Hi there, my hubby just moved to WA 3 weeks ago, we set up bank account with the Commonwealth Bank 6 weeks before he left, it was very easy and staff were very helpful as they get in contact via phone call. Using this site helped us a lot. I printed medicare application form, WA Drivers License and made sure he had all the required documentation to go with them before he left. Upon arrival he called into his bank's branch to confirm account, he received card within the week. So he used proof of address and other relevant documents to change his full drivers license over and then applied for the medicare card. When he went to the Medicare Card office they gave him a Statutory Declaration to fill in and got a pharmacist at a Chemist to sign it (if you read the small print on the form it tells you who can witness it) He now has his, Tax file number, Medicare card, Bank Account, White Card (done online here in NZ), WA Driver's License, Senior First Aid Cert, is currently sitting his Forklift License and MARCSTA qualification, he has a appointment this Friday at a labour hire recruitment agency, so good luck to him. This site has helped us a great deal to prepare (and also the group 'Kiwi's in Aussie' on facebook) And yes absolutely, you need a car or else you are just stuck at home!!! Hope this info helps others :)
Wow! Thanks Amanda. That was really helpful! cheers for that
So glad to have stumbled upon this thread, really really helpful. Thanks Chris and Amanda
Just wondering if you guys were able to use your NZ passport as your category A form of ID for transferring your drivers license?