Thinking about moving to Australia.

Hello.  Please pardon me if I'm posting in the wrong section.  Also, I'm very new to this--the idea of moving my family out of the country.

I'm considering moving myself, my wife and our (2yr old) daughter to Australia.

I'm 43 and a calibration technician for a pressure transducer company in USA.  I have a number of skills.

I'm a little concerned that I might not have a lot of money, but am, even now, saving up what I can, in case we are able to move.  It surely will be a miracle; we've had them before.

I've looked at some of the job postings that I've seen and it seems like mostly jobs that would be over my head.  Where can I find a website that has technical positions to consider?

Are there a lot of technician jobs in Australia?  (I realize that's a broad question.)  Is there anyone I can talk to in person to ask some questions--by in person, I mean someone at an embassy or somesuch?

I live in New England now; what "state" in Australia would have a similar climate as New England?

That's it for questions now.  I'll try to not ask too many that are duplicated elsewhere.

Thank you.

Hi,

maybe this discussion can help ? Find a job in Australia.
I also recommend you to read the Australia guide and post your CV in the jobs section (in the classifieds)

Hope this helps,

Julien

I'm hoping to start the process of getting passports, starting this week.  I'm assuming passports are necessary, in addition to getting some kind of visa.

My family and I have recently moved to the place we're living now; we're not unpacked.  I thought I read somewhere that I need to have several years/months of bank records available to show proof of something related to moving to Australia.  Does this make sense?  If so, what do I need?  This will help me know how many/what types of records I should hold on to versus how much stuff I should get rid of.  Thanks.

Thanks for everyone's input and feedback.

Living in New England, I've gotten used to not having a lot of extreme weather, overall.  (We have snow/ice, but we don't have flooding like they have in the south/midwest USA states, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes.)

So today, I was reading some things about some of the weather in Australia (like cyclones, for example), as well as snakes, spiders, and the like.  I'm concerned about moving my wife and (especially) little girl to Australia and was wondering if others in my position had some of the same concerns and what they did about them.

If you happen to reply to this, could you please note what area(s) you live(d) in in Oz along with any comments.

Thank you so much.

HOLA, SOY ENFERMERA COLOMBIANA, 28 AÑOS DE EDAD Y VOY A EMIGRAR A USTRALIA EL PROX. AÑO A ESTUDIAR INGLES Y A TRABAJAR COMO CUIDADORA. BUSCO AMIGOS EN ESE PAIS COMPATRIOTAS QUE ME PUEDAN SERVIR DE GUIA Y APOYO. GRACIAS.

Good luck on your transition. I cannot comment on the visa process as we came here on a sponsered visa, but I'm sure there are lots of others that have more info on that area. We live in Melbourne, VIC- so my experience with the weather is limited to here. Our weather is fairly mild, not nearly as cold as New England, it rarely gets to freezing, but does get quite hot in the summers, 40 degrees celsius is not uncommon.
When people talk about cyclones here they are talking about hurricanes. From what I hear on the news, cycolones are common in Queensland and only during the season (Nov-Feb).
As for having a small child and concerns about spiders etc, I live in the city and have never had to deal with it, but if you live further out I just recommend educating yourself and knowing what types to watch out for, some of the biggest, craziest looking spiders are harmless, but the opposite is also true. Don't worry too much though, people here live with it and people are not dying off from deadly spider bites :)
Good luck!

We moved to Australia for a trial run Nov 08 - July 09 with children ages 2, 5, 8, and 11.  We really liked Australia and will be returning as soon as our house sells in the US.  Hopefully by the end of July/August 2010.  (You can check our blog link)
During the 8 months we lived there, we never saw any poisonous spiders - and we were concerned about them.  We had the house sprayed.  We did see friendly spiders that were "scary" looking but not a problem.  We really enjoyed Australia.  We loved the schools.  We loved the climate.  We're from Wisconsin - so similar temps (freezing winters and snow).  We found the winters in Aus to be challenging in New South Wales because the houses do not have central heating. 
You have a lot of work to do with Visas.  The first step is to see what you qualify for on the DIAC website.  Or you can be sponsored by a business - which is a great way to get there.  We applied for and received Permanent Resident visas.