Tag Archives: sydney

Working in Australia

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I started my Australian adventure in Perth towards the end of 2007. I had never been to Australia before that. At the time the local market for property professionals was booming and the country was experiencing a shortage of skilled labour in many sectors.

I have enjoyed immensely the experience so far hence this post. The following are some personal thoughts about living and working in Australia that you may find useful.

Personally, nature is my favourite feature about this country. Nature is everywhere even in the centre of Sydney. The Royal Botanic Gardens for example used to have a large community of bats living in its trees, aka “flying foxes” amongst Sydneysiders. It was almost a surreal experience drinking a cappuccino with these flying foxes hanging above. During the night they used to leave the Gardens in search for food and it was quite a thrill to see them flying across the harbour. Unfortunately the bats killed several trees and put many others in jeopardy. There is an ongoing project to evict the bats from the Royal Gardens.

The place where I live also has a strong community of Possums. The first time I saw them climbing the trees and the fences I came home and told my wife, ‘you have no idea how big the rats are in this country!’ I discovered later they are a native animal of Australia, they live in trees and if you spot one he probably has spotted you first. Sometimes I walk past them and say hi.

I still find it amazing that it is possible to have such these intense encounters with nature when Sydney has a population of more than four million people.

If you are looking for work in Australia I suggest you start with seek.com.au as most current job vacancies are advertised on that site. Since the rise of the Australian dollar against other currencies working in Australia has become extremely attractive but this also means that life is more expensive here.

Personally I think the only problem about working in Australia is the travelling distance from Europe. We are literally living on the other side of the world. When people start to work in Europe I am usually about to go to bed. I have heard of people becoming home sick especially after living in Australia for many years.

Renting in Australia is different from what I was used too. While in the UK a property comes semi-furnished, meaning a sofa, bed, fridge, washing machine and dining table, in Australia most properties either come with absolutely nothing or with everything. When I say everything I mean really everything. Even the toaster and an iron board are included.

I am happy to answer any questions you may have about working or living in Australia through this post. Just leave a comment and I will get back to you. However for Visa related questions there isn’t much more I can say that is not covered by the Australian Department of Immigration.

The Ice Hotel in Kiruna and the Ice sculpture of a Polar Bear in Sydney

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In 2002, when I was living in Stockholm, I heard about the ice hotel in the north of Sweden, and curious about the idea I took the overnight train to Kiruna.

The experience was interesting and disturbing.

The Ice hotel is an ephemeral artistic creation. It doesn’t survive the summer as it starts melting when the temperature increases. During the winter the cold renders a beautiful crystal blue colour to the ice to the frozen water streams.

Someone had the idea of inviting artists from around the world to sculpt the ice in order to build a hotel. If you have been wondering it is actually possible to sleep in the hotel rooms; and they are quite popular as I noticed at the time of my visit.

This all sounds interesting, but what really disturbed me was to acknowledge the fact that all the creativity and time employed during the winter to create a stunning Ice Hotel is gone and forgotten a few months later when the summer returns and everything melts away.

‘What’s the point of building the Ice Hotel if it doesn’t last?’ I wondered at the time and until recently I was not quite sure of the answer.

However, when an activist organization brought a polar bear sculptured in ice to Sydney, to spark the discussion about global warming and the loss of the polar bear habitat, I came one conclusion: the polar bear is doomed, but so are we.

As the polar bear melted away, becoming a steel skeleton in the end, raising questions about the poor animal existence I was forced to reflect upon my life and how momentary everything is.

Sometimes it is comforting to think Art can last longer than its creator as the work of the great masters can attest, but most likely time will go by and these Art pieces will be lost… like the polar bear and eventually the human kind.

In that sense it probably matters little if the production of an artist is melted away during the summer or if the work of the great masters is still around. It is better to engage with the present than trying to elude our ephemeral existence.

What matters the most is that I traveled to a remote place to experience an amazing ice construction that years later inspired me to write this post. Two enjoyable experiences propelled by a crazy idea.