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A beginner's guide to being Australian
Ultimanecat
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, so I had a thread a while back concerning Australian law schools and other sundry business, and I have now begun the long process of going to The Southern Continent to study.
Other than the disquieting fact that every single department and faculty of the university which I plan to attend has been incredibly helpful and forthcoming with information other than the most important one (the admissions office), I also have to face emigrating to a new nation and starting anew.
Thus, I thought I'd make a post here and let the Australian PAers who are feeling generous with information clue me in on important facts.
Topics currently on my mind:
-Opening an Australian bank account (What's required? Which banks provide the best / least costly services for an independent foreign student?)
-Mobile phone (Obviously I should go prepaid...but through which provider? What are the best deals for the Sydney area?)
-Housesharing (What are the best places to look online for housemates? How close do I really need to be to my university if I depend on public transportation? Should I advertise that I'm an obnoxious American?)
This is obviously not exhaustive, so any other PROTIPS would be greatly appreciated.
Other than the disquieting fact that every single department and faculty of the university which I plan to attend has been incredibly helpful and forthcoming with information other than the most important one (the admissions office), I also have to face emigrating to a new nation and starting anew.
Thus, I thought I'd make a post here and let the Australian PAers who are feeling generous with information clue me in on important facts.
Topics currently on my mind:
-Opening an Australian bank account (What's required? Which banks provide the best / least costly services for an independent foreign student?)
-Mobile phone (Obviously I should go prepaid...but through which provider? What are the best deals for the Sydney area?)
-Housesharing (What are the best places to look online for housemates? How close do I really need to be to my university if I depend on public transportation? Should I advertise that I'm an obnoxious American?)
This is obviously not exhaustive, so any other PROTIPS would be greatly appreciated.
SteamID : same as my PA forum name
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If you're swimming in a pool watch out for biting spiders. They'll kill you.
If you're walking on the ground watch out for stinging ants called 'jack jumpers'. They will also kill you.
And if you're swimming in the ocean, watch out for box jellyfish. They will kill you? Dude fuck that place.
Bank - Personally i value having good access to ATM's so i stick with the majors. I use Commonwealth Bank myself, but their fees arent great. Check out ANZ and St George. I'd imagine you'd need a passport to open an account, dont know what else they'd want. The websites probably have some more info on this.
Mobile - Yeah go prepaid, i'd probably go with 3 or Vodafone. Optus and Telstra have good coverage but are generally on the expensive side.
Housesharing - Check out realestate.com.au or domain. In Melbourne, Realestate.com is the more popular site with more listings, but in Sydney i'm not sure. There's a tab for share houses. Someone else will have to tell you what public transport in sydney is like, i wouldnt know.
Oh, and there really arent that many dangerous things around :P
ANZ is a good one in terms of banks - it offers a $5 a month fee for everything but ATM transactions from other banks' tellers, which is quite good, as other banks can limit your free withdrawls. there are a lot of tellers around too and it's a growing company so there are always new ones popping up, and they'll work hard for your business.
mobile - prepaid is a good deal in australia at the moment. vodafone and i think some other providers offer low-priced 'cap' refills, which you'll pay, say $29 for and get $130 worth of calls for the month. obviously that second number is kind of arbitrary but if it means anything that's the plan i use, and i never run out of credit. though i don't really make a hell of a lot of calls. the good thing is you can just go for the higher cap if it happens to run out ($49 or whatever) and that should be plenty
renting - this is going to be harder. sydney's rental market is horribly overcrowded at the moment, to the point that we're struggling alongside fifty others at house inspections and suffering bi-annual rent hikes. this might not be the case with shared accomodation so much, but be warned. check out university noticeboards, local classifieds and websites like domain. one of my mates just moved into a shared place in a middle-ground suburb and is paying $220 a week, to give you an idea. i'm not sure how university suburbs fare compared to that - which uni are you going to?
good luck! sydney's a great city but make sure you've got some savings ready because it's horribly expensive, especially so at the moment. the almost dollar-for-dollar exchange rate isn't going to help you much either
but we do have fine beaches, decent public transport, tolerable people and a marginal amount of histo- why are you coming here again?
i'm kidding. it's a great place.
edit: ugh, $220 a month? dream on. sorry.
1. do not kill the big huntsman spiders:
they kick other spiders asses, and while there bites hurt, they generally are scared of you.
2. sunscreen:
http://www.webwombat.com.au/lifestyle/health/skinc1.htm
3. VB Original:
Non-Stubbie VB is delicious, look for this:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/203/469325657_f4c801c2e8.jpg?v=0
4. the political parties have weird names, and you will make a fool of yourself if you try and feel your way through a discussion
5. don't buy video games there, they will cost like 300x more.
Bank - Like others have said, banks are pretty similar. I remember when I opened my bank account here as a university student (I'm from NZ originally), ANZ and (I think) Westpac had the best student accounts going. Probably best to check with them again when you get here. I ended up with ANZ, and it's been fine. I needed a passport and a letter (I used one from uni) with an Australian address.
Mobile phone - Again, they're all pretty much the same. Prepaid is fine, I've used both Vodafone and Optus in the past with no problems.
Housing - Domain, which has already been mentioned, is what I used when I first got here. I know Sydney Uni has a place on there website for students to look for places, but you have to be an enrolled student to use it. Check on the UNSW website for something similar.
In terms of public transport, it's pretty good, but UNSW is a little bit out of the way. Most people I know that went to UNSW lived close to it. But I'm hardly an expert on the Eastern Suburbs.
And don't listen to the guy above me - VB is fucking awful. You want to try Coopers (particularly the Pale Ale), or James Squire if you want something local.
Come to Australia, you might accidentally get killed!
Anyway, Ultimanecat, if you need to get your own internet connection, prepare to be raped in the ass by a horse. Some ISPs offer some okay plans, but they're often the exception to the rule. Use Whirlpool to search for a decent plan, or discuss your options on the forums there. You should also be aware of the small data caps, and the severe consequences of going over them (some ISPs will just throttle you back... some offer a small charge (maybe $4/GB), and some will screw you so hard you will just die ($100/GB))
Now, language differences... you might not encounter this too much (if at all), but I always feel I should warn people. There are some people who will start a friendly conversation by swearing at you.
Example: "Get fucked, how hot is it?!"
Translates into: "Can you believe how hot it is?"
Also note that being called a "cunt" can be a form of endearment. "You're a funny cunt". (I know this is basically one of Carl Barons bits, but I honestly had a friend who wanted to kick another friend's ass because he called him a tall cunt. He was in the army... swearing is what they do best). Of course, people might swear at you when they're angry at you too, so you need to make sure you take note of their tone, and their facial expressions to make sure you don't try and shake the hand of a guy who wants to knock your lights out for looking at his women or something.
Mobile plan isnt really an issue. Vodafone prepaid is pretty standard, but by all means shop around. Alot of companies have differant deals and one may suit you better. Internet is an issue, almost all the big brands are awful but there are some gems out there to be found.
UNSW has a job site and a housing site that you should browse, but you might have to log in with your uni ID.
housing , jobs
You're lucky coming to Australia because our beer is better than any other beer, excepting perhaps Germany (I dig German beer). To second the poster above me, VB is shit. Don't drink draught unless you're a sucker for punishment. Most Aussie lagers are very good so find one of those you like, or just stick with Coopers Pale Ale, now available in many Sydney pubs.
I was having a discussion recently with someone about Sydney pubs actually, and they commented to me that the reason it's so hard to find good pubs in Sydney is that the licensing laws are horrendous, and lead to very few small, nice pubs but mostly large personality-less superpubs. I hear there is a good clubbing scene though if that floats your boat.
Whenever I've been to Sydney I've found the rail network to be great. People who live in Sydney tell me that there are regular delays and that relying on rail can be a hit-or-miss experience. I, however, suspect that people in Sydney just don't know how good they have it with their fairly extensive rail network, even if there are semi-frequent delays. Public transport in Sydney seems, to me, to be far more extensive than any other Australian cities where getting to where you want to go will require a bus, two connecting trains, another bus and then a twenty minute walk.
To DirtyDirtyVagrant- I've never heard of 'jack jumpers', or ants that will kill you. I have heard about spiders that sink to the bottom of pools and then kill you. Yes, Sydney has funnelwebs, which are nasty, but honestly, a fuckload of people live in Sydney. Wouldn't they move if the spiders were really that bad? Perhaps a Sydneysider can correct me, but I don't think box jellyfish go that far South... Swimming at Sydney's beaches should be fine unless you are of middle-Eastern appearance (that was kind of a joke... is it too soon?).
As for housesharing, the only thing I'd comment on (not knowing Sydney's housing market) is that mentioning that you're an obnoxious American shouldn't be necessary. I honestly don't think anyone would have a problem housesharing with you because of that.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
As for beer, I'll have to taste it to believe it. I'm a beer snob, and drink mostly German and Belgian stuff when I have a say in the matter. Other than beer, though, I'm laid back and have no problem with being called a cunt whether someone likes me or not. Either way, I probably deserve it.
Very briefly and very, very summarised: Liberal/National parties are conservative, ALP/Greens are socialist/liberal. Occasionally, you may get overlap. (Also, since you're from the US, you may be comforted by the fact that the governing party is the Australian Labor Party, without the U.
I'd also second the advice on avoiding things that might kill you. In some cases, the amount of danger increases exponentially the smaller the creature in question. Might not be too much of an issue since you'll be in a city.
I'll also suggest that you try adding "bugger" to your daily vocab - in some parts (I don't know about Sydney), it's like a magic word.
For $200 a week you will definately get your own room. As an example, I lived for a long time (3 and a half years) in my own room in a 3 bedroom house in the Inner West for $120 a week. That was pretty lucky to get, but further East you shouldn't have to pay too much more.
sadly, it's really not. not even the boutique beers are anything to write home about. james squire golden ale and cascade blonde are pretty good, and there is decent stuff to be found here and there, but even compared to other big commodified markets like the us and britain, australian beers are generally terrible: either horrible slosh or pretentious, fruit or honey flavoured wankery. they just don't hold up against the german purity laws, czech pilsners, britain's real ales, americas microbreweries, belgium's trappist beers, japan's clean lagers etc etc
cough. sorry. i hope the o.p. likes beer... ?
Banks St George/Bank SA - Havnt had any issues with them, and plenty of ATMS that accept in all states
Mobile - Pre-paid, id say vodafone or optus (although i only hear its good as my mate gets good deals through his brother)
Housing wouldnt know as i live in Adelaide
What the hell are you people on about - Aussie beer is great (except for VB). I can get tanked on Tooheys New / Old / Extra Dry no probs.
And don't say "bugger" all over the place, only people from the country really use that these days.
We like to make fun of each other though, and theres a lot of relaxed gags around here that a lot of other people would consider shockingly racist, so be laid back about that and feel free to throw a few shots back.
Best place to rent around UNSW seems to be the Maroubra area, the Alexandria area, and other than that generally outer-inner west like Liechhardt.
Mobile: depending on how often you use your phone I use Optus Pre-paid which is pretty cool, there's a $30 for $170 credit plan, but you have a month to use it up, and a straight $30 pre-paid plan which you get half a year to use up.
[rant]
And people who whine about our scary scary creatures are pretty much the same people who think we ride kangaroos to work, so I'll say this: the chances of you running into a deadly poisonous Australian creature in inner-west Sydney is miniscule. Most of the sea creatures worth worrying about are in Queensland, most of the spiders are Out Back, and ditto for the snakes. Fuck, you don't even really see them in the Blue Mountains.
[/rant]
Banks: St. George is decent for students. No account fees, and all the rest of it. You can also fiddle around with something like ING Direct.
Finding rent isn't too bad (keep in mind our minimum wage as I understand it is like double the US, around $16/hour I believe, and you can pretty easily get a $20/hour job) Generally in Sydney anything under $150/week is worth looking out for.
Oh, and our Unibar is great. $2.50/schooner in happy hour is awesome.
fucking tentacles four metres long I swear to god
No? What the hell is wrong with you people? VB is the shittest shit you can buy.
If you are studying, commonwealth bank can help you. I have two accounts, a streamline (no fees, can access money from ATM for free), and a netbank saver, which you use for internet transfers and to earn some interest on.
But yeah, fuck VB man.
If anyone argues with me about that, I'll get a drop-bear onto you.
On that note, watch out for drop bears when you're around trees.
edit: also +1 for the 30 dollar optus pre-paid that lasts 6 months
+1 for the misconception about deadly animals.
I've lived in Australia my entire life, haven't been stung by a jelly fish, bitten by a spider, nothing. I haven't even SEEN any really deadly creatures.
The worst I have seen was a redback, and that was in the country.
Drop bears though...*shudder* THOSE you need to keep an eye on.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT MAN O' WARZILLA
Make sure you know your rental rights and responsibilities - http://www.tenants.org.au/ for renting in NSW. I'd advise getting on a lease properly - it may be tempting to skip the paperwork and sublet, but it leaves you vulnerable, and you don't want to be moving mid-semester.
Look into your public transport opportunities pretty carefully - weekly, monthly or longer tickets can save you money, and while Sydney's ticketing system isn't fully integrated, there are some combined options available. This will be handy for navigating - http://www.131500.info/realtime/default.asp. Make sure you get your student ID, you'll need it to buy student tickets.
I don't like buses, because they're fairly unreliable, while trains are pretty good. If you'll be using buses, buy a travelten (from newsagents, some supermarkets), for trains, buy a weekly ticket.
I don't know much about UNSW, but USYD owns houses which it leases out. It's not like living in a college, but it's much easier, more practical, and safer than renting just any old house. Also, you'll be living with other uni students.
I had to do it. Sorry.
I live in the desert already, so I'm not unaccustomed to the errant scorpion, spider, or rattlesnake. Can't say I've ever been bitten either. Invisible jellyfish, on the other hand, are already scaring the shit out of me.
Thanks for the help guys - all a bit scattershot, but I expected as much. The links to Domain and RealEstate are much appreciated. I guess I'll have to take a look at all the mobile plans (they are a bit more...complicated than plans here in the U.S. Or I need to learn the language. :P)
As an American who is way into microbrews in the US, I was pretty disappointed with the overall beer situation in Australia, but I in no way got a comprehensive experience. The best beers I had were in out-of-the-way places, so I expect that as in the US, you'll have to poke around a bit for the good stuff. I do think that the average selection at bars was weaker than places I've been in the US, but I may have been at the wrong bars.
On, and when I was in a bar in Cairns (cool beach town by the barrier reef, I'd recommend checking it out when you have a free weekend) I selected some drink that had a mostly yellow label with black lettering. When poured it looked like a very dark stout or porter, but actually it was the devil. Some sort of pre-mixed rum-and-coke concoction which I would only ever give to someone I wanted to suffer badly. I don't know what the name of this stuff is, but I recommend you find out, because you don't want to drink any of it, ever.
That's actually probably true these days, the country has become so empty (what with all the Kiwis moving over here) there would be plenty of cheap rentals!
Is everything poisonous or lethal there too?
OT in my own thread!
Bundy and cola. Terrible stuff. Dunno how you mistook it for beer, though :P
Didn't actually read the label, just said 'I'll try the yellow one' after making the assumption that anything on tap next to other beer taps in a bar would itself be beer. I realized my mistake VERY quickly. That's the first alcoholic drink in years that I paid for and made no effort to finish. I find it somewhat stunning that there is a market for that stuff, but of course Budweiser, Miller and Coors are all huge in the US so I suppose I'm not one to judge.
UNSW essentially sits on a large block on the side of a fairly steep hill. There are three suburbs which surround UNSW, which in fact sits directly on the intersection of the three. Randwick is at the top of the hill, and Kensington and Kingsford at the bottom of the hill.
A major road, Anzac Parade runs along the bottom of UNSW, up the Kingsford side of the Hill is Barker Street, up the Kensington side, High street, along the top is Botany street. The bus stops sit on Anzac Pde and High street.
Further towards the coast, from Randwick is Coogee and Bondi (there are loads of foreigners in both, mainly USAsians and Brits, so being a seppo shouldn't count against you in those areas when looking for accomodation), more further along Anzac parade is Maroubra (another beach/suburb).
Bondi Junction has a train station, which makes getting in and out of the area much easier, while the rest of the suburbs, Coogee and Randwick in particular are something of a traffic nightmare - compared to the distance you need to travel they take a disproportionately long time to get to the city or central station.
In the mornings the UNSW express bus route 891 runs directly from central to UNSW, which is good if you're living elsewhere, and in the afternoon it runs the other way.
Most of the law faculty stuff is on the north east corner of campus IIRC (the Randwick Corner), but the new law library is in the north west (the Kensington corner).
I live in Randwick so know the area well.
I use Bendigo Bank. How they work is that you have a set amount of free transactions every month, and if you don't go above that then you don't pay any fees at all. Downside is that there aren't as many Bendigo Bank ATM's around as there are ANZ or Commonwealth.
Also, screw prepaid. Go on the Virgin $30 a month cap. You get $130 worth of calls, which is good, but also all messages and calls to other people on Virgin are free. All of them. Absolutely all. It is so great. I use my phone constantly and I've never used up that $130 of credit, so my bill is always $30, compared to the $70 worth of prepaid I used to use every month.
Aussie beers are great if you pick the right ones. The James Squire range are delicious and not too pricey. Avoid Tooheys, VB, and especially that goddamned XXXX.
Fuck no, NZs got nothing.
I think we've got maybe one breed of poisonous spider and thats it, nothing else. Its also debatable whether our brand of danger spider (the Katipo) even exists, as I'm pretty sure nobody in the world has ever seen one, let alone been bitten by one.
Odds are we made it up to try and compete with the aussies.
Say what you want about new zealand, but we've got one thing australia doesn't.
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to be honest, living in sydney you'll need to be making a little pocket money to have a worthwhile experience. it's a pricey place and just getting around will set you back a lot, especially if you intend to drive while you're here.
pick up a casual job in retail or something close to the uni - macquarie centre is right next door and you'll be sure to find something there. not only will it give you the money you'll need in order to live off more than packet noodles and uni bar beers, it'll give you a chance to meet new friends outside of school and get into the local culture, too.
i just finished my MA at macquarie and did a BA there beforehand so if you have any specific questions, gimme a pm
it's hardly a nightmare. I can get to the city in about twenty minutes. he'll be fine if he's ever been on a bus before.